October 26, 2004

Dear Friends and Family,

October is almost over and we will be returning home before Christmas. As is always the case, when we get near the end of our term everything seems to happen all at once. Since the beginning of September we have experienced a mini-riot, subsequent curfew, and are following the surreal presidential race from afar.

On September 1, United Mission to Nepal’s security officer wrote:

Today, a sudden Bandh (closing) is observed in Kathmandu against the killing of 12 Nepali hostages in Iraq by a militant group Ansal al- Aunna. The streets are deserted and the tires are burned in every junction of the roads. People across the country have expressed shock and sorrow over the killing of innocent Nepalese. They were accused of helping the Americans in Iraq against Muslim and were abducted on August 19.

In Kathmandu, these acts led to several days of general curfew, which had been lifted for a couple of hours in the mornings and evenings for grocery shopping. This incident helped (forced) us to reflect on the lives of the people who have little control over their own. Allow us to share a bit more on those who were executed in Iraq.

During the recent past, thousands of manpower agencies sprang up to supply Nepali workers to industrialized countries in East Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia) as factory workers and seamen. Many Nepalese also went to Middle East countries, mostly as domestic workers. Most recently Iraq has become the favorite destination, offering good pay for unskilled workers, because of extreme danger. Remittance from the diaspora is the number one source of hard currency for Nepal, especially since the tourist traffic plummeted due to the Maoist insurgence, which started in 1996 and continues to this day. Since most Nepalese are Hindus and Buddhists they seem to be acceptable in Muslim countries as well as in Christian societies.

The job seekers must pay thousands of dollars to the manpower agencies for the opportunity of foreign employment, transportation, and formalities. Each one of the 12 who illegally crossed the border from Jordan is rumored to have paid $3,000. Quite often, the extended family network is mobilized to secure loans necessary for this journey. When the 12 men were killed in Iraq, the tragedy fell upon at least twelve villages that are in debt they may never recover from. Imagine the anger and dismay to hundreds of thousands who have family members in Iraq and how their hopes hang in the safety and earnings of the people they have invested in.

The cycle of poverty, indenture, and the ever-shrinking opportunities for the people of Nepal weighs heavily on our minds, as we are supposed to be sharing hope and opportunity with the voiceless, powerless, and the moneyless. If we are making a difference, why are more people leaving the country in search of opportunities? We continue because we believe that in God anything is possible. We pray always that we may be the instruments of Christ’s love rather than stumbling blocks.

This brings us back to the topic we introduced in our last letter. We said that when missionaries hand over projects to local people the Nepalese face three major losses: credibility, technical ability, and visibility. We want to share a bit more on this topic.

First of all, these difficulties should never be used as justification for delaying handover. A better way is to hand over the projects as quickly as possible and stand ready to assist when the need arises. However, we believe there are ways to design and manage the projects that will enhance the prospect of success after the transition.

First, and the most important in the long run, is shared vision. Quite often missionaries arrive with a vision for the people and hire the locals to help with the work. Sharing the vision with the local partners is crucial because during this process we can make sure that the projects fit with the local priorities, culture, and environment. In fact, probably a better method is to learn what the hopes of the people are rather than bringing our own. As long as the vision remains the missionary’s, all others are never “partners” in mission; they are but hired hands.

Projects should be designed to nurture the grounds for others to value the services and want to provide more effective, efficient, and local-market-friendly alternatives. That is, we should design projects in such a way that the local people will see the value of our services and products and will want to duplicate them, having seen their value and that they are sustainable within local technology, management, and economy.

We should never, almost never, start a project that will eliminate honest local industries. Consider the following well intentioned effort by missionaries to help secure health care for the poor. Burdened by the poor quality of health care in a community of “poor and marginalized” people, a group of missionaries established a “free” clinic with donated medicines and regular short-term visiting medical teams. They wanted to set an example of Christian love in a poor and neglected Hindu community. As long as the “mission clinic” was running the community benefited, but when the missionaries went to the next village, the clinic could not function on its own and the very people were left with no health care of any kind, since all the others were put out of business by the “free” clinic.

The third leg of preparing for handover is to develop a “business model” that will survive and thrive with local resources. In developing economies, it is very difficult to finance the capital investments (buildings and equipment) locally but the costs to run an institution should be met with local revenues in order for the project to continue when the outside funding is interrupted. Medicines donated from developed countries may be higher in quality, but the locally produced ones are generally cheaper and readily available. A salary scale that can only be sustained by overseas subsidies only creates another economic caste while we are trying to level the field.

A shared vision, a proper business plan, and mutual trust between partners can overcome many difficulties and equip our partners with hope, confidence, and dedication. All this is to say that we should learn to look at the world from the perspectives of the people we are trying to assist. We hope to have opportunities to share and discuss these ideas in depth during our interpretation visits. We still have some time in February, during the second half of March, the second half of May, and the entire month of June available. If you are interested at all in our visit, please let us know. Also, please remember not to send any snail mail to our postal address here after November 30, use our email address instead.

May you be with the Peace of our Lord in these uncertain days.

Haejung & Simon

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 203