Hi everyone!

A lot has happened in the last week or more since I last had an opportunity to email!

I left off with urgent requests for prayer for Sita, a 15 year old with child and we were leaving the next morning to go south to Dhangadi to the plains. My brother, Dave, Prem and Megh Raj and Raj and I piled in a van with her but not before the lad who got her pregnant showed up to claim her. He promised to accept her, marry her, continue her education and take responsibility for the mother to be and the child. I grieved the 4 hours down the hill for the lack of voice for Nepali women to choose their own destiny, and for the child that would be brought into a world where it really wasn't wanted and for a young mother who would now be isolated from Christians and taken into her new Hindu home to who knows what end. But Nepali culture prevailed and even church leaders felt this was what was best and I have to trust God for her and her little one.

I packed the OB kit just in case she went into labor on the road. Unless she had the gumption to really create a ruckus when we arrived at the boy's home and met all his family, chances were pretty good I would not be going to Kathmandu as proposed.

While I grieved and prayed, little Sita puked... all the way down the hill!!!! Fortunately for me, she was a quiet little puker! Fortunately for both of us I had saved the air sickness bag from the last airline flight and it was on the top of my bag! We were in the front seat with the driver and I fought to keep it just the 3 of us. I offered to pay an extra 100 rupees ($1.50) to NOT sell another ticket up front for that extra seat!

There were 16 passengers packed into the back... only 2 of those did not puke!!! The rest could not be dubbed "quiet pukers". The driver's solution to drown out the noise of incessant vomiting, was to blare to Nepali radio to overcome the sound!!!!! Yes - it was a lovely trip !!! But to God's glory we all made it in one piece and though Dave's bag was doused in puke we were glad to be safe in Attaryia (20 KMs) from our friends home in Dhangadi.

After everyone's stomachs settled and we had Fantas and Cokes followed by lunch, we had a serious talk with the "lad" who made us the promises we hoped for and then took all of us to his home and introduced Sita to his extended family. All the women of the household seemed very warm and understanding and his mother apologized for the "lad's" despicable behavior and assured us they would take great care of Sita and make sure she got to a hospital when she went into labor. I went into great lengths to explain the severity of the medical situation... that the ultrasound showed the baby as breech and that she was already 39 weeks and could deliver any day and might need a C-section.

It was one of the hardest things I ever did, to leave her there. Her own widowed mother had accompanied us down the hill and it almost broke my heart to watch her try to pry herself away from her baby daughter... a child herself, with child!

We found out a few days later on our return trip that Sita went into labor shortly after we left her and delivered a healthy baby girl at midnight that same night. She weighed 2 kilos and 800 grams! A good size for a Nepali wee one. She came normally... no C- section needed!!!!! PTL. Boy, am I grateful we didn't try to go to Kathmandu... we also discovered the road to Kathmandu was bhundh ( closed) starting that same evening and didn't open for 5 days!

You have to acknowledge that His ways are High above our ways!

We spent a night with a long time childhood friend and his family and the next morning put Sita's mom on the bus back up the hill and prayed she would have a better trip up, than she had coming down ( no nausea would be great!) We then went shopping (YEAH!) but most of it was for hardware for making my new apartment into a Dare to Care Suite. It currently has no kitchen and no western toilet or hot water. That will be rectified before Dave returns to the USA.

Shopping took most of the day, trying to cash travelers checks at a new bank in town took an hour and 3/4. then we piled into a local bus and headed for Mahendra Nagar. Originally Dave and Prem were going to visit a model farm just across the border into India and Raj and I were going to stay in Mahendra Nagar and shop and find our way 8 kms back to She Sheia, walk 2 kms to Dharampur where we were all to spend the night with a Christian Pastor who is one of our original leper patients from the hospital my Dad started. There is a whole community of Leprosy Patients there that have relocated because the government gave them land about 20 years ago. They have cleared it all by hand and built quite a little oasis there near a river in an otherwise parched dry land.

However plans changed along the way. We ran out of time, Raj found a friend and went with him, Megh Raj went on ahead to Dharmpur and Dave, Prem and I went on to Mahendra Nagar arriving there about 4 pm and shopped for stainless steel pots and pans and coats for Prem's kids. We caught a bus back and arrived in She Sheia just at dark, in time to walk the 2 kms in the dark. We all got the giggles cause we couldn't find the road across a huge mud puddle full of frogs. Prem found rocks to "build a bridge" and we somehow got across without falling in. 100 yards up the road we crossed a river ( ankle deep ) but you try it when you are carrying a 20# pack and your flashlight is croaking on you! We found a 2nd river just about another 100 yards up the road and by this time we had the giggles so bad we looked drunk. Fortunately our guide, Prem, managed to control his laughter on the other side and find the dirt track that took us to our destination and a fascinating adventure of spending not one, but 2 nights in a village with no electric and no bathrooms!!!! The house had dirt floors and straw walls covered with cow dung for mortar.

David got sick there... it could have been the food he ate the day before though the locals blame the fact that he ate "Chuke" ( giant lemons) at night! Everyone knows you never eat Chuke at night!

He also wore a blister from his new Chappals ( rubber flipflops) and wading streams to and from the churches we visited that became infected and he has been limping ever since. I'd feel sorry for him but I saw what he ate and drank and laughed that he had the carelessness of the invincible!

When we returned to Dhangadi our order was not ready( what a surprise)

My new pad... I have the lower flat

Typical transport

and a truck strike prevented us from getting transportation up the hill so we spent another night with our friends. Finally about noon on the 4th day we succeeded in getting a vehicle ( van) and loading all our steel, tin sheets, pipe, and hardware on and headed north.

5 long hours later we once again praised the Lord for a safe journey and fell into our own beds.

Progress on the house makeover has been slow as many interruptions and invitations to lunch and dinner have made for great building of relationships but poor progress on remodeling. I am proud to say as of this morning, however, we now have a Geyser hot water heater up and running and I had my first hot shower with it before church today. Our hostess was delighted to get to wash her dishes in hot water for the first time ever and we will all be praising God for this for a long time to come!

Well I've rambled quite enough for one day and as the Dr wants his bedroom back must get this sent and close for now!

Thanks for all your prayers!