“When clouds veil sun
And disaster comes
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rise
And hope takes flight
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Ever faithful
Ever true
You I know
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go

When clouds brought rain
And disaster came
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rose
And hope had flown
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Oh, my soul
Overflows
Oh, what love, oh, what love
Oh, my soul
Fills hope
Perfect love that never lets go

Oh, what love, oh, what love
Oh, what love, oh, what love
In joy and pain
In sun and rain
You’re the same
Oh, You never let go”

By the David Crowder Band, youtube clip embedded below:

Anyway, we’re now at Kathmandu airport – waiting to board out first flight to Doha. The last 2 weeks have been awesome, the places we’ve seen, the people we’ve met, the things we’ve experienced! I’m quite sad to be going home – I shall miss this land and the people I’ve met here, but I’m excited to see Linda and be home!!

We don’t have long on this Wifi coupon – so this won’t be a big post, we’ll do more reflecting and writing once we’re home in the UK. Although this trip is ending, the relationships started on this trip are just beginning. I’ll certainly be keeping in touch with many of the people I’ve met on this trip – shall hopefully see them again at some point too! I’m very thankfull to CMS and the Church of Scotland for allowing me this opportunity and I look forward to sharing the stories from the trip and reflecting more upon what I’ve learned and what I’ve exprienced. i’ll be spending time over the next few days doing much writing and sorting through my photos – many of the delegates are waiting to see my photos appear on my website and on flickr!

Anyhoo, I shall pass over to the rest of the gang so that they can share their thoughts on leaving the country…..

Hey all! So last couple of days have been very busy but all good fun!! Our last day at the conference was great – during the workshops and studies I was still meeting new people which was lovely!! So the last nigth ended in a lot of dancing and not much sleep! All was fun and the last morning we had an awesome view of the mountains which was a lovely ending to our time in Pokhara! The journey back to Kathmandu was hot and pretty fast most of the way in a little bus! Until we hit traffic up the mountain road and then sat there for an hour and half!!

The last day and half ended back in Kathmandu and finished with a lovely meal with a great couple we met at the conference and a shop today!! At last i’m back to myself in the shopping world!! Hehe . . so just sat in the airport now and ready to be home!! Will hopefully post something when we’re back home reflecting on the whole journey of Nepal!! Thanks so much for all the support!!

We’re in the airport now, waiting for departure.  In the last few days I’ve gone from the massive low of being ill and being unable to eat enough to have any energy, to the enormous high of spending time with such a fantastic group of people in such amazing surroundings, and back again, several times over.

I have had some of the best experiences of my life.  We spent the last night dancing – more ceilidh dancing, some salsa, some South Indian, some Pakistani (ask Chris for a demonstration!), and then I watched the sunrise over Anna Purna and Fishtail (can’t spell its proper name, don’t have time to check).  I’ve met people who I would have loved to be able to get to know more, and who I hope to keep in touch with.  Now when Pakistan is mentioned on the news I’ll think about Daud teaching Chris to dance, and when I hear about India I’ll remember Sanjay’s laugh.  I’ve had some awful experiences as well – primarily illness related.  But overall the good times have outweighed the bad many times over.

Chris is asking if I’ll be much longer, so I’ll leave it at that.  If I type any more I may start crying anyway.  I blame tiredness entirely, by the way, nothing to do with me being a soppy big moosh!

I just hope I don’t forget anything that I wanted to share with you all!! Thursday morning worship was led by the group from Sri Lanka – it was awesome! It was a very charismatic. They didn’t try and be flashy or clever with what they did, it was just a pure expression of love for God! One of the prayers was a cry out to God to Bless us with his Holy Spirit, led by one of the Sri Lankans, but soon people all around the room were joining in with ‘Amens’ and ‘Hallelujahs’. It was beautiful.

Thursdays morning talks were both about sharing faith – first speaker had a wierd view of faith sharing – thinks its all about the words, nothing to do with actions!!? A direct quote from him: “Feeding the hungry, educating the illeterate is not the Gospel. Jesus did not send his disciples out to do these things. I struggle with this view – I can’t see any way to seperate the words we speak and the way we act when sharing our faith. The second speaker had a much more balanced view – she advocated words and actions. She said a lot of great stuff – but I’d like to keep that for its own blog post.

The workshop I went to today was one on faith, development and environment – looking at the relationship between the 3 things and how the Bible approaches them, again I want to give that workshop its own blog post – save for this. During the workshop, the rain got crazy heavy! Suddenly, the rain stopped and the clouds started to clear, slowly unveiling the beauty of the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. I was awestruck. It’s one of the few times I’ve been genuinly moved by a panoramic view. Once I’m back into a decent bandwidth, I’ll share some photos with you all!

The Pakistani group led the worship on Thursday night – was in their native tongue, so I don’t really know what was said, but it sounded beautiful! The shared a video with us about some attacks that Christians there suffered last year. I’ll share that video too once the bandwidth is better! After the Pakistani part of the worship, Vinod invited 2 or 3 of the whole gathering to share a little of how the conference had touched them. I went up first – sharing how this conference, especially the people, have taught me to live more joyously, more passionately, in the moment! I’m not the most…expressive person, I find it really hard to share emotions with others and really hard to dance , unless it’s a ceilidh!

As yesterday was our last day, some of my gupsup group shared our last lunch together – getting to know one another even better and eventually singing our national anthems to each toher – I went with ‘O flower of Scotland’ as I’ve never sung ‘God save the Queen’ have many issues with it, and generally just hate it!

Last night was the most awesome night! Everyone (apart from the UK group) was getting on a bus between 4 and 6am, so many of them decided just to stay up all night. So, the UK team decided to lead them in some community dancing! We did Ceilidh, Punjab, cheesy pop, Metal, Rave – all sorts. It was so incredible, everyone just let go of their inhibitions and got right into enjoying the moment! Even I was getting into it! Getting taught more Pakistani dance moves, leading the Ceilidh dancing, demonstrating cheesy pop songs for folks to take part in! The dancing lasted fomr about 10am until about 3pmish that we stopped. By this point, we were down to the last fathful few, but it was still amazing!

Joanna and I then decided it would be the best idea to stay up to see folks off on their journey at 4am and then to take in the sunrise.

Saying goodbye to everyone was hard. This week has been so amazing, I’ve met so many aweosme people and cultures that my mind is close to blowing! I wish we had longer out here with the people we have met. I’ve barely begun to really get to know people, and all of a sudden we’re going on our own seperate ways again! Thank the Lord for facebook and email! I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with them all, sharing more stories about life in our respective cutlures. I’ve had such an awesome time this week, I’ve loved meeting all these people and finding out about their cultures and how they live out their faith there. Once everyone had left, the hotel had that strange empty feeling that they get when an awesome conference finishes. Once the first few buses left we went to enjoy the sunrise, it was awesome, even better than after the storm yesterday! The skies were so clear that we got a beautiful view of the Annapruna range – it.was.awesome! To see how the mountains towered about the rest of the country, despite being30/40 miles away! Again, once I have the bandwidth I’ll upload some photos.

I have so much more to write, but i’m absolutely exhausted – I haven’t really slept since Thursday morning! So if any of this seems a bit out of place or not making sense – it’s because I’m falling asleep as I wrote this.

Peace out

The morning started with one of the country groups leading us in worship – I only caught the end of the session, but the song was beautiful. I don’t know what it means, but I copied the words down:

(mingalabar) x 2 Swe tha har twe myar mingalabar

(mingalabar) x 2 Arr loneku bel mingala lope the notekhon sett par tel.

I’m doing my best to find out what it means – as soon as I know, I’ll post it up here!

I was asked by Adrian to take a group photo of the whole conference today. It didn’t really work – people didn’t turn up on time and so we would take a photo and then another 10 people would turn up! We’re going to try again tomorrow – straight after one of the main sessions so that as many people as possible are in the same place at one time!

Pete and John led a workshop today about Youth Participation – it was interesting, but I don’t want to go into it until I’m back home in the UK and have processed everything – my thoughts on the conference will colour my thoughts on the result of their seminar. It was a good seminar and well run, just the responses need carefully thought about once I figure out more about the context they are coming from!

I’ve been getting on really well with the group from Pakistan – especially Daud, Sehrish, Eric, Mehboob and Raheed. That group is crazy! They love their dancing too!

The talk tonight was interesting – speaker was talking about the dualistic life many Christians seem to lead between their work life and their Christian life. He spent a lot of time and energy encouragin, beseeching us all to not live a double life, but to involve our faith in everything that we do.

He spoke about the protestant work ethic allowing the countries in the west to become rich and prosperous, but at the expense of the faith. That too many people put work before nurturing their faith, that money and riches were the goal, not God. He went on to warn the group to not allow South Asia to fall into the same trap: to make sure that God stayed central as the economies of the countries improved. He said: ‘Our life is not based on a 1 hour weekly Church service, our faith should not be either!’.

He was a very focused, passionate speaker – there were 3 power cuts during his talk and he barely broke stride!

Again tonight, I only caught a part of the worship – one of the delegates was leading the conference in prayer and many people were crying out ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Amen’ during the prayer – was amazing to hear the passion, to share in it with them. Some folks here have talked about some young people in South Asia only going to Church because they feel it is their duty too, not because they want to worship. After my experience this week, I can’t believe that to be as big a proportion of young people as it is in the west. The passion for worship, for God that the people have shown at this conference is just astounding.  One of the things I’m learning here is that I need to take more joy from life. The young people at this conference are amongst the most joyous people I have ever met! Their faces light up in worship, in conversation, in prayer, in dance, it’s beautiful! My faith is definetley being inspired and strengthened by those that I have met this week!

Tonight was pretty awesome! It was the last of the ‘Cultural experiences’ where different groupd can bring a part of their culture to share. The things that stood out for me were the Pakistanis and the UK folks! The Pakistanis did a couple of songs, then a beautiful dance based around a courting couple. They also did some Pakistani dancing (think Punjabi dancing, very fast and big!). I was taking photos of it (as I do!) when Sehrish, one of my new friends pulled me on stage and insisted that I dance with them. That was an experience! Not being the most confident dancer, I felt very exposed on the stage with them, but figured that I”m here to learn and experience South Asian culture. I certainly wasn’t the greates dancer there (the Pakistanis are awesome dancers!) but they appreciated my efforts! The UK addition was: Joanna and I taught eveyone how to do an Orcadian Strip the Willow  – that went down a storm! Not everyone really understood what they were doing, or got the moves (I was very confused that everyone was struggling with a dance where, to my mind, you just spin you way down a line! But then, I’m very used to the dance!). Everyone who took part loved it though! Chuli also started to teach some Salsa moves – again, not everyone got it, but everyone loved it. At one point some of the people around me asked me to teach them what to do because they couldn’t see Chuli – so I ended up teaching Salsa to 15 of the delegates – not bad given I’ve never really done it before!!

All in all it’s been a really good day, I’ve had a great time, especially tonight! I’ll be taking Linda dancing when I get home – make up for all those years I’ve been to proud and embarressed!

Peace

So today was interesting!! Firstly Joanna, John and Jonny haven’t been too well and so pray for them to get better for our last day at the conference tomorrow!! And journey back to kathmandu sometime friday! Having a great time still though. We went to some of the bible studies today and one we were spoke to about the Gates in Neh! But things they said i didn’t always agree with – soem things are so old and traditional that we get stuck in that way and don’t ever seem to get out of it or better – so how can we possible help out youth to come to church to christ if our tradtions are not suiting the culture and times?? Our foundation should be based on God but with newer traditions or the old ones made to fit all! So interesting – so I just wrote lots about what i wanted answering!

Anyways we got back in our GupSup grouts and was all good chatting about our encounter visitis yesterday – great to talk to people from different nations on how they see things differently from myself!!

We then had the workshops and I went along to John and Pete’s which was really good and showed some of the people in the conference of how we can start to chance ways in our church to get more youth involved!! Was so great to see people inspired!! Although for most of the session i made a new friend – hehe – a little girl from Nepal and she was three and a half – gorgeous!! Well actually i met her on the playground – yes i was playing as a kid myself!! haha – we had a massive group photo and there was a climbing frame so i was jumping/climbing up and back rolling off – she saw me and wanted to climb with me too – so we climbed up and sat on top – was fun!! Her mum was then in the same sworkshop session and so the little girl remembered me and came over and sat with me!! We drew and played with my bag – everything in it came out and back in several times, played with my bangles – got shown how to where them properly she also stole my phone and was properly chatting away on it – hehe soooooo cute!! She drew in my book and was so much fun playing with her – i was made to make time for kids!! Was brill – highlight of my day!! Oh and dancing!!

We had the culture evening tonight and all was good – we were asked to propare something and because we have two Scots – we decided to teach a Scottish dance – we learnt it this afternoon and then i was teaching it this evening!! Haha – the skills of a coach!! Also we did a bit of Salsa with Chuili – was so much fn – i need to learn that dance – lovely!! So a brill evening – very eventful and lots of fun!!!

Anyways thats me off to bed – tired and need to be awake for our last day tomorrow in Pokhara at the conference!! Love to all xxx

We left Kathmandu at 12noon today, and arrived in Pokhara, 200km away, 7 hours later!

The journey to get here is fantastic! surrounded by mountains, lakes, villages, rice fields, so many amazing sights I still can’t compute them all!

For most of the journey, I was hanging out of the window taking photos – not easy on a very windy road with traffic coming at you from all directions and the bus bumping up, down, sideways and varying in speed from 5 – 40km/h! In the past I have been accused (unfairly I think!) of living life too much through the lens – not taking enough time to savour the atmosphere of where I am (which I do constantly!) – today was the first time that I’ve been so blown away by the beauty of a place that my camera has just been hanging loosely in my hand as I gaze in wonder at wants around me!

I had a ball though – and am caked in dust and dirt as a result, totally worth it!

We had Pete’s ipod with some awesome cheesy music to keep us going too – Grease, Macarena, Thundercats…etc etc it was awesome!

The Fulbari resort is awesome! I can’t wait to see it in daylight – especially the surrounding area! Until they found a room for me to stay in, I was hanging out in Suzi and Joanna’s room, spent ages on the balcony listening to the crickets while watching the lightning, the golden crescent moon and the dancing fireflies. It was incredible!

I feel like I have tons to say about today – but I just can’t find the words to describe them! The mountains were incredible – saw some that were at least 5000m high (I think!). So far this trip has broken a few geographical barriers for me – its the highest I’ve ever been on land, the farthest East I’ve ever been and the farthest South I’ve ever been. The road today topped out around 2400 – 2500m, and the whole way there were mountains towering above us! We also got our first experience of rain in Nepal – not quite Monsoon rain, but awesome nonetheless! The drops were huge! Lovely and warm, although some of them were quite sore when they hit you square in the eye!

Today taught me something about myself and photography – for so long now I’ve been focused, in photography, with creating the technically best image that I could, always driving to get better with the equipment – which I still think is important. But some of the photos I took today are far from my technically best, but the part of me they hold, the joy I felt all the way along that road whilst taking them, means that they will rank among my favourites for a long time to come!

I did think it was a shame we had no time to stop along the road – I could spend weeks photographing the people and scenery we whizzed past today!

Looking forward to the conference starting! It’s great meeting some of the people we’ll be sharing the next few days with! Met a guy called Daoud (I think thats how you spell it). He helped me get better the other day by giving me some great advice at the Youth fellowship at Koinoia Patan Church, good to see him again and thank him!

I am so in love with this country!  The journey here was absolutely amazing, with spectacular scenery, and some monsoon rain.  And I didn’t throw up, despite reaching what I affectionately term “the 30-seconds” point – when you know you could, but it could still go either way – and the Imodium worked its intestine-stopping magic, so it was all good.

The bus was late, naturally, or rather it was on Nepal time.  It was meant to arrive at 10/10.30.  At 11ish we headed to a cafe for some tea, and then the bus arrived and we set off properly at about noon.  The hot tea and the bumpy ride and dust made me feel really ill, but I realised I was probably also hungry so I munched some crackers until the sick feeling went away.

The climb out of Kathmandu and the Kathmandu Valley was difficult.  We were told by someone earlier in the week that lots of trucks overheat on the climb and end up blocking the road, and while we weren’t held up too much, I could certainly see why they would break down.  We the switchbacked our way down the other side – magnificent scenery with the terraced fields up the sides of the hills and the view.

The rest of the journey was fairly similar, but not so that you ended up bored of it.  The total time was over 7 hours, including a couple of breaks, but I could have sat through it all again and again and seen something different each time.  I would have needed several showers and changes of clothes to do that, though, as the heat and the humidity made for a sticky trip.  When we got out for lunch we all felt like we had been sitting in a bowl of water.  Warm, sticky water.  Mmm.

As we neared Pokhara, the sky got darker, and then the lightning started.  I couldn’t hear any thunder because of the bus.  Eventually, it started to rain and it got heavier and heavier.  It was the first rain we have seen since getting here, and pretty much the first clouds.  We got into Pokhara (presumable greater Pokhara rather than the city itself), and then took some fairly hairy back streets to the hotel.  It was getting dark by the time we arrived, so after registering, showering, and having dinner there’s no way to tell what the view is like.  We’re going to go for a wander in the grounds, and try to avoid the gorge outside!

Hello! So 200km and 7 hours later we arrived in Pokhara! Woooo – the journey was great – i couldn’t sit still so kept playing around – sitting forwards, sideways, backwards – hehe and I’ve managed to learn a little about photography – love playing with Chris’s camara but can’t quite use it properly yet!!

The journey was brill – a little like the Italian job feel with very bendy corners – but the most amazing views of the hills, valleys, waters, little villages and even the ligthening storms towards Pokhara! The resort here is fantastic – it is soooooo lovely and i feel a little out of place here – but its great we’ve meet so many different people so far and going to meet more which will be good!

Chris enjoyed the journey so much his head was stuck out of the window for most of the journey!! I can’t believe the journey here took so long – but we had such a good time seeing views and chatting to everyone that time flew by and glad to be in Pokhara now! I’ve seen one lizard already! So time to go to bed soon and start afresh the day tomorrow with the start of the South Aisa Chrstian Youth Conference (SACYN) which is titled ‘Cross the Bridge’. So night all – hope everyone back home is well! x

“He is good He is faithful
He is kind He is patient
He is loving He is wise
And He was willing to make the sacrifice
So we will come
And worship with our lives

If you are weary
There is a rest here by His side
If you are broken
There is healing by His side

If you are hungry
There is truth here in His life
If You are thirsty
There is love here in His eyes

He is good He is faithful
He is kind He is patient
He is loving He is wise
Lord You were willing to make the sacrifice
So we will come
And worship with our lives

Come let us adore Him
Come let us bow down”

CCLI Song No. 4262169
© 2004 Thankyou Music (Admin. by Kingsway Communications Ltd)
Tori Sheppard | Tre Sheppard

Peace Out

“What these years have brought me
What these years have taught me
Heartache and fame, a chance to change
A hope to be stronger
That beauty can smolder
A stage and a curtain, that nothing’s for certain
Oh these years have been hard on my bones

What this world has brought me
What this world has taught me
Senseless spinning, never tie instead of winning
Ice cream for licking, the clock’s always ticking
No one is free, someone must have a key
Oh this world has been hard on my bones
All this time I’d been seeking my own
Oh this road has been hard on my bones

What this love has brought me
What this love has taught me
Patience in battle, who’s in the saddle
Joy and despair, that I really do care
Uncertain desire the risk in going higher
Oh this love has been hard on my bones

What this God has brought me
What this God has taught me
Passion and grace, how to stand in one’s space
Laughing at lilies, what truly fulfills me
Death on a cross, it was I that was lost
Oh this God has been life to these bones
Oh this God has been life to my bones”

Peace Out

If it is true, its a loss to the music world. Sure, he’s had his crazy antics, but his legacy will and should be his music. His music was so popular, who can forget ‘Billy Jean’, ‘Thriller’, ‘Bad’ and countless more hits? His music inspired so many, one of my memories of primary school was performing in a drama class to ‘Thriller’, dressed up as Zombies and all sorts!

It’s quite sad that already, before its even confirmed, there are cruel, sick jokes going around about his death, whats wrong with people? If you didn’t like or respect him as a person or a musician, respect the fact that others do have that love and respect for him, respect the fact that he has a family who are going to be hurting!

I’m watching Sky news as I write this, as well as following various Facebook updates and those I follow on Twitter(when it doesn’t crash!). The big news agencies now seem to be confirming that he has in fact died. I’ll be praying for his family and friends, no death of a close friend/ relative is easy. If you are a person of faith, please pary for his family too, especially his kids…..

Peace Out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04

Leonard Nimoy singing about the ‘Greatest little Hobbit’ of them all, Biblo Baggins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE

A really daft classic! ‘Star Trekking….’

Just a few daft wee videos to keep you going!

Peace out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc

Knights of the round table, Trek style!

Data’s Lifeforms from Star Trek Generations…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBmaKk32fE