MY 3RD YEAR BHUTANESE ANNIVERSARY

... Well, it will be on Wednesday, May 8th.  It was on May 8,

2010, when I was standing in my living room by the entry table that the Lord said, "Walk up to Benson."  [That's our area's name from over a hundred years and  it was a small town before it was taken into Omaha.]  I thought, "OK."  Figured there was someone or something that 1/2-mile-or-so away.  So, I popped my cowboy hat and shoes on and hit the sidewalk.

A couple blocks away, on a main Omaha road, passing a park, I walked passed a short Asian-looking couple.  I thought, "Hmm.  Are they Burmese?"  I knew there were quite a number up the street, but kids had told me the adults didn't speak English.  These were the first adults I had passed who seemed to fit into that category.

I stopped.  I turned.  I asked, "Where are you from?"  They turned their heads back and forth, looked confused.  So I asked again.  And they caught it and said, "Nepal."

"Oh," I thought, "their not Burmese."  Then I asked, "How long have you been here?"

Again, they looked confused, but then, answered, "Ten months."

I asked other questions, such as whether they could understand our language, do they have family here, and where in the apartment complex they lived.  Well, we got it handled in just a couple minutes.  I told them I enjoyed seeing them and would try to find them soon.

Then, I turned away, walked a few feet, stopped suddenly, and turned around again, and asked, "What do you worship?"

Again, they looked eye-blinky, confused.  So, I said, again, "What do you worship?", but this time, I lifted my arms to the Lord.

They said, together, lifting their arms, "Oh, JESUS!"

I said, "OH, JESUS!!!"  And we stood on that main road area, lifting our arms to the Lord and worshiping and laughing together.

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A week later, after connecting to the former Omaha missionaries in Nepal who were with the Bhutanese refugees [from Nepal] here in town and were leading them at a church fellowship hall just a couple blocks from my house, I went to their church.  The couple I had first met on the street were Ram and Dawa.  Their son, Phurba, was the pastor.  Their daughter, Tshering, attended.  Phurba's wife, Nar, was there, but busy with other things, so I didn't meet her the first time.  Nar quickly became my daughter, though.

Anyhow, right after church, Ram, Dawa, Phurba, and Tshering came down the street to my house so they could see where we lived and I took a photo.
 
Life began.

Now I have more than 60 "family" members.  I am now the Mom, Aunt, Sister, Grandma, Great-grandma.  I have helped at the ERs, hospital stuff, helped deliver 6 babies, fixed apts and house, protected re: the language differences when cars were hit or something happened in their nearby situation and the police were coming.  DAVE has taught piano, fixed computers, MADE computers, and given to them, and recently played at a wedding.  We don't do a lot every day all the time... but...

February, 2012, Baptism

we are now missionaries.  Again!  What a treat!