The view from the tree-house!

A Paradise for Boys...

As you all know, there are some challenges to living in Nepal, particularly in one's gut where a multitude of bugs compete for territorial dominance.  However, I do want you to have a balanced view of the wonders of Nepal.  One project that we have begun, thanks to Dave and Ryan (our teacher for one month), is a wonderful tree-house.  A magnificent tree is conveniently located about 25 feet from our front door which makes a wonderful tree-house site.  The tree sits on the edge of a terrace, so that our platform is about 15 feet above the ground as you access it from our house, and from the other side, this platform is perched at least 25 feet above the ground.  This higher side offers outstanding views of the valley below Tansen.  We have plans to have multiple levels to this child's play house, but for now, we've only completed this one level.  The entire tree-house is made of scrap wood given to us by the hospital workshop, plus a lot of sweat and effort put out by several men (one being a young "man" of twelve years).  They can tell all sorts of stories about nails bending and drill bits breaking in the tough wood.  But alas, see below the fruit of their labors and the children enjoying this wonderful tree-house.  This is a great benefit of life in Nepal for boys who love outdoors and adventure.  We are blessed!

The harvest is plentiful...the workers so few.

Have you ever said to God, "I want to spend my life (that's right, SPEND my life, not save my life) doing ALL that you made me for.  I TRUST you in EVERYTHING I might encounter.  Please give me courage not to waver when the battle heats up.  Amen,"?  THANK YOU to all of you who have had the guts to say such things!

We have felt the battle heating up here on the spiritual front, and we feel compelled to pray for the workers in the harvest here in Tansen.  (And we know there are so many equally strained harvesters all over the world whom we have never met.)  As I have looked around at the workers here, interceding on their behalf, for strength to carry on, the strain has struck me.  I wonder if there are any others out there who might consider joining this wonderful team of dedicated, loving, creative workers at Tansen Mission Hospital?

Last night, I was talking with one of the new doctors on the team.  He was describing his day to me.  He was the only senior doctor on for the medical ward that day.  He told me how many patients he needed to see before he rushed off to the outpatient clinic and he emphasized how important it is to him to spend time instructing the new interns who have been placed under his tutelage.  I did a quick calculation.  He only had six minutes to spend with each patient, and he was supposed to instruct the interns in that time as well.  How could this happen?  Well, in the end, one patient had a cardiac arrest during rounds, so even the six minutes allotted to each one was gobbled up by tending to the neediest.  I'm sure that this translated to the patients on the outpatient side of the hospital needing to just wait longer.  Some would have to pay for a hotel room for the night and wait to be seen the next day.  They couldn't possibly go home, as that journey would take most of a day.  Will you ask with me, "Lord of the Harvest, could you please send even just one more doctor to share the harvesting work?"

Speaking of harvesting...there has been a surgeon from Norway here for a year and she is just on her way back home this week.  She shared a story at last night's church service about a patient she had seen over seven months ago.  The patient was a young girl with cancer with multiple masses inside her abdominal cavity.  Through a collaboration of the doctors and the social service at the hospital, they had arranged to pay for a substantial amount of her care at a nearby cancer hospital (our hospital does not have oncology services).  I don't know all the details, but in the end, the young girl died; yet in her death, God raised up a harvest.  The family recently returned to our hospital to share that a significant number of them were impressed by the LOVE they encountered at our hospital and they have now turned to the origin of that LOVE: Jesus Christ.  We are all amazed sometimes by the LIFE that God gives through deaths, such as this one, that often feel like medical failures.  Who can fully understand the mystery of God?

Okay, one final plea...are there any unemployed teachers out there wondering what God might do with their lives?  Our own personal journey of losing our teacher and trying to fill her role has greatly increased my respect and appreciation for teachers.  It is a challenging and important job!  And I am praying that God will pick out a teacher for us for the next five months when we come back to Tansen (February through June 2011).  But I see clearly that the need out here for teachers is huge.  You know, there is a school here for foreign kids, but we can't place our kids in it because there aren't enough teachers.  The first priority has gone to the families whose parents have visas that require them to serve a lot of hours at the hospital.  Dave and I have more flexible visas.  You might ask why not put them in the local Nepali schools.  Well, we have a little bit of trouble with the local pedigogy (repeat what the teacher says; no questions asked!), but really beyond that, the strain on the local system here is beyond our imagination.  For example, we have supported a boy here for the past ten years, so that he can attend school (each student must pay for his/her schooling).  He is in grade ten now and beginning to think about what he might do with his life.  And we've had ample opportunity to discuss this with him because his school was on break for two months, not because a break was scheduled but because they had run out of textbooks.  And all the power cuts in his city did not allow for the printing of more books.  Does that ever happen at your kids' school?  If you know any umemployed teachers who might have a heart to live in simple conditions and to take an exciting journey leading some fascinating kids of missionaries on an educational adventure, please encourage them to pray to the Lord of the Harvest.

Thanks for letting me share a glimpse of this side of the globe!
Loving the Adventure,
Kimberly, for the Beine Bunch

Old Photos

For the "Over Sixty" Crowd...

Today's tutorials for doctors at the hospital were very interesting. First, there was the Norwegian orthopedic surgeon who works in the busiest pediatric hospital in Stockholm and reported that this small hospital in Tansen, Nepal sees four times as many arm fractures as the one in Stockholm. Are there any orthopedic surgeons out there looking for a very fulfilling experience?

Then, there was a very interesting presentation on snake bites. This is the season when the snakes come out of hibernation and are hungry and in a foul mood. We've already seen the first snake in our yard. It was as long as Nate is tall and as thick as Jake's arm. Thankfully, it was as afraid of us as we were of it, and it quickly slithered away. There are thousands of deaths in Nepal every year from snake bites, but as I learned today, it is death related to local "treatment" as often as it is from envenomation.

The final lecture was about changing demographics in Nepal. When we started working in Nepal, average life expectancy was in the 50s. It has now moved up to 62 years. And currently, 6% of the population is over 60. At home, my mom died at 65 years old and many said that was so early. So, this changing demographic data sounds encouraging, doesn't it? Well possibly, but following are the sad facts. Just making it into your 60s doesn't mean that life is good. Social support from the government is almost non-existent. There are no doctors who specialize in geriatric medicine. There are no special facilities for aging people. And here is the worst...many elderly people are suffering alone in villages. Under the current conditions in the country, many working-age people leave Nepal looking for work. The youth flock to cities in search of more "western and modern" life. And the elderly stay in their villages, often with nobody to look after them, sometimes slowly starving to death. My heart breaks, yet again.

Anybody feeling motivated to be thankful for family, for government, for the Biblical concept of looking after those in need? You know, giving up living here in Nepal for eight years to go home and care for my mom until we handed her off to the Lord Jesus may have been a witness to the caretaking that Christ calls us to, more than I ever realized before. I am so thankful for the guiding principles of the Bible and for the day by day guidance of the Holy Spirit. His ways are wonderful and so different from the natural ways of man. Please empower us, Lord Jesus, to show your good ways...wherever we are.

Thankful for ALL of you whom I call "family,"
Kimberly

This week will be a busy one...

Well, with the transportation systems shut down last week few people were able to travel. As a result, now that things are running again, we are expecting a flood of patients at the hospital over the next several days. And likely there will be some very sick people who should have come last week but couldn't, making them even more difficult to cure. So, please pray for Kimberly and the other doctors today (Sunday) as they return to work.

Thanks!

Dave

Nepal update

Hi all:

Several have asked for an update about the current political crisis in Nepal.  Good news!  The Maoist have announced that they have withdrawn the strike!  Actually the Nepali word they used is more “postponed,” and they plan to continue their protests (just not make everyone else stop life), so we are not completely out of the woods yet.  But at least we can find food again in the markets, get mail again, get in and out of the capital city again, etc.  The New York Times had a good update on the situation this morning (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/world/asia/08nepal.html ) for those who are interested in following the situation more closely.

Last weekend my (Dave) home church, Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church in Fair Oaks, California, featured a live interview with us during their Sunday morning service.  The pastor was preaching on missions.  It was really cool (but strange) to be talking to them live at 12:30 AM Monday morning our time.  It is amazing how technology has changed in my 20 plus years in South Asia!  For those who want to know a little more about us check out the video at:      http://www.vimeo.com/11445132

And Finally, some of you have been asking about being notified via email when we post a new blog entry.  I think you can do so by clicking on the link "subscribe by email" near the top left of the blog page

Dave (for all)

Hot season has definitely begun!

Hot season is here!  This is the candle in our kitchen after a hot day.  And we are in the third day of the Maoist-called nation-wide general strike across the country.  Today has seen a few minor violent acts against here in Tansen against those who were ignoring the strike.  We have kept a low profile and been just fine.  I (Dave) am using the time to get caught up on email and other projects that have been on the back burner.  Kimberly has been going to work but the patient load has been light since all transportation has been halted.  We are well stocked, but locals are beginning to worry about running out of food since no groceries or food or vegetables have been able to make it up from India.  From what we hear the capital city is even more tense.  Oh, and our refrigerator gave out and we will not be able to order a new part (or get the needed part temporarily repaired) until the strike ends.  Please keep Nepal in your prayers!

The JOY of NEW LIFE!

More Details...

Today, I had the best Nepali language lesson that I have had yet. I cannot tell you any new words that I learned, but I can tell you that the Holy Spirit stirred in my heart as I listened to the details of my teacher and his wife coming to faith…finding their eternity secure in the Father God.

So, my initial story, received third-hand, had a few of the details inexact but not far off. I want you all to enjoy the details that thrilled me today. You see, this woman was lying in her bed, not sleeping, when the entire room went completely, utterly dark. Then it was full of light. Then dark again, and then light again. There were three cycles of this. (And this was not one of our power fluctuation phenomena.) She felt sure that this was a sign that she would soon die. She told her brother and her son about the experience, which had considerably shaken her. They had a meal with her and tried to reassure her that she did not seem close to death. They left for a while. She went out. She was out for three days, and she has no recollection of those three days. Gathering information from others who encountered her, it has been confirmed that she slept at a Tibetan camp and she was either mute or simply not making sense. Some children at the camp who were interacting with her decided that she needed some care, so they found an adult who then called the police and they transported her to the hospital. While being examined at the hospital, they placed leads on her body for an ECG and suddenly she regained the ability to speak and from that point on, she has a sharp memory. When her identification was clarified, it was a quick call to her daughters that began the spread of news that she was found. About 100 people were out looking for her by this time, and within 20 minutes, all of them were at the hospital with her. She was released from the hospital with no particular illness identified.

The group had some food together and discussed this strange occurrence. Her brother and her son noted the remarkable resemblance to Paul’s encounter with Christ and the parallel of three days for Christ in the grave. My language teacher, the woman’s wife, is well acquainted with the Bible, as he has had to teach the words in it to many foreigners over the past 20 years. He contemplated these things as they discussed the situation. Also, there was one family member who had a dream about this happening to this woman before the story was revealed. In the end, the woman saw that she was not really being called to death, but rather to LIFE! And she was ready to choose the light, to choose LIFE.

As my language teacher told me the story, he said, “My wife is uneducated. And she was a very strong Hindu. I have a very high education. It seems to me that Jesus prefers the uneducated and the lowly to the highly educated. It seems to me that He wanted to save us, but he chose to reach my wife first and then me.” His joy was palpable and it has infected me for this entire day. The kindness of our LORD is immeasurable! When I met this woman today for the first time, she greeted me with a hug. This is an unusual greeting here, but she just seemed to be overflowing with love. That too infected me.

Finally, I want to share that one of the first things they did was to call a missionary couple that they knew from many years ago; my language teacher says that this couple has shown them an extraordinary amount of love. He shared their story and about this new life that they have found. The coupled responded with dancing. Surely, this had been their hope for many years. Their prayers were fully answered. I am brought to tears as I write. We (our family and you) are praying for many things. Who knows when and how God might answer. Let’s not grow weary in hoping for the lost and lifting them up before the throne! This is what motivates us. One day, you will see, we’ll be in heaven and Nepalis will also be there, worshipping the King. Keep praying! Thank you. Your work with us is worth more than we can reckon.

Rejoicing!
Kimberly, for all the Beines

Darkness and Light!

A few days ago the wife of Kimberly’s language teacher went missing for several days in Kathmandu.  She has been found!  And the experience ended with both she and her husband giving their hearts to Jesus just yesterday- the same day Kimberly and I were praying and fasting for Nepal!  Here is the story as we heard it:

His wife was out walking and she saw darkness…and then light…and then darkness…and then light…. She heard God ask her if she would choose the darkness or the light.  This experience upset her, so she didn’t eat for a couple of days.   Then she was out walking again and fainted or lost consciousness for some reason and was found by some Christians who took her to a hospital in Kathmandu.  After she was recovered, and her husband had found her at the hospital, they decided together to choose the light.  Her husband, the language tutor, has worked with Christians for 22 years.  This power encounter led him to seriously consider this “gospel” that he has heard so much about.  And he and his wife have chosen eternal life with the One True God! 

This teacher called tonight to thank us for praying.  He said, “My time in Kathmandu was very hard…but God has saved us.”  Praise be to our Loving God!