Where are the Beines?

While Kimberly painted the house, Nate painted the doghouse.  Snickerdoodle is officially an Oregon Ducks fan, as you can see.  :-)

10/03/2010

Where in the World are the Beines???  This is a question that recently reached my email inbox (which now has over 600 messages!).  Over a month and a half ago I caught a minute in transit to scribe what I thought (and still hope) would be our next newsletter.  Instead the draft sat until now (due the busyness noted below).  Since we are now being asked, I felt I should at least get a blog entry out to let you all know that we are alive and how you can pray for the busy Beines.  And hopefully this will turn into a full-fledged newsletter that will be making its way to your mailbox soon!

(On 07/15/2010, Dave wrote the following.)

This edition of the Beine Banter is being penned from the Denver airport (where I am in route to Chicago).  This is pretty much how it has been since our arrival back to the USA in mid June; busy and constantly on the run as we struggle to adjust back to the pace of life here in the USA.  As I write, I am listening to a podcast and checking my email, as three separate announcements talk over each other in the background.  What does all of this have to do with our newsletter?  Well, perhaps it explains (in part) why you haven’t heard much from us of late.  In this edition of the Banter you will hear of our life and ministry in the USA, and our developing plans to return to Nepal.  Enjoy!

Having settled back into life (and our home) in the USA, it is hard to get motivated to begin planning for our next foray back to Nepal.  Yet, with tight flight availability and other necessary long-term reservations it is imperative that we do so.  One of the first things we need to do is secure someone to teach our children next term in Nepal;  s/he doesn’t need to be a trained teacher, but someone who loves working with kids (particularly boys) who can manage our kids’ home school curriculum while in Nepal.  We are looking for just the right match for our kids.  Because of our isolation in rural Nepal we prefer some cross-cultural experience.  Please pray for us as we seek just the right match.  [Update- we now have our teacher lined up!  PTL!   We will introduce you to her in our next newsletter!]

What are we spending our time (six months) doing?  I, Dave have been teaching anthropology (two sections), introduction to linguistics and cross-cultural communication at Moody Bible Institute, Spokane.  The latter two of these courses are new at this school, so I have been writing the curriculum as I go along (which is very time consuming).  My goal in teaching at Moody is 1) to infect students with the mission bug (you know how we have been reporting the desperate need for more workers for the harvest) and 2) to equip them for missions (thus the topics I teach).  I have been very encouraged to see a sincere interest among many of my students, who appear very open to serving God in the mission field in general, and with Wycliffe Bible Translators in particular.  Since Moody is an approved training ground for Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International (Wycliffe’s sister organization), Wycliffe and SIL support our involvement on the Moody Spokane faculty.

This week in church a new follower of the Beines reminded me that although they know us, they don’t know much about Wycliffe and SIL.  In short, the vision of Wycliffe Bible Translators (the mission organization I have been with for twenty three years; and Kimberly has also been a member since our marriage 18 years ago) is to make God’s word accessible to all people in the language of their heart.  And the vision of SIL International (a sister organization to Wycliffe that I have also been a member of for the same length of time) is to “serve language communities worldwide, building their capacity for sustainable language development, by means of research, translation, training and materials development.”  So, we work for Wycliffe as our sending mission and we serve SIL International through our literacy and Scripture-use work in South Asia and through my posting with SIL as an International Anthropology Consultant.  For more information about Wycliffe and SIL International see www.Wycliife.org and www.sil.org respectively.  

Along with teaching, we continue our partnership in the Chepang literacy and Scripture-use project (Nepal) remotely from Spokane and I continue my assignment with SIL as an Anthropology Consultant.  My personal goal in serving as an International Anthropology Consultant is to use my vocation to further the Gospel by serving Wycliffe, SIL, and other organizations that are endeavoring to reach the ends of the earth.  Besides teaching at Moody and serving my own organizations I have also had the opportunity to work with Western Seminary (Portland, Oregon) teaching an applied linguistics course to future missionaries, with Prairie Bible Institute (Canada) encouraging their community development program, with Mission Aviation Fellowship providing cultural orientation to their new missionaries, with several local churches educating about missions, and finally, teaching at a regional missions conference, since landing back in Spokane.  Again, the wider goal being the promotion of (and quipping for) world missions more broadly.  On top of all of this we continue our local involvement with Bhutanese refugees here in Spokane (which is one of the main reasons we feel compelled to continue to split each year between Spokane and Nepal).      

Meantime, Kimberly has been holding down the fort at home.  Besides keeping us all dressed, fed, etc., she has been searching for new part-time work (to keep her medical license active).  And on top of that she even managed to oversee the re-carpeting of the upstairs of our house, and she re-painted the entire upstairs of our house herself!  Beyond this Kimberly has been spending significant time navigating the public school system here and trying to mesh that with (and find) a more appropriate home school curriculum for our time in Nepal.  Please pray for just the right solution.

There is one more thing that we have recently been doing for which we covet your prayers.  We recently began the “home study” process in preparation to seek adoption of one or two Nepali girls next year when we are back in Nepal.  Although time consuming, we feel God has led us to begin this adoption process.  In Nepal, girls are not favored and twins are considered a bad omen, so if twin girls are abandoned, they might be left to die, or they might be split up and adopted out to separate families.  We feel very open to the idea of adopting twin girls (or any girl/s) if God brings the opportunity during this next year while we are in Nepal.   Currently we are told that Nepal is “closed” to foreign adoptions (you might remember our dead-end experience with Baby Girl Tamang last year) so it would have to be an act of God to make this happen.  But we have felt compelled to prepare for the opportunity should it arise (which would not be very likely-humanly speaking); and we plan to drop our portfolio with the government adoption office upon our arrival to Nepal next winter and we’ll wait to see what happens.  Please join us in praying for 1) the timely completion of the home study process (we have just enough time--with no snags-- to complete this before we depart),  2) for the availability of twin girls if it is God’s desire for us, and 3) for the opportunity for a foreign adoption from Nepal against high odds.    

On a personal note, although we sincerely enjoy the various “hats” we have been wearing (and have felt led by God to put them on) and have felt led to pursue the various other opportunities we have mentioned above, all of these things have had us much busier than we would like.  So, please pray that God would give us the strength to carry out the various things God has for us to do.  We cannot do it alone!  And we would appreciate your prayers.

(back to 10/03/10)

So, that’s what the Beines have been up to.  Thanks for your continued prayer for us (although we have not been very good at keeping you up-to-date).  Sorry that it has been so long since you have heard from us!  And stay tuned for more in newsletter form soon!

The Beines

Coming to our U.S. home

We've made it to our U.S. home!  It was wonderful to hear Nate say, while we were on one plane flight, "We are always going home, either our Tansen home or our Spokane home."  What a blessing for these two parents to see how much GRACE has been poured out on all of us in the midst of our new nomadic lifestyle!  These are some pictures of how the Beines make the 12-time-zone jet lag adjustment; stay awake in the daytime by staying in the sun, and what better place than the southern California beach!

One great highlight to the return home was being reunited with our golden doodle dog, Snickerdoodle!  We are so thankful to the Wordell family who has generously loved him in our absence.  When we picked him up, they suggested that we talk about "joint custody," as they also really love him.  We are so fortunate that Snickerdoodle seems very content with this whole arrangement.


We are trying to catch up with the pace of life here in the U.S.  One of our friends who has done plenty of overseas living made a comment that really resonated with us: "Life overseas is hard and simple; life in America is comfortable and complex."  So true!  So, David is working hard to prepare lectures for his upcoming teaching, even through the blurry vision that comes as a result of the worst case of "pink eye" that he has ever had.  I am re-establishing our Spokane home routine, while hosting friends of the boys, and trying to decide where to interview for a new job (the company I used to work for has gone out of business in my absence).  Nick had his first speaking engagement this week at our church's Vacation Bible School.  He gave a powerpoint presentation four times, and did a wonderful job.  The other boys are rediscovering all the toys that have been in storage for six months, and reorienting their taste buds to such delights as cow's milk, hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream!  Overall, we feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to serve our God in two very different locations in His world.  Thank you for your interest in our adventures.

Much love from the Beine Bunch (Kimberly)

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