It's the Final Countdown

The trip is coming up soon and I've still got a tonne of things to tick off my to do list. This blog post being one of them!

The team from St James Anglican Minto had a send off dinner on the last Saturday of November. We all forgot to take any photos of the night so I apologise for all the words in this blog post without any pictures.

We were so overwhelmed by the number of people who came from our church family, our families and friends to support us.

Thanks guys, you're all wonderful!

 It was a great night and our team learnt a LOT more from Graydon's presentation about what we'll be doing, coupled with fun photos of rickety bridges, heavy packs and primitive toilets which are not-so-user friendly holes in the ground. I'm a little terrified of misstepping in the middle of a freezing cold night half asleep. That would be a rude awakening. Ignorance is bliss sometimes, I think. We were also serenaded by the gorgeous sounds of Hannah and Rachel.

You can't tell from this photo, but the music was glorious

The team leaves Sydney on Boxing Day for Singapore, then from Singapore via Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu. That's where the fun begins!
We'll be spending a few days in Kathmandu visiting churches and some shrines, meeting the other members of the team and trying to adjust to the climate, altitude and food. We'll also spend a day frantically shopping to fill in the gaps for clothing needs which are much cheaper than in Australia. Let's hone those haggling skills!

Just before New Year's Day the team will be travelling up north towards the LangTang mountains. The team will be working around an area called Dunche and visiting villages, distributing some materials and talking to the villagers about Jesus. We'll end up being about 2000m above sea level so hopefully no one gets symptoms of altitude sickness. It's shaping up to be the tamest New Year's Eve celebration ever, however dependent on what happens over there, it could end up being the most dramatic, terrifying and exciting one ever! We don't know much more about what we'll be doing during this time so it'll be fun finding out once we're in Nepal.

As a team we are developing a drama of a bible story (Old Testament) for re-enactment for some churches and villages. We threw around some ideas and practiced acting out the confrontation between Elijah and the priests of Baal. If you've never heard the story, read 1 Kings 18:17-40 (and see it played out in Lego). It's pretty full on and it highlights the power of God which drew His people back to Him. Just as a side note, we don't act out verse 40. It was a weird process to hear the story narrated in English then having to wait for the translator to translate before acting. There's a lot of standing around trying to 'stay in character'. We're pretty hopeless, but hopefully it gets the point across!

Towards the end of the trip the team will be splitting up, half going up the LangTang mountains towards the Tibetan border and the other half going down south for a distribution conference for organisations who use GRN materials. They'll also be going on an elephant safari. The first group will (hopefully but doubtful) be climbing to about 16 000 feet and will have amazing views if there isn't any fog. The other group will get to hear great stories about people coming to know Jesus through GRN's materials and go on an elephant safari in Chitwan National Park. There's great wildlife in the Nepalese plains and hopefully they'll be able to see a rhino or two.

Too good for Instagram

From now to Boxing Day, we as a team with be doing last minute purchases and preparation, while also getting ready for Christmas. Continue to pray for us that we don't forget to pray and maintain our spiritual well being in the midst of such a busy time.