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Young leaders challenged by Nepal trip

A seed planted at General Assembly 2006 saw a group of young Presbyterians head to Nepal last December, where they built significant relationships and experienced the realities of a country that’s only
1 percent Christian.

The trip was lead by Wairau Presbyterian Parish minister Ken Williams, who says taking our future leaders out of their comfort zones has a profound effect on them. “They’re the people who will be leading our church in 20 years’ time. The value of it can’t be measured.

“It might be a cliche, but it was a life-changing experience for each of them.”

Ken met Nepali guest Uttam at GA06 in Auckland when they shared transport arrangements each day. Because Ken had visited Nepal 20 years ago on his honeymoon, they had some interesting conversations and Uttam, who works for aid agency Hope for the Nations, suggested a return visit.

Ken talked to Global Mission Enabler Andrew Bell and there was a long exchange of emails with Nepal. The idea of taking a team of young people took shape, and Ken promoted this at last July’s PYM Connect conference. The five young people who eventually went were: Richard Steer, Gareth Morrison, Hamish Mepham, Tom Mepham and Kathryn Grant.

Before the trip, they met for a weekend in Blenheim to discuss practicalities and talk about expectations and how the reality might differ.

All six team members paid for their flights and transport, though Andrew obtained a Council for World Mission grant that covered living expenses while in Nepal, funded a conference that Ken spoke at and enabled a donation to the work of Hope for the Nations.

During their trip, Ken spoke for three days at a conference of local church leaders. His topic was pastoral issues facing churches in relation to leadership and discipleship, with reference to Philippians. He says about 60 people attended, with nearly half being women; and none of the attendees had been to any form of conference or seminar before.

The younger team members sat in on the conference for the first day, but on the second morning they were promised a tour of the village from someone who spoke English. Team member Kathryn Grant says they expected this to be relatively brief, but it ended up being a “wild adventure” that they returned from at 8pm. They went to a national park, tried to ride an elephant, travelled on the top of a jeep and met a pastor who had suffered a sword attack by Maoists.

The Kiwi group spent half its trip in Kathmandu, where Hope for the Nations runs three homes for children without parents. One houses children aged between four and 14, another teenagers and the third young adults; the homes collectively operate as a family, with regular meetings between the different age groups.

The team spent most of its time in the Godwari home, for the youngest age group. Fourteen children live there, with HFM hoping to increase numbers. The team spent time teaching the children language skills and playing with them. “They were just such neat kids,” Ken says.

He says the trip gave them all a new perspective on being Christian outside a wealthy Western context. Less than 1 percent of Nepalese are Christians.

The poverty was eye-opening, Ken says. The group’s interpreter was curious about the Kiwi way of life and said to Ken: “tell me about your house. Do you have hot water? Do you have a toilet inside? Are you able to send all your children to school?” When Ken had answered these questions, the interpreter said “you must be a very wealthy man”.

The team spent a long time travelling on progressively deteriorating roads to reach a small village called Dari, where a new church had opened six days before their arrival. Ken preached at the church and held some teaching sessions, and they discovered that they were the first Europeans to have visited the village. “It was mindblowing,” he says.

The team was struck by the graciousness of their hosts. “There’s so much we can learn from them”. Because the team did not wish to place an undue burden on their hosts, they liaised with Uttam to ensure they paid an amount that would cover costs.

Involving a team of young people was hugely successful, with opportunities to further this kind of cross-cultural learning in the future for the mutual benefit, Ken says. “They were very keen for us to come back. They really want to work on developing relationships.”

Kathryn, who’s 21, heard about the trip at Connect and says it seems like an opportunity “to do something really interesting and worthwhile”. She was an intern for Presbyterian Youth Ministry in 2005, which she says exposed her to a lot of new ideas. “You can get cloistered in your world at university.” Kathryn has been living at Knox College, a hall of residence in Dunedin, and is studying medicine.

She says one surprise was the strength of Nepal’s Christian community; another was the family atmosphere in the children’s homes, which were far from the orphanage stereotype.

Kathryn says she expected to see poverty having a significant impact on people’s health, but they did not see much disease or malnutrition. The trip gave new certainty to her choice of career, she says. “It’s something that I might be able to offer in terms of practical help” whether in Nepal or elsewhere.

Tom Mepham says he felt a strong sense during Ken’s talk at Connect that he should go on the trip, despite having no previous inclinations towards mission. “It just seemed to come out of nowhere.”

Twenty-one year old Tom has just finished a computing degree in Dunedin. He’s also a musician and earlier this year was doing some recording in Wellington, after which he was heading back to Dunedin where he teaches the drums part-time and is involved in youth work.

Tom says hanging out in the children’s home was fantastic, with its opportunity to spend a lot of time with the children and develop relationships. “I felt like we were there with friends. The kids were amazing; so giving and generous and open.

“You could really see God moving in the people that we were with.”

Tom says it’s easy for young Kiwis to fall into the trap of thinking exclusively about the circles that they move in rather than engaging with the larger world and church. Mission trips provide benefits for both sides: “there’s things that they need us for and things that we need them for.”

“The challenge is keeping the friendship ongoing; to keep emails going and not just relegate it as an awesome trip.”

Kathryn agrees: “One of the challenges coming back is ‘how do I translate this experience into something long term for me and for them?’”

Amanda Wells