Two packs a day, with no signs of quitting...

January 12, 2009

In my title I am not referring to cigarettes, I am referring to banana-flavored chewing gum. It’s addictive and I am up to two packs of five sticks each per day. I’m not proud of it, I know I need help…but I just love the gum. OK, enough of that.

The team for Youth Rallies in the refugee camps is up and running. There will be seven of us: Pastor Ashok, Pastor Joel and his wife Arina, and three 17 year olds whose names I am working on pronouncing first, then I will memorize them. Our first Rally will be with all of the youth in the Golab camp about 15 km south of Birtamod. The three youngsters are new to ministry but want to catch the vision, and they make a good little worship team. The two pastors are both great speakers and there I am right in the middle. We all have a vision to bring a fire to the youth in these camps and to get things moving without us.

Saturday we are going to start with a testimony from the most outgoing of the three kids and then I will give a one to two hour message, then a testimony from Pastor Joel, an altar call and some more worship and we are done. That is a lot easier to write, than it is to pull off. The biggest obstacle, as always, is language. But I know it will be great.

The biggest problem that I can foresee with the team and the youth ministry is finances. Normally, I would just ask the members of the team to jointly cover anything that came up, but their situation is quite unique. They are not citizens of anywhere, Bhutan has rejected them and Nepal provides housing and asylum but citizenship is not a part of the deal. This may not seem like a big deal but what it means is that there are tens of thousands of refugees with no way of getting a job. The UN provides food and water and shelter, so really no income is needed. SO, I am working with a team of six people with hearts on fire for God and not a paisa (100 paisas to the rupee, each paisa about 1/700th of a dollar) to their names. The nice thing about what we are doing is that we will have almost no expenses. Food and any lodging that we need will gladly be provided by the churches that we go to, but getting to these churches requires money. I have told them that for the first few weeks I would cover the traveling expenses and that I would talk to you and see if there is any way for you to help. The best part of this problem is that the travel expenses is looking like they are going to be less than 100 dollars a month, or about 5,000-7,000 rupees (remember it’s 77 rupees to the dollar), all in bus fare. As of right now, me covering the expenses will be no problem, but I just wanted to let you know that this will be another expense that I will be taking on. We will take up an offering at the youth meetings but like I said before there just isn’t any money in the camps.

Right now I am in Damak, waiting for a bus up to Ilam, where I will teach about intercession and hearing the voice of God for three days. Then back down here to write my message and make sure the team is ready for Saturday.

There has recently been quite the outbreak of Avian flu in India, just over the border from me, so please keep that in your prayers. Pray that it stays out of Nepal. I have mostly stopped eating eggs and have totally stopped eating all chicken, which is sad ‘cause its mostly the only source of protein that I get, but I will be fine. I weighed myself at the train station about two weeks ago and I was right at 132 lbs, when I left home I weighed almost 160. I call it the ASIA DIET.

Thank you to all of you who have been supporting me every month, I can't tell you how wonderful it is to know that there people who think about and pray for me all the time.

Please pray:

For my health.
For my newly formed team to find our strengths and utilize them.
For my illusions of American religion: I was raised Lutheran, with 19 to 22 minute sermons, and now I am giving sermons that are sometimes topping two hours, my poor religious psyche is so confused.
For my intercessors and my supporters, they are as big a part of this as I am.

Thank you for reading and praying,


In Truth,
James P. Lear