Church

We woke up to a misty morning today, and the mist has hung around all day.  It obscures the gorgeous views of the hills, but it's also pretty cool in it's own way.

View from our window this morning 

 Today is Sunday, and that means church!  Church is at 10:30am (or around 11, India time - nothing starts 'on time' here).  In America, I had about a 20min drive to church.  Here we have a 20min walk, uphill,  on steep, rocky paths, with a refreshing 130-step climb at the end!

Looking down the path on the way to church

Passang and our niece Kasis on the way to church

Me and Kasis

Anden Church

If you've ever been to church in North America, you would notice several differences between that and church here in Sikkim.  First of all the men and women sit on separate sides.  Also the women cover their heads.  The "worship band" consists of one person playing acoustic guitar (today it was Passang), a couple people playing tambourines, a choir singing their hearts out, and everyone clapping along.  I love how everyone sings so loud and wholeheartedly here.  I feel like in America we often get so caught up in how we sound, how good the band is, what the lighting is like, etc. that we forget what we are doing - worshiping the Almighty God!  It's really nice to have a full band, a screen with the words on it, good lighting, and a heated building, but none of that matters if our hearts aren't in the right place.  Today we didn't have electricity at church, but that didn't matter.  You don't need electricity to praise God and learn more about Him :)

Passang leading worship with the choir

Praying for the offering

Today the sermon was on Fellowship.  The churches here don't have a consistent pastor who does all the preaching.  They only have 4 pastors for all of the churches in West Sikkim (about 50), so each week a different person preaches - today a leader from another church came and preached.  It's all in Nepali so I can't get too much out of it; although, one of the leaders was kind enough to translate the main jist of the sermon into English for me.  I'll be listening to the recording of my pastor back in the US every week so that I continue to get good teaching.  I love his preaching!  If you're in need of some good Bible teaching, check it out: http://lifepointrenton.org/media/

It's now about 4pm here, and the mist has gotten even thicker... I can barely even see the house across the street!  Apparently this is just a warmup for the really rainy season - bring it on!

In training

Today is the 6^th day since we were married!  

Any good Sherpa daughter-in-law would have woken up early the morning after her wedding to prepare chia (tea) for the household and then would have made lunch and dinner that day.  Fortunately, there are exceptions when you are a daughter-in-law who has just moved over from a cushy life in America! For the past 5 days, I haven't been expected to do too much work – just arrange our room and wash a few clothes (I felt so lazy while everyone was rushing around me working so hard) – but today, my training began. I woke up before everyone else and prepared tea, with my sister-in-law's help, of course! (Sherpa Fact (SF), "didi" is the Nepali word for 'older sister' so that is what I call all of my sister-in-laws.) 

Making Chia

Finished Chia

Papa's Chia

Papa, my father-in-law, takes his tea first, in his room, and everyone else takes theirs in the kitchen when they wake up. Passang doesn't drink tea so I made coffee for him (he likes Starbuck’s via so I’ll make him that till it runs out). Then we made lunch, swept the floors, washed the floors, watered the flowers, made some more tea for a visitor, and finally ate lunch! All before 9 am! Passang went to a neighbor’s house to help with a cow that died (not sure why). Dawa Daju, my brother in law, (SF: 'daju' is  the Nepali word for 'older brother') worked on a greenhouse that he is building out of the bamboo from our wedding. Didi also cleaned the bathroom and washed some clothes during that time!  

Daju Making Green House

Everyone around here works really hard, so it feels really good to be able to contribute a little bit. I can't wait until I get better at these things and can help out even more.

Our Room