Having “retired” to Asia with her husband to serve the Lord, Pam Wise blesses TWR by volunteering with Project Hannah. Pam traveled with other TWR Asia members to visit the TWR Nepal team and see the work there. This is one of several journal entries from Pam’s Nepal trip which will be shared to provide further insight into reaching women in Nepal via TWR’s Project Hannah.

I travelled to Nepal with three others from TWR’s Singapore Service Centre [our main office in Asia], including Serene, the leader of women’s ministries for the Asia region. We drove west from Katmandu for about six and a half hours to cover the 180 kilometers to Butwal. From there we headed about 450 kilometers west almost to the western border, to the town of Dhangarhi. We made many detours along to way to visit listeners in small villages and rural areas. Then, we returned to Butwal to do some local trips and attend church. We also spent a night in Tansen, very high up in the mountains.

     For the trip west to Butwal, there is only one road over the mountain. It snakes high above a beautiful river valley and is barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. It is packed with huge trucks, buses, cars, motorbikes, tractors, ox carts, bicycles, men and women carrying incredible loads, oxen, sacred cows, goats, chickens, kids heading to school, little babies playing with rubber tires and rocks and debris from recent landslides.

     The road we travelled seemed narrow, rough and a little frightening given the steep drops into the valley below, but it was a super highway compared to what we would travel on later. The quaint little outdoor stall type restaurant where we ate lunch was later referred to as the “five star” restaurant. Although the first hotel looked a little seedy and tired, with a few bugs, we soon found ourselves longing for the luxury of that accommodation.

     The goals we had for the trip were to get to know the TWR Nepal staff and to see their ministries first hand. This would give us a better sense of their ministry effectiveness, of the challenges they faces and of their research and resource needs for future programs and projects. We also wanted to visit volunteers and listeners to hear their stories and encourage them and to distribute radios. And, along the way we were monitoring reception and signal strength of current broadcasts.

Click to read the next entry in Pam’s Nepal travel journal.

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