"share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—"

What a privilege it was to serve the people of Nepal today.  Another flight was taken into the mountains with rice.  This time we flew to a to a remote village in Gorkha called Nyak not far from the Tibetan boarder.  This Buddhist village at almost 7500 foot elevation (Denver is 5280) was suggested by a local pastor as a group needing aid.  The people normally walk on what could loosely be called a trail in a treacherous route down the mountain to the river below.  After seven days walking they can reach a very small town where they can buy items they need or catch a bus into Kathmandu.  A landslide has closed off the walking trail so even that option is no longer open.  The 6000 lb of rice delivered by helicopter today will help them until the trail can be uncovered, probably not until October or November.

We weren't sure if we'd even be able to land when we reached there but the villagers had prepared a small helipad about 10 x 20 feet with a 1000 ft precipice on one side. But that was sufficient.  It took seven trips by helicopter to bring the rice into Nyak thanks to our friends at Mission Aviation Fellowship who are giving us a 90% discount on the flights.

We also gave a ride up the mountains to a young mother and her baby who had not been able to return home since the landslide and gave a ride down to three high school students who had been cut off from coming back to their boarding school.   There is a building for an elementary school in the village but no teacher.

Situations like this exist all over Nepal.  This beautiful land is so rugged much of it is inaccessible.  Programs like ours are meeting the immediate need of the people for food during this time of crisis, but we will also be here long term.  We will be working with communities like Nyak to bring the services everyone should have access to like education and health care as well as helping individual families to create a safe environment for their children where basic needs are met.  We will be caring for children without parents to look after them in family settings and advocating for the rights of women and children.

These are exactly the actives we are told to do in Isaiah 58:6.7

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"