Where’s your culture!

Amanda and I had lunch Tuesday with two Assembly of God missionaries and their spouses. Jason and Christy Loper are related by marriage to the pastor of Moffit Road Assembly of God in Mobile. He was one of the few American contacts I had in Nepal. I called Jason on Saturday to talk about meeting them. He said we should meet at the restaurant in the Hyatt Hotel. When I hung up and told our hosts, their eyes lit up. “That’s the most expensive hotel in the city!” Sudip exclaimed, “ I would not think of eating there.”

We arrived 15 minutes early. As we walked around, we could tell that the hotel lived up to it’s five star rating. Even the bathrooms, Amanda would relate later, were the nicest she’d ever been in. The lunch meeting went well. Jason is in charge of developing an AG Bible school. It has been around for a while, but it is in the process of growing a new building. Bethany and her husband are in charge of the House of Hope, the ministry to rehabilitate Nepali prostitutes rescued from Calcutta and Bombay.

The price of the meal was probably less than what one would pay at an Applebees in the US. But for Nepalis it would have been a fortune.

Amanda and I found it amusing that the native missionary takes his guests to his favorite restaurant for a total charge of 150rs ($2) for four people, and the American missionaries take their guests to a very nice restaurant for a total of around 3500rs ($50) for six people. In their defense Jason indicated that he new that the restaurant would be empty at the time specified, and they would be free to speak openly about ministry. Such openness may be hard to find in a country that still has laws outlawing proselytizing.

Sudip and Anne Lise with their personal support do so much. First off, they live very meagerly. They have no vehicle since Sudip gave his motor bike to the orphanage in January. Their apartment is very livable, but has no hot water (sometimes throughout the day no water at all). Secondly they pay for the expenses of the church and ministry school. That includes teacher salaries, student expenses (all of the students of scholarship), and staff salary. The orphanage has some support coming directly to it, but the rest of the cost is on Sudip’s shoulders. Then financial support of 32 other churches.