Another workshop to train Christian leaders was held last month in Nepal. This was the seventh trip to Nepal for my husband, Paul Hartman, who coordinates Multi-Language Publications and directs theological education for the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church in Nepal. But it was a new experience for both Prof. Allen Sorum from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and me.

During the first eight days 140 people studied the Gospel of John, using a simplified version of the People’s Bible commentary in Nepali. Prof. Sorum and Pastor Hartman introduced each section of the Gospel. Then everyone divided into small groups to read that segment from the Gospel and the commentary and to answer fact questions. Finally we met together for discussion questions, review activities and English word study. I enjoyed working with the 45 women, who went upstairs for their own breakout groups. We answered the questions in both Nepali and English.

Everyone was eager to learn. One afternoon the students hadn’t quite finished a review by tea time. Most worked right through tea break! The study center was so crowded that the students sat (on the floor) in the side rooms, on the front porch and on the back stairs as well as in the main room. Lunch was cooked in big pots over fires in the back yard, always rice with seasoned sauce, and vegetables, chicken or fish. The singing was great, accompanied by clapping, drums, a tambourine and flute. One of the girls wrote out the words to two Nepali worship songs in English letters, so I could sing with them.

The participants who came from a distance slept at the center, men downstairs and women upstairs. Twenty people slept under a tarp on the roof. Thankfully, the seasonal rains held off until the last night.

We walked about a kilometer from our cottage-motel to the scripture learning center – with many other people, dogs, cows, ox carts, bicycles, bicycle-pulled rickshaws, motorcycles and a few larger vehicles. You avoid the animal droppings and move slightly to the side when honking vehicles come up behind you. The first day a long, black snake slithered across the road in front of Paul and me. But everything in Nepal seemed so different that I didn’t think much of it. Later we learned the snake was a venomous black king cobra!

I taught elementary school for many years and often sat on the floor with my young students. But I think this was my first experience teaching barefoot.

Carol Hartman