Koth Gaun

While Bonnie was off to the market in Kathmandu. Karina, Alana, and I were loading into the church's Toyota four-wheel drive for a trip to another Vineyard church in Koth Gaun, (pronounced Coat Gawn). Koth Gaun is in the hills (elevation 6500 ft.) outside of Kathmandu. Raju, our gifted pastor, was again showing his other skill as a professional collision avoidance instructor, (a.k.a. an insane Kathmandu taxi driver), dodging cows, dogs, people, and other vehicles. The seven of us were comfortably enjoying the ride. We turned off the major road and Raju stopped in front of a small street vendor. A group of people approached the vehicle smiling and laughing as they talked with Raju. All the doors suddenly opened! These people were climbing in! Pastor Shyem, who was sitting in the jump seats with me at the far back of the vehicle, said that they were joining us for the day. But there were eight of them, added to our seven is 15! So they kept squeezing in. My somewhat comfortable seat was suddenly not so comfortable. Ahhh......the plot thickens. We soon found ourselves winding up a narrow gravel road. The road got narrower as we ascended the mountain. It literally was just wide enough for our land cruiser. The embankment went almost straight up one side and dropped steeply on the other. Add to this a severly overloaded truck, bad brakes, and a pastor who's aspiring to break the asent record and you get a group of people really praying their faces off. Within 30 minutes all praying stopped as we came to a stop at the end of the road. I asked Shyem if we were here (which in actuality looked like nowhere) "of couse not", he joyfully added. We still had another 500 foot climb. Just great!
Soon at the top we were enjoying the view from in front of the new church. I found out from Raju that we were here not just for a service but, out of people we had picked up, a prospective groom came with us. I was told it was an arranged marriage and that the service was actually an engagement ceremony.(Posted by Ken. -To be continued by one of the girls. Pictures below of Koth Gaun.)