Nepal Bound

Sitting in the Detroit Airport, with Aaron Esser, we are heading for New Delhi India and then off to Nepal.

The Canadian Vineyard has a number of participants that help support missions in Nepal. Over the years we have seen the number of churches grow to around 24 in the Himalayas region (India and Nepal). That group of churches is now called Vineyard Churches Himalayas

A number of years ago, in 1995, I met Noel Isaac with David Ruis in Winnipeg and felt like it was going to be more than just a brief meeting. When they started planting churches in the region River City Vineyard decided to donate $200USD per month to help foster church growth. I have had several invites to go and felt like this was the time.

We had a challenge to get this far. The biggest challenge was obtaining a Visa from the India Consulate. I went there before Christmas and they would not grant me a visa for multiple entry without having my itinerary. I did not want to purchase tickets till I obtained confirmation from Noel on our trekking dates and until I obtained a visa. That was a wasted 3 hour trip. To go to Nepal, you have to fly to India then Nepal. To get back home, you have to fly back through India which is two entries into their country. They have a rule that you cannot obtain a second visa until 2 months past after the first visa.

After our Nepal trip, we are going to Siliguru India for a conference. It is not practical or economical to get a ticket through the internet for a ticket from Kathmandu Nepal to Siliguru. Noel and his team instructed us to get the ticket when we arrive and they have good connections. However without the ticket in hand, the India consulate doesn't want to grand an extra entry to India. Also, they had several stipulations on visas one being "going to a conference" when I started down that road, they started to ask all kinds of questions like, where, "who's sponsoring it" and it seemed like a bureaucracy night mare so in the end, we obtained a dual entry visa into India.

After we heard back from Noel through Nathan Rieger, we booked the tickets. We were led to believe that we could go to Toronto in person, present our visas application and come home with the visa the same day. This was from a friend's experience and from the web site. Aaron went on Thursday and they told him they would be ready in 3-5 business days and asked him if he was going to pick them up or if he wanted them mailed. Aaron informed them we were leaving Tuesday and that we needed them Monday at the latest. They told him that maybe Monday afternoon they would be ready.

The Indian consulate has recently contracted out the services so the applications and the passports have to be couriered to the actual consulate and then couriered back. Aaron did not realise this.

On Monday, Aaron accompanied by his mother Debbie Esser went to Toronto (3 hr trip) to pick up the visas. Debbie figured that she could have more of an effect with that motherly authority look. They arrived at 10am and found out that the visas and passports were not on site and that they could come back at 6:30pm and hopefully they will be there. At this point, we are looking at a possible $500 each ticket change. We had a number of people praying and sure enough, the visas were amongst the items in the 6pm courier delivery.

So they arrived back in Sarnia at 10pm and Aaron and I left around 10:30 to Detroit (you know, we always like to give lots of time in advance in case something goes wrong :)). We arrived at our "park n fly" hotel at 1am, got up at 8am and off to the airport at 9am. Thank you Lord.