Tears for Nepal by Ginger Nicholls

In August, 2007 on the night that we were supposed to fly back to our National Messiah (NM) mission in Nepal, I had a dream. True Mother came to England and walked straight through the crowd of members to my couple. Mother asked us why we had left Nepal and what were we doing in England? I explained to her about all of our difficulties: my husband’s upcoming operation, our health and finances, about life in Nepal. With her loving eyes, she drank in my reply. She then encouraged us to return to Nepal and she gave me a paper with a list of Korean and Japanese names and said that these people would help us. The last thing she did was to ask me to sign for the time she had spent with us. She explained that she was accountable to heaven for how she spent her time.

To return to Nepal was our promise to heaven. We had lived on and off in that nation of over 30 million, sandwiched between the giants, India (Abel) and China (Cain) for over 8 years, since receiving our NM mission in 1996. We had then returned hoping to “recharge” our health and finances for 3 years in England.

We arrived back to Nepal in April, 2008, 8 days before the elections, in which our Unification National Leader, Eknath Dhakal, was elected as the sole representative of the newly formed Nepal Family Party. Since then much has happened and True Mother has recognized Nepal as potentially the first Cheon Il Guk (Cheon Il Guk) nation (Ideal Heavenly Nation of Eternal Peace). In 2010 we held 3 major 7 day Original Divine Principle (ODP) seminars with a total of almost 1000 participants and by the end of the year, a 12 day series of ODP content was shown live on national television and has been twice rebroadcast. Recently the Little Angels performance was covered live by the government’s Nepal TV and their 12 public events attended by a host of government officials, from the President down.

But the reality of daily life and lack of financial support is again threatening to force us to leave. We are trying to stay at least until 2013. We are the only elder Blessed Couple staying in Nepal concentrating fully on the Nepal Providence and especially the Nepal Church. Without wanting to be a burden to anyone, we humbly ask our worldwide membership and especially those in the

USA and Europe for any financial support that you can give. (I am American, my husband is English).

Sun Hwa International Academy

My husband and I have tried to commit ourselves to fulfil the NM mission in Nepal for the last 15 years running without asking for help. We have sacrificed everything to try to fulfil this mission, including our nations, our families, our mental and physical health, and investment in our own financial foundation for the future. Living in Nepal is a great challenge with the extreme lack of infrastructure and development — even in the capital city – but the internal challenge has been the most difficult.

Traffic in Kathmandu

One of the most difficult things is transportation. We need a car because I have suffered with osteoarthritis of the spine for 25 years and my husband suffers from asthma. The roads are very bad (even in Kathmandu), the pollution is extreme, and driving can be very dangerous. In the past we used public transportation and taxis. In order to get around, we have been using a 30 year old church-owned car for 2 ½ years that doesn’t have power steering. The engine stalls constantly despite efforts to repair it. It has no air conditioning and even the heater doesn’t work properly. It is dangerous enough to drive in Kathmandu because traffic rules are not followed and motorcycles continuously swarm through the streets cutting in front of the car from either side without warning, but with the engine cutting out each time we slow down, it can be horrendous. If the traffic doesn’t kill us, the stress surely will. Even with 36 years of driving, I refuse to drive in Kathmandu, which means my husband has to carry the burden. Cars are very expensive to buy because you have to pay a government tax which doubles the cost of buying a car.

Our 30 year old Toyota which has external injuries and a faulty engine

Concretely we need $600 a month to survive plus $600 for our annual visa cost and $3600 for the airfare to return once a year to England. (That comes to $11,400 total!) I am a UTS M. Div. graduate and I willingly accept that my life is an offering. My husband holds no such academic degrees, but he willingly offered up his soulful singing talent when he rejected a dream record contract from the music industry and joined the Unification Church in 1979.

Rear of our apartment. (Owner is building a room for a security person to protect us against thieves).

Children performing Nepalese dance.

One day, I hope to finish our book, “Tears for Nepal” which is a testimony to our faith in God and True Parents and their abundant grace. Please help us to help God, True Parents, and the members in Nepal to realize the dream of Cheon Il Guk.

Last year, a large banner for peace and reconciliation was placed at the top of Mt. Everest in Nepal by a Nepalese blessed member who had no previous mountain climbing experience and almost lost his life. It had been signed by True Parents, Hyung Jin Nim and Hyun Jin Nim, 12 Korean regional leaders, the Prime Minister (at that time) of Nepal, and the leaders of all of the political parties in Nepal, religious leaders and Nepalese Unification leaders. Our hope is that Nepal will become a source of peace reconciliation and hope for all.