The Full Report

Dear friends and family,

Hello. It has been sometime since many of you have heard from me. Let me catch you up to speed. Since moving out to Colorado I have been involved with the Student and Worship ministries at Prairie Community Church here in Firestone. After I moved here, I started assisting their youth pastor with teaching and leading the youth group. Through a course of events, I became the interim youth pastor for about six months. All of this was happening while I worked for Coca-Cola as a merchandiser. This included a ridiculous schedule of six-day weeks and an average of ten hours a day. At the end of the six months, PCC hired a permanent youth pastor whom I now assist. Also, I left my job with Coke in June of 2008 and started working at Safeway as a produce clerk. In November, I got a second job at a local bike shop doing sales and apprenticing in bicycle mechanics.

As many of you know, I have been on several mission trips in the past. I've been to Australia, Hawaii, Texas, and Mexico with groups from Calvary Chapel San Bernardino. I even went down to Mexico apart from those church sponsored trips. Now there is an opportunity to take part in a trip like none I have ever gone on before. Prairie Community supports missionaries all over the world. In places like Ecuador, Thailand, Nepal and even Michigan. However, none of these missionaries hail from our church and are only supported monetarily. Now we have the chance to send one of our own to support and encourage the missionary in Nepal face to face. That one is me.

I will be going to Pokhara, Nepal in February of 2009. There I will assist our missionary, Mohan, as he sets up and organizes a Frontier Missions Center. The purpose of the center is to train and equip Christians from rural villages to start churches in their communities. Mohan currently leads 22 church plant teams, all native to the people they minister too. After spending time there, I will go a long with one of the church planting teams into rural Nepal. The villages we will be visiting are only reachable by foot, bicycle, or motorcycle, as paved roads are few and far between. The villages we will be going into will be predominantly Hindu and Muslim communities. My role while I am there is to be the eyes and ears for Prairie Community by documenting and observing how Mohan is serving the people of Nepal. I will also be participating by helping with construction projects and bicycle repair.

The total length of the trip will be between three and four months, February to May/June. Since it is relatively cheap to live in that part of the world the bulk of my expenses will be my airplane ticket, which I estimate will be about $2000. The estimated cost for food, lodging and transportation is $1200. The current estimated cost for the whole trip, including visas, immunization, and emergency funds, is $3500. There is only one international airport in Nepal located in Kathmandu. There is a bus "system" that goes between Katmandu and Pokhara, which are 123 miles apart. A ticket for the "tourists" bus is between $60 and $80 one way.

If you would like to support me on this journey, either in prayer or financially, please feel free to do so. If you are wanting to send monetary support, please send checks payable to "Prairie Community Church" with "Serve Nepal" in the memo line to:

Serve Nepal
c/o Prairie Community Church
9993 WCR 11
Firestone, CO 80504

Thank you, and I look forward to telling you about my adventure when I return.

Grace and peace