Lhosar Tashi Delek (Happy Tibetan New Year)!

Yesterday was the first day of the Tibetan New Year. Here in the Nepal the celebrations last for about 3 days but in Tibet the New Year celebrations last for about 15 days. One of the New Year traditions is making "khapse", a Tibetan fried bread.  This year our teammates were looking for a great way to reach out to their Tibetan friends and neighbors during this special time. So, they gathered our team and some of our close Tibetan friends who are also Christians and we made over 50 lbs of this khapse.The idea was to have us make the kapse in the shape of a cross. By doing this would be able to go around to our Tibetan friend's homes and share with them the importance of the cross and what it means for our lives. It was such a great idea and such a neat contextualized way to share with the people. It took 9 of us 6 1/2 hours to make all 50 lbs of khapse. Needless to say we were TIRED of kneading, rolling, cutting and frying but it was all worth it! Tibetans make this bread each year at this time and give bags of it to their friends, serve it in their homes, offer it to their gods and to the monks and lamas at the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. It is a very important part of their festivals. We have had a great time handing out the bags to our friends and sharing about the hope we have in Christ. You can read here more about Lhosar, it's history and traditions. You will notice that like most things having to do with Tibetan Buddhists there is a lot of religious practice that goes into their celebration of the New Year. You can also read more about khapse here.

Keane in his "betian" (Tibetan) hat, ready to make khapse

Our friend S-bu kneading the first batch of dough. They keep punching it down until it is packed and then they flip it over and continue to do it until it is ready.

I tried my hand at the kneading. It was tough kneading all that dough at once!

The khapse dough

Our friend Tham cutting out crosses. Tham ended up being the "master roller" and rolled out SO much dough for us to cut out into shapes!

The rolling, shaping, cutting, etc station

The cross shapes

Our teammates and friends (Lyndsay (L), Bo, (Middle) and Prasamsa (R)) using the fryer in the garage.

Summer (L) and Haleigh (R) with some of their shaped khapse

Me and Haleigh

Keane, Sophia (our friend's daughter) and Gracie. They had a lot of fun playing together and eating the finished khapse all day!

Ryan with Tham...more rolling and cutting!

Some of the finished khapse...ready to eat!

Some of the different shapes we made

A more traditional shape for the khapse

Our friend S-bu and his daughters on his bike. Yes they really ride like this! I know that in America this is definitely not allowed but here in Nepal seeing 3 or more people on a motorbike is very common and often they have several children on the bike too. The kids usually do very well and often you will see them sleeping on the back of the bike!

Keane, Sophie and Gracie with some of Sophie's toys!

We pray that through this many, many of our friends and neighbors will hear about the love of Jesus and come to know Him and find true, lasting hope, peace and salvation. Please pray for this with us! Thank you!