A World Medical Mission post-residency doctor and his family adapt to life in Nepal and share how they're ministering to people around them.
Hannah Hough is living in Nepal while her husband works at Tansen Mission Hospital through our Post-Residency Program. They are both there to serve God and share his love in a mostly Hindu area.
“Shimran has another god,” our five-year-old said as he came in from playing with our Nepali next-door neighbor.
“Really? Tell me about it.”
The Hough family is in Nepal to minister to people like Shimran.
I proceeded slowly, trying to start a conversation and quickly praying for the words to explain the complicated culture and religion of Hinduism.
“Yeah,” he said. “It lives on a little shelf over her bed. Her mom got really mad when we knocked it down.”
Trying not to laugh, I attempted to explain for five-year-old understanding the differences in Shimran’s family’s Hindu faith and many gods and our faith in the one true God.
He has seen enough in our year in Nepal to realize that the world is a very different, very large place from the one he left in America. He has often had curious and insightful questions about race, poverty, and especially faith. He sat and listened as I finished by explaining that our God is real and their gods are only small figures on the shelf.
“I know that,” he said with the simple assurance only children have. “And her gods don’t love her,” he threw out as he ran off to play again.
Tansen Mission Hospital has provided an opportunity for healing to many people who wouldn’t otherwise have access.
We have come to Nepal with the Samaritan’s Purse Post-Residency program to work in the Tansen Mission Hospital and with Tiny Hands International, a Christian anti-human trafficking agency. Oh, and we’ve brought two children with us.
Our year here in Nepal has included lots of transition as we learn a new language, start new jobs and schedules, make new friends, and generally figure out how to function in a new culture. Our son helped remind us that we are here to serve without pretension, to do a good job, and to show the love of our God to those whose gods don’t love them.
