Ten years ago this month, I left Yakima, WA and winged my way to Seattle, San Francisco, Tokyo, Bangkok, and finally Kathmandu, Nepal. It was a long trip but I was heading for adventure. I had signed up with Adventist Frontier Missions to work on a project in Nepal doing community development projects (digging latrines, wells and such.) and ended up as the acting country director for AFM Nepal. The experience was interesting and certainly worthwhile, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

Less then 2 weeks after I arrived in country, I picked up Dr Tim Howe, his wife Lynn, and their 3 boys, Paul, Barry, and Jon. The Howe’s had come to fill in at the clinic for 2 months and provide some medical care for the Huwas Valley, where our project was located.

Those first two months in-country for me were filled with new sounds, new sights and new smells. I spent many hours listening to the villagers tell me about life in the Huwas, and how we could help. I also spent a lot of time traveling between Kathmandu, the capital, and the Huwas, a two day journey by bus and foot (10 miles walking). While in Kathmandu, I was responsible for renewing the contract with the government to operate in Nepal. That meant shuttling papers back and forth from one government office to another. And lots of waiting!

But I always enjoyed my time back in the village. Life was quieter, simpler and for the first two months, the Howe family was there as well.

This past Friday morning, I saw a headline online titled “The Adventures of a Young Hospital CEO” and it caught my eye. Upon loading the page, I realized the article is an interview with none other then Paul Howe. He is now married, has completed law school and is working as the CEO of the Gimbie Adventist Hospital in Ethiopia at age 25. What a fun read. It certainly brought back many memories of our time in Nepal and it is great to see the Paul is now serving others in his work. The article is an interesting read and if you want to read more from Paul, he has a blog at http://gimbieadventisthospital.blog.co.uk/