And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

I think verse 9 is an important point not to gloss over. Jesus is saying not everyone will hear this message. Some, who aren’t in a place of willingness to change or be persuaded of something will let this pass them by. Let’s allow that to help us focus as we look at the passage.

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

Verses 3-8 account for the initial parable, taught to the whole gathering. If we take it just as it is it might be difficult enough for us to figure out what Jesus is saying. Thankfully the disciples were also clueless, so much so that Jesus had to explain it to them in verses 13-20.

And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

That’s a lot to take in. Let’s take each section individually.

Verses 4 & 15 – The Wayside

Jesus says that when some people hear the Word they are prevented from sowing it in their hearts because Satan immediately comes to steal it away. He does this by challenging the word (see the serpent in the Garden of Eden – “Did God really say…?” Genesis 3:1). We allow outside influences to affect whether or not we believe God’s Word.

How do we combat this? Believe it. It’s that simple. Don’t allow the lies of the enemy to challenge the authority of God’s Word. His Word is truth, but it’s only when you apply it and put it into practice that you learn that.

Verses 5-6 & 16-17 – The Stony Ground

The Stony Ground refers to those who hear the Word, believe it and accept the truth only until hard times come. A seed when sown in shallow earth will put all it’s energy into upward growth, but because it has no root structure it soon can’t sustain itself and will die.

To combat this we need to make sure that seed is buried deep in good earth where the roots have time to grow. We can do this by meditating on God’s Word, allowing it to penetrate our hearts. The more we choose to believe His Word the deeper that root goes, and the more anchored we are when trials come. We can go over and over Scriptures to get them engrained in our conciousness, so that they become more real to us than the lies we’ve come to accept in the past.

Verses 7 & 18-19 – Among The Thorns

The seed sown among thorns refers to those who get distracted by other things. This is a difficult one because at first it seems you’ve got it right. You hear the Word, you believe it, you plant it in your heart and you watch it grow. But the cares of this world soon get in the way, choking it and preventing it from yielding fruit.

This was a big verse for me. Around a year ago I was standing at my kitchen window looking out in the garden. I’d just been going through our accounts and was gripped with anxiety about how we were going to pay our bills. Things weren’t looking good, and I was beginning to panic. Because I’d begun to get to grips with this principle of sowing the Word, I did something I’d never done before. I asked God to give me a verse to hold onto.

Immediately the words Mark, Four, Seven came into my head. I looked it up and read about the seed and the thorns. I’d always thought this parable was about evangelism and why some people don’t respond. I didn’t know Jesus explained it a few verses down!

I continued to panic. I didn’t know what God was trying to tell me. As I looked out the window I heard God speak to me again.

“Why haven’t you bought a shed yet?”

I’ll explain: When we first moved into the house this was first on my shopping list. We needed somewhere to store the lawnmower, bike, garden tools etc. But when I looked at the price of sheds it got pushed down the list of priorities. Every so often I began to put money away towards the purchase of a shed but it always got gobbled up by other living costs.

“I can’t!” I exclaimed, before listing all the bills I had to pay and allowing myself to get more and more anxious. Exasperated, I began to read on, desperately searching for an answer to my problems!

Of course I came across verses 18 & 19, explaining that the thorns are the worries of this world. Immediately I was reminded of God’s goodness, how his name is Jehovah Jireh (The Lord will Provide) and verses like Matthew 6:26. The Lord was teaching me to trust in His Word, and not let “the deceitfulness of riches” steal away the fruit that has been promised to me.

Verses 8 & 20 – The Good Ground

Jesus finishes off the parable with the Good News. Those who hear the Word, believe it, and meditate on it so that it becomes real to them will see fruit in their lives. Not just some fruit, but “some thirtyfold, some sixty and some a hundred.”

It’s taken a year of journeying this out, but I’m currently sitting by my kitchen window as I type this, looking out at my new shed. It’s a significant purchase for me, and will serve as a constant reminder that I need to always remember who my God is, and not let myself be strangled and choked by the worries and stresses of life.

Days Four and Five

This one’s been a while coming, but spurred on by the need to recount our trip at church in a few weeks I’ve decided I’d better get my thoughts in gear.

So Days 4 and 5 of our stay in Mangan brought us to the defining point of our trip, the hike to Sangyong. Now, despite my expectations, we hadn’t done much hiking up to this point, aside from the morning of day 2. This one was a more demanding effort, and began with a 2 hour bus ride, winding up and up the mountain directly opposite Mangan.

The feast waiting for us at the top of the mountain.

Upon reaching the highest point that vehicles could reach, we disembarked, hoisted our rucksacks onto our backs and made it for the top.

As we began our hike we were directed to look on up ahead at a small crowd of teenagers heading down towards us. These young lads were from the church we were headed for, and had been sent down to help us with our bags. Wearing only sandals for footwear, they dutifuly lifted our rucksacks, some 2 to a man and bounded up the mountain ahead of us, only stopping on occasion to chuckle at the wheezing white people struggling to keep up.

At the top of the hill we reached a clearing with a small village and church building and were presented with a meal of root vegetables, popped rice (Rice Krispies!) and freshly squeezed fruit juice.

Our sleeping quarters.

We had been warned we’d be sleeping rough and were nervously prepared for a night under the stars or on a church floor. We thanked God when we were presented with perfectly adequate sleeping chambers, complete with beds! The girls thanked God that there was also a flushable toilet.

That evening we took a church meeting and prayed for the people of the village. Despite having a lovely building they had no official pastor, and meetings were led by the chief of the village. This was the only Christian church on the entire mountain, and supplies and discipleship materials were virtually non existant. The people of the village were very grateful for our presence, and it seemed everyone had turned out to see us.

Allan being presented with his ceremonial scarf.

I slept like a log that night and woke up in the morning to breathtaking views that were well worth the hike.

We were fed breakfast and then presented with ceremonial scarfs and home made bags as gifts. We all felt a little uncomfortable being honoured in such a way, but it gave us a glimpse of how much our visit had impacted the village.

Moses, who had at this point been guiding and serving us faithfully for 5 days, got up to say a few words.

“He declared that he had been inspired, and pointing to the surrounding mountains, said ‘I will go’.”

He spoke of the encouragment we had been to him, the pride he felt for his people, and how overwhelmed he was that we would spend our time and money to come and minister to them. He declared that he had been inspired, and pointing to the surrounding mountains, said “I will go”.

Moses loved his people.

For me, this was the defining point of the trip. If just this one man was inspired to go to his people and share the gospel without fear then it was all worth it. Knowing the heart of this faithful servant, and seeing his dedication and self sacrifice, no journey of his is going to prove unfruitful.

The return journey was a long one, and we were all very tired, but we had to stop off in the evening for one more meal at a neighbours house. Such was the people’s desire to serve us, we couldn’t turn down an offer to enter their home and spend the evening with them.

There were just two more days in Sikkim, and another couple of nights on the return journey, which I’ll cover in the next blog.

Carol and part of the family from the village.

A number of the parables taught on this day speak about this idea of seed, time and harvest. In fact, the parable of the sower (which we’ll look at in detail in part 2) is singled out by Jesus as being the key to unlocking all of his teachings (v13).

Let’s look at verses 26-27:

“And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.”

We learn earlier in verse 14 that the seed he is talking about is the Word of God. It’s important to note that in verse 27 Jesus tells us that there’s an element to this that we can’t understand fully – “he himself does not know how”.

“When we take the Word of God, and sow it in our hearts, it will grow and produce fruit.”

None of us really understands how a tiny seed, when planted in the ground can produce a full stalk of corn, producing in turn a hundred new seeds. But we know it works. Jesus is saying it’s the same with the Kingdom of God. We don’t fully know how, but when we take the Word of God, and sow it in our hearts, it will grow and produce fruit.

Verse 28 says “For the earth yields crops by itself”. In other words, the earth is designed in a way to provide the correct growing conditions for the seed. Taking that analogy of the Word as a seed, we can see that Jesus is saying the same is true for our hearts. On it’s own, the Bible is just words on a page – a dormant seed. It’s no good to us if it bears no fruit, but unless it is placed in the ground (our hearts) it won’t have the opportunity to grow.

The verse continues:

“…first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

This tells us that there are stages to seeing growth and maturity in your life. It starts small, then grows a little more, but eventually you will come to a place of fruitfulness.

“We might only see little bits of growth to begin with, but we can take heart in the knowledge that soon we will be enjoying the fruits of our labour.”

This gives us something to hold onto when times are tough. If we know we’ve planted that seed, we should have the faith to know that even though we might not see it yet, that harvest is coming. We might only see little bits of growth to begin with, but we can take heart in the knowledge that soon we will be enjoying the fruits of our labour.

We see this all played out at the end of the chapter. Verse 35 says:

“On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.””

Lets remember for a second that Jesus has just spend the entire day teaching his disciples about the Word of God, trusting in it and seeing it impact their lives. Right here in verse 35 we have a word from God “Let us cross over to the other side”.

What happens next is a real test of their faith. A storm hits the sea, and the boat begins to fill with water. The disciples, filled with fear look to Jesus to save them.

“But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.”

What was Jesus doing sleeping?! This isn’t some fancy yacht they’re in, it’s a small fishing vessel, that is rapidly filling with water. Jesus is probably lying there, boat swaying from side to side, water sloshing all around him. But he’s unconcerned. He just wants to catch some z’s.

When they awake him, he rebukes the wind, tells the sea to be still and then turns to his disciples.

“Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

“Do we believe what we see around us? Or do we believe that God is good, that he cares for us, and that he isn’t going to lead us to our deaths?!”

You see, Jesus had given them a seed to sow. “Let us cross over to the other side” isn’t the same as “Let’s see if we can make it to the other side” or “Lets go half way across and then drown”. When that storm hit, those disciples had a choice. Do we believe what we see around us? Or do we believe that God is good, that he cares for us, and that he isn’t going to lead us to our deaths?!

I believe that Jesus’ intention was for his disciples to take his teachings and apply them for themselves. They had the authority to calm those waves, yet they went looking to Jesus to rescue them.

How often do we do this? We know that God has given us the tools to deal with any situation – the Bible is filled to the brim with instructions, promises, wisdom – and yet we don’t use what he has given us. We give in to fear and doubt, and believe what we see around us more than what God has told us. And then we go running to him and say “Why aren’t you doing anything?”

In Part 2 we’ll look at the parable of the sower, when Jesus explained the reasons why we don’t always see fruit when we sow and how we can prepare our hearts to receive the Word. There are so many applications to this that I can’t even begin to cover them. But I can guarantee that if you can get this idea of seed, time and harvest it will change the way you think about things, how you view the Word of God and how you react to the everyday situations you face in life.

“The only way to know what has happened in our spirits is through the Word of God.”

The only way to know what has happened in our spirits is through the Word of God. The Bible tells us the truth about who we really are now that we have become a new creation. Our souls and our bodies still bear the scars of a life lived separated from God. By learning what God tells us about our spiritual selves we can begin the process of renewing our minds to this truth (Romans 12:2).

Ephesians 4:24 says:

“Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

The most important thing that scripture tells us about our new born again spirits is that we are truly righteous and holy. That’s a big statement, and quite difficult to get our heads around. We often fail to accept this as we look inwardly and see ourselves as less than perfect. But the Bible actually speaks of two different types of righteousness.

One type of righteousness is based on our own actions, and is most evident in our interactions with other people. It’s a basic “reap what you sow” principle. You treat people right and do the right things and you’ll come up against much less opposition. Conversely you treat people badly and you may lose your job or your spouse, or at the very least you’ll be pretty lonely. It’s important that we seek to live in a Godly manner in order for our relationships to prosper. But this has absolutely no bearing on our standing with God. Remember that passage from 1 Corinthians we ended part one with?

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Isn’t that great? Love keeps no record of wrongs. God doesn’t count us righteous based on good works. Whatever way we choose to live our lives, as long as we continue to be in relationship with Him we have this assurance. We have been made righteous in Christ:

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

“We should no longer feel inadequate, unworthy or too ill disciplined to live a Godly life.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that Jesus actually became our sin, so that we could be made righteous. And so if we know we already have that righteousness inside of us, we should no longer feel inadequate, unworthy or too ill disciplined to live a Godly life.

But what about all the sins I have committed since becoming a Christian? The fact is that none of us can live a truly holy life. Our souls and bodies will continue to be drawn into sin until we die (although the closer our relationship with Jesus becomes, the stronger we will become in resisting). But none of this sin can have any effect on your righteous spirit. Ephesians 1:13 says:

“…in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise…”

Think of a jar filled with the purest of water. Once you seal that jar you can roll it in the mud all you like and that water will stay clear. Paul tells us that in the same way our spirits have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. No matter how dirty we get on the outside, our spirits remain righteous and pure.

There are of course consequences to sin, and that’s what we talked about with that first righteousness up there. In the New Testament, Paul gives a lot of guidance on how to live in righteousness, and the mistake many people make is to create a new law out of it. But Paul makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians 6:12:

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful”

“When we stray from relationship with Him we take ourselves out of a position of being able to receive from Him.”

The truth is, we no longer live under any law from God. But if we continue to live sinful lives we aren’t living the abundant lives that God offers us as His children. He has so much more for us, and when we stray from relationship with Him we take ourselves out of a position of being able to receive from Him.

We need to learn how to worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) by boldly coming before Him in the knowledge that we are holy and righteous. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favour, because it is already upon us. And likewise, there is no sin that can cause us to fall out of His favour, because our spirits have been sealed by the Holy Spirit.

“I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness - the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Colossians 1:24-27

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

So says Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17. The phrase “in Christ” is used over 300 times in the New Testament, referring to a union or relationship with God. Paul makes it abundantly clear that once we begin a relationship with God, we become “a new creation”. This is what Jesus was saying in John 3, when he talks about being “born again”.

The natural response to this is “well I don’t feel any different.” But Paul isn’t talking about your physical body here. He isn’t talking about your emotions. He’s talking about your spirit, a term bandied about so much in new age thinking that nobody is all that clear on what it is. The Bible makes it a little clearer. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul prays:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We can see from this passage that we are made up of 3 parts: spirit, soul and body. The body part is obvious to us. That’s our physical self, the bit that you and I can see, touch and smell. It’s that thing that tends to decay as we get older, and we need to look after it to ensure that bits don’t fall off.

“We can think of our soul as being our decision maker.”

The scriptures also talk about our soul as being made up of our mind, our will and our emotions. Those three are also pretty self explanatory. Our mind is the part that thinks, analyses, processes. Our will is our “wanter” – the bit that says “I want this to happen”, “I desire to do / be this kind of person.” And we all know about our emotions – whether we “feel” happy, sad, angry etc. We can think of our soul as being our decision maker.

The spirit is the part of us that Paul talks about being changed one we begin a relationship with Jesus. Our spirit is the part of us that brings life. James 2:26 tells us:

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

In Genesis 2 when God created man, Adam’s body was made, but until God breathed into him the breath of life he wasn’t yet alive. The word used for “breath” in Old Testament Hebrew is translated literally as “spirit”. It was only when God gave Adam a spirit that he became a living person.

“Our life giving parts were dead, so we were literally being motivated by death!”

Ephesians 2:1 talks about us being “dead in sin” before we are “made alive” in Jesus. We know that we were very much alive physically and emotionally, but the word “dead” here is talking about our spirits. Our life giving parts were dead, so we were literally being motivated by death!

It’s important to know, however, that when the Bible talks about death, it doesn’t mean ceasing to exist. Our spirits existed, but were literally “separated” from God. Same goes for when we die. We are separated from our bodies, which die and decay, but our spirit and soul continue to live.

In Genesis 2:17 God tells Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God wasn’t talking about a physical death, but we see afterwards that Adam and Eve are separated from God, no longer having that union with Him. Their spirits, which had been joined with God’s “zoe” life or “abundant life” were now separated, and functioning independantly. They no longer had access to the full and abundant life that God provides.

Why is this important? It all comes down to God’s love. The Father, in absolute perfect love wants the best for us. He can meet all our needs, and fulfill even our deepest desires. He is motivated by love. If we are separated from that motivation, we end up being motivated by the opposite of love.

Galatians 5:16-25 describes the differences between walking in the spirit and walking in the flesh (separated from God). How do we walk in the spirit? By knowing that once we are born again we receive a new spirit – God’s spirit. In our spirits we are a new creation, a perfect, holy, righteous creation, motivated by love. We just need to play a little catch up with our souls and our bodies, and remind them of what love actually is.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Day Three

Our third day in Sikkim was designated as our day off – a chance to see the sights and experience the nearby city of Gangtok. As it turned out James had planned a full itinerary for us, including trips to an art school, a flower show, a cable car and the city’s oldest and largest church.

The first female student to attend the art school.

After a long jeep ride, about 3 hours over the mountain roads we arrived at our first stop, a craft centre and art school. After having a browse round some of the traditional craftwork native to Sikkim, we were shown around an art class, which contained first second and third year students, all practicing different crafts. Some were learning the basic rules of painting traditional artwork – lots of very firm lines and colours, with very strict guidelines. Others were doing woodwork, carving out intricate embelishments for furniture. Traditionally a man’s domain, the class has only recently begun accepting female students, and we even got to meet the first girl allowed to take the course.

The Orchid - the national flower of Sikkim, and the same species we found growing in our flower bed back home.

From the craft centre we took a quick stop at a flower exhibition, packed full of the official flower of Sikkim, the orchid. One particular species of orchid caught my eye. Back home we had found a little rogue flower growing on it’s own in our front flower bed, and never did find out where it came from or what type of flower it was. Here we were standing in Gangtok, half way round the world and there was a whole crop of them right in front of us. The official flower of Sikkim.

The next stop on our tour was due to be a cable car across the city, but due to high winds it wasn’t running, so we skipped ahead to a Tibetan Museum full of interesting insight into Tibetan and Buddhist culture. After stopping for a meal at a local hotel – which, incidently, was nowhere near the quality of the home cooked food back at the lodge – we were given some free time to wander round the main shopping street in the city. With the help of Moses haggling, Carol managed to pick up a couple of china tea cups with lids, much like the ones we had been using all week.

A couple of musicians who entertained us while we had coffee.

After we all congregated again we were led to the main Christian church in the city. While it seemed small, the congregation is so large that it regularly spills out of the doors onto the streets outside. There have also been over 100 new churches planted out of this base in the past 8 years.

It was beginning to get dark by the time we were picked up by the jeeps, and the journey home seemed so long, but still when we arrived back at the lodge we had another stop to make before bed. Dinner was put on at James’ sister-in-law’s house, consisting of soup and dumplings, freshly baked bread, and a sweet dessert that was almost cous-cous like. It was all we could do to try and keep our eyes open, but we were so grateful for the food.

I know these updates are getting a bit long and descriptive, but next time up I’ll move things on a bit quicker, as days four and five took in probably the most impacting section of our trip – the hike to Sangyong.

The view from a bridge close to Mangan - my favourite photo from the trip.

Day Two

A view from our hike.

Our second day in Sikkim began early for small group of us, who decided to take a hike further up the mountain to see the views and get a better look at the people of Mangan and how they live.

Carol and a few others stayed behind to rest up after an exhausting first day, but I was game for a hike. We were told before we left Ireland that there would be a lot of hiking, and in my mind we’d be sleeping pretty rough and hiking from village to village. When we arrived at the lodge and realised that was going to be our base for the week I was anxious to get out and explore a bit more.

Many of the locals would stop and ask what we were doing in Mangan, and enthusiastically shake our hands

Our guide, Moses, took us up through the mountain paths through small settlements and farms. A good lot of it was paved with stone steps, so it wasn’t too tough going. We met a lot of lovely people on the way, including stopping to pray with a local pastor and his family. Many of the locals would stop and ask what we were doing in Mangan, and enthusiastically shake our hands. They seemed genuinely excited to see new folk around and interested to know what our plans were. Those who didn’t speak any english just smiled and bowed their heads, hands placed together. I’ve never met so many friendly people. People back home bow their heads when they pass too, but that’s more about avoiding eye contact than showing respect.

These two girls invited us in to their home to pray for them. They were about to head off to a Bible camp in the local church.

After a thoroughly long hike to the top (Moses suggested it would only be about 30mins – more like 2 hours!) we got to see some spectacular views, and the sun came out and shone brightly and warmly for the journey back down.

When we got back to the lodge we only had a brief rest for a late breakfast and then we were off out again. The owner of the lodge (who we’ll call James) is a well respected person in North Sikkim, and has a position of some authority in the government. He had been invited as honoured guest to a cultural celebration that afternoon, and had invited us as his honoured guests!

It struck me how much a part of their culture the arts are, and how keen they are to preserve it and celebrate it.

This dance was the most engaging, and involved much drumming and horn blowing.

The show was a celebration of dance and music from across Sikkim and some other parts of India. It struck me how much a part of their culture the arts are, and how keen they are to preserve it and celebrate it.

I got to sit beside James, who was very visibly excited about seeing his tribe represented, and constantly leaned over to whisper in my ear, describing the meanings behind the dances and costumes.

Afterwards James was invited to deliver a closing speech, which he delivered in Nepali. It amused me to notice how many english words were thrown in the middle to make up sentences. After the speech, a representative took to the stage to thank those involved, and reserved special mention for us:

“We thank our esteemed and honoured guests for joining us today…”

She looked over to see Alan, head thrust back in his seat and mouth gaping. After his exertions on his morning hike, the dimly lit hall had proved too much for him, and he had fallen sound asleep! Esteemed and honoured indeed.

The Prayer Tower

After lunch, we were taken to what they called a “Prayer Tower” – basically a 24-7 prayer room set up in a house in the village. We spent a few hours there worshipping together, sharing encouraging words and praying for the people who had gathered. Not many of them spoke english, but those who did helped us to communicate. I got to pray with an elderly man who 15 years beforehand had been told he was going to die and there was nothing doctors could do for him. He had refused to accept the doctor’s diagnosis and instead held onto the promises of God. 15 years late he’s still going strong and devoting his days to praying for his people. Inspirational much?

By the time we were finished up in the prayer tower it was already getting dark outside, so we journeyed back to the lodge by torchlight, had some dinner and headed to bed. The next day had been designated as a day off to see some sights, including a trip to Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital city, which I’ll save for part four.

This little girl was sitting by herself waiting for rice to dry in the sun.

Day One

The View from our Breakfast Room

We arrived in Sikkim late Sunday evening in the dark, and were welcomed, fed and sent to bed. Day one begins Monday morning when we awoke to the sight we’d been hoping for – a clear view of the snowy peaks of the Himalayan mountains. We weren’t sure how close we’d be and how much we’d be able to see, but we were in for a treat. We were taken for breakfast to a room with a balcony, and no doors (which meant it was pretty much a covered outdoor room – very cold). How nice it was to sit and enjoy breakfast while looking out at the mountains.

A Local Buddhist Monastry destroyed by the Earthquake

That first morning we taken on a trip to a nearby buddhist monastery, a little further up the mountain. This particular monastery had been badly damaged by the earthquake in September, and so while it was sitting waiting for repair, the monks were worshipping in a nearby building. It was interesting to get a perspective of what the people of Sikkim believe in. The entire district was decorated with prayer flags – coloured sheets of cloth with the names of the dead written on them, erected on bamboo poles in the belief that the wind would carry the prayers for the dead to their god.

After the monastery we were taken to another lookout point and then to a small church in the town of Mangan. As it turned out there was a group of teenagers gathered there, preparing to head out for a 5 day prayer walk. What that involved I don’t full know, but we were able to pray and sing with them, and share some encouragement for their journey.

A couple of local boys who were hanging around the streets in Mangan

After lunch we were given some time off to recover from all the travelling we’d been doing. That evening had been designated for a church service in a local house. Carol was appointed to deliver the sermon, and she spoke on understanding our identity based on understanding who Jesus is. The message was delivered with the help of a translator, and at least one person committed to becoming a follower in the ministry time afterwards.

Now I can’t go much further without drawing your attention to how big a deal that last bit was.

For a few years now, Carol has found travel extremely difficult. She has suffered from extreme fatigue and anxiety about how that fatigue would affect her ability to deal with certain situations, such as travel and prolonged social activities. When we went to Canada last June, the travel there knocked her out for a few days, and the return journey left her out of action for a couple of weeks. This was not normal for Carol, who loves travelling and socialising, and has previously had no issues with long journeys.

In the autumn of 2011 we attended a course in CFC Belfast called Cleansing Stream, which dealt with various spiritual influences such as rejection, fear and unforgiveness, and the lasting impacts those things can have on your life. On this course Carol was prayed for about this fatigue that had been keeping her from fulfilling her dreams and goals. The prayer involved rebuking the spirit that had been quietly stealing her confidence and energy. It was a few weeks after this course that Carol noticed she wasn’t so tired walking around the grocery store. She noticed a new excitement and energy when a previously tiring social event would come up. She was able to do things without fear in a way she hasn’t been able to since 2008.

Carol delivering her sermon.

After 35 hours of travel over 2 days without sleep, Carol volunteered to prepare and deliver a sermon to a group of people who spoke a different language, at the top of a mountain in India. Without fear. She didn’t waver. She spoke with confidence.

I have absolutely no doubt that Carol was healed during Cleansing Stream. This is no less a healing than a blind person being able to see. The confident, fun loving woman I married had for 3 years been robbed of her identity, and now she has it back. The smile is back on her face, and once again she’s the life and soul of the party.

I’m aware that this all sounds a bit out there. Was there really anything spiritual about what Carol went through? Most definitely. Ask me about it some time. Better yet, ask Carol.

And so ended day one. In Sikkim, they are early to bed, early to rise, so 8pm bedtimes became the norm. Unfortunately we never did quite manage the early to rise bit…

Carol enjoying the scenery from the lookout point.

Our Base – Mangan, North Sikkim

While we did a fair bit of travelling and hiking to nearby villages our base was at a tourist lodge in Mangan, North Sikkim. Mangan is in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, 7 hours jeep ride from the nearest airport in Bagdogra and with stunning views of the snowy peaks of Kangchenjunga – the 3rd highest mountain in the world.

The Himalayan Mountains as seen from our lodge. Kanchenjunga is just obscured on the left by cloud.

North Sikkim is a restricted area, partly to preserve local culture and partly to keep the Chinese out! Up until 1975 Sikkim was a separate Kingdom, before India took control amidst growing tension between itself and China.

“We feel very priviliged to have been allowed in.”

For this reason, the Sikkimese people don’t really consider themselves Indian. Their culture is much more Nepali – they speak Nepali, eat traditional Nepali dishes and look more oriental than the average Indian. Up until recently no foreigner was allowed to set foot in Sikkim for more than 2 days, so we feel very priviliged to have been allowed in for 10 days.

Our Mission – Equipping the Saints

Before we arrived in Mangan, I don’t think any of us really understood what we would be doing when we got there. There was a suggestion we’d be helping with earthquake relief (Mangan was the epicenter of an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale in September 2011) but I think we were too late to help with that.

A church high up in the mountains. The only reason this church is allowed to exist is due to the Chief of the village becoming a Christian.

As it turned out, our mission was to minister to the growing underground church there. Christianity is outlawed in Sikkim (the area is predominently Buddhist) and so any kind of outward mission work is unwise.

We went from church to church, house group to house group and we shared from the Bible and prayed for the people there, as well as giving financial aid to those in need.

What we really felt was a connection being formed between Belfast and Sikkim, and we were constantly told what an encouragement our presence there was.

Our Journey to Mangan – Dirt Roads and Cliff Faces

After 35 hours of gruelling travel (3 flights and the aforementioned 7 hour jeep ride) we arrived at the lodge on Sunday evening and were greeted by our appointed guide, Moses. You’ll be hearing much more about Moses in the coming blogs, suffice to say he left a lasting impression on all of us.

A woman breaking rocks that had fallen during the earthquake with a small hammer. Her wage would be about 50p a day.

If you’ve ever heard stories of the way people drive in India, you’ll know there are no rules. Despite our friend Serenus suggesting there aren’t many accidents because “Everyone knows what they’re doing” we were involved in one (minor) accident involving a bus, another part of our group was involved in a coming together with a motorbike and we had countless close calls.

“Much of our journey was at a snails pace, scrambling over rocky terrain and avoiding fallen boulders.”

The narrow winding dirt roads up into the mountains were treacherous to say the least – on more than one occasion there were gasps of “Hallelujah” when our driver narrowly avoided tipping over a steep cliff! But credit to our guys they were able to handle it.

The roads are rebuilt every year, as during the Monsoon season they are washed away by frequent landslides. The earthquake left them in even worse condition, and much of our journey was at a snails pace, scrambling over rocky terrain and avoiding fallen boulders.

Our Stay at the Lodge – Hot Water Bottles and Rice

Colin and Dominic freezing their butts off at our lodge in Mangan.

Due to the altitude the weather was bitterly cold – we were rarely seen without bodywarmers, coats, gloves, hats and long johns on! Despite the comfort of our lodge there was no central heating, and the hot water didn’t work, so other than the odd wash from a bucket of water heated over a fire, we stayed dirty and cold! This did little to dampen our spirits though.

“The chickens in the yard seemed to dwindle in number over the course of our stay.”

Every day we were treated to a local delicacy, using home grown organic food. The chickens in the yard seemed to dwindle in number over the course of our stay and I think I consumed more rice in a week than I have done over the course of my life. But there was nothing overly spicy and they threw in some British cuisine just to make us that little more comfortable.

Throughout our stay we were waited on like royalty. The people of Sikkim have such a generous and serving nature, and they could teach us a thing or two about respect and humility.

Coming in Part Two

I’ll follow up this blog with a bit of a diary of events which will hopefully give you a better impression of what we were up to. I felt it was best to set the scene to begin with before delving into the details. I hope this is an interesting read for you all, but it’s useful even for my own benefit to help process the past few weeks. I think there is a lot to unpack from my experiences, and some of it might only come out over the coming months. Stay tuned.

Carol and a child from a remote settlement high in the mountains. We prayed for baby and mother as both were having trouble sleeping.

“I wanted something portable yet powerful, and with a good battery life to boot”

Four years ago, when I bought the Dell, it was the thinnest and lightest laptop available to buy (the macbook soon got reviewed and pipped it to this title), and my priorities haven’t changed. I wanted something portable yet powerful, and with a good battery life to boot.

I’ve been watching news of the Lenovo U300s since it was first announced a number of months ago. And while it was its more powerful bigger brother that I had my eye on initially, at over £300 cheaper, this i5 processor equipped version was as far as I could stretch.

What is an Ultrabook?

Ultra Thin Ultrabooks (Image courtesy of theverge.com)

The U300s is one of a number of new laptops bearing the name “Ultrabook” – a term coined by Intel to encourage PC manufacturers to rival Apple’s hugely successful Macbook Air. Rules state that to qualify as an ultrabook, it should be no thicker than 18mm and have a battery life of at least 5 hours. Samsung, Toshiba, HP, Acer and Asus have all released their own efforts, but it was the Lenovo that most caught my eye.

At just 14.7mm thick, it’s the thinnest of all the contenders (which for the most part copy the Air’s taper and general styling). It comes with an i5 processor, 4GB RAM and a 128GB SSD (an i7 processor version is also available with a 256GB SSD).

Look and Feel

The U300s comes in a “graphite grey” finish all over, with a darker shell than the interior. It’s a little darker than it appears in pictures, and less silvery than I expected, but once I had overwritten that expectation in my mind that didn’t bother me. When you hold it in your hands you really appreciate just how thin and light it is – especially when you compare it to a standard laptop. The whole body is made from aluminium, so it feels really solid, with no plasticy pieces that feel like they could break at any second.

“The Asus has razor sharp edges and looks like it wants to hurt you”

Compared to the Acer, which has a plastic body under a metal lid, and the Asus, which has razor sharp edges and looks like it wants to hurt you, the Lenovo has curves in all the right places, while still retaining a business like structured feel. I was somewhat wooed by the Acer’s silvery finish and cheaper selling price, but build quality and battery life meant the extra stretch for the lenovo was always going to leave me with better peace of mind.

Battery Life

The Lenovo is sold as having “up to 8 hours battery life”, but the best I’ve seen it do is around 6hrs and 45mins, and that’s with energy saver settings on and screen brightness turned way down. It looks to be lasting around 5 hours standard use, which is a little disappointing, but compared to the 45 minutes I was getting from the Dell in its last days it’s a relative lifetime. As long as I can head to a meeting without worrying about getting a seat next to a power outlet I’ll be happy. Even the thought of being able to travel into town without carrying a power cable makes me smile.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Screen

This is the first time using a chiclet style keyboard since I worked with a mac in 2008, and while it is taking some getting used to, it isn’t causing me any major issues. I really liked the keyboard on the Dell, so much so that I bought as close a match as I could for my desktop. But comparing the Lenovo’s to both the Acer and Asus it was clear that Lenovo had done a much better job. There’s no backlight, and while I thought that wouldn’t bother me, the black keys don’t reflect the screen like the silver keys of the dell, so it does make typing in the dark that bit more difficult.

The U300s Touchpad will take some getting used to (Image courtesy of slashgear.com)

The touchpad is a large glass type with integrated button, supporting multi-touch gestures, but I’ve found it even more of an annoyance than Dell’s. I think I’m just a mouse man anyway, but the button is loud and stiff and the gestures are hit and miss. According to reviews, the Lenovo has the best touchpad of all the Ultrabooks. I can’t imagine how bad the others must be.

The screen is typically glossy, which can’t ever be a good thing, and angles aren’t wonderful, but is as much as you can expect for a 13 inch laptop in this price range. I would have paid more for a matte screen, but at this size I wouldn’t want a bigger resolution than the offered 1366 x 768.

Cooling

For years I’ve complained about the decision of laptop manufacturers to put cooling fans and vents on the bottom of the machine. Who wants hot air fired out on their laps, or a fan that sounds like a jumbo jet kicking in when you have it set on a soft surface, blocking the intake vents?

“I’ve only heard the fan twice, and even then it was like a whisper”

Lenovo have placed a vent on the left hand side, and another hidden within the hinge. The U300s draws cool air in through the keyboard, and expels it out of these vents, leaving the bottom of the machine smooth and free of anything save an ugly Windows sticker (thanks, Microsoft). So far the entire machine has stayed cool to the touch, and I’ve only heard the fan twice during intensive tasks, and even then it was like a whisper. Top marks.

Final Word

The Lenovo U300s is the thinnest laptop on the market (Image courtesy of cnet.com)

I’m really pleased I went with the Lenovo U300s to replace my Dell. The build quality is second to none, it boots in 17 seconds flat and will last for a good 5 hours when out and about. While I’ve yet to do any major memory intensive work on it the i5 processor and SSD should be able to handle everything I throw at them in a quick and efficient manor.

The Acer, at around £200 cheaper, looked a good alternative for those on a tighter budget, and the Asus also gets good reviews, but is priced £100 more expensive. If you aren’t concerned about portability and looks there are better deals out there for standard laptops, but as far as Ultrabooks go, I’m content I’ve got the pick of the bunch.

(Title Image courtesy of slashgear.com)