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'And I am with you now': Salvationist and Deaf advocate Celia King revisits Nepal's women of influence
Chairperson of Deaf Interpreting New Zealand (DINZ) and renowned Deaf advocate, adventurer and counselor, The Salvation Army Glen Eden's Celia King revisits women of influence in her faith journey - past and present - as she returns to Nepal.
Returning to Nepal has always been on my bucket list.
My parents were missionaries in Nepal and I spent three months as a teenager there. My time in Nepal had been formative in my Christian experience and one that I wanted to revisit.
So, in order to prepare myself before I went back, I read through journal notes my mum made while she had been in Nepal.
For many years I had regarded my mum as a 'weak' person, always in the background quietly working and seeming subservient to my dad. But as I read her notes, I began to see that what I had seen as 'weakness' was actually her greatest strength.
'I began to see that what I had seen as 'weakness' was actually her greatest strength.'
Rediscovering a mother's strength
While our father journeyed on to Nepal, my mother stayed behind in New Zealand with my brother and I as we finished school. The three of us lived in one bedroom at a friend’s house. My mother willingly looked after us (a teenager and a pre-teen at the time), our friend's children, cooked meals, cleaned the house and continued to pack belongings while preparing to go to a foreign country.
It cannot have been easy.
She was a woman of influence. My mother was in her mid-forties when she first went to Nepal, but still managed to learn enough Nepali to have conversations with the women at the leprosy hospital and to barter at the Kathmandu market. She adapted to training houseboys and learning how to cook Nepali style. Our meals of rice, dahl baht and vegetable curry were cooked for hours in the pressure cooker, and Mum sometimes sourced buffalo meat and food parcels that had got through customs without being pilfered.
She returned to visit Nepal when she was eighty, still remembered Nepali, enjoyed a good curry and continued to pray for the Nepali people until the day she died.
A woman who testifies with humble hands
'She had no fingers or thumbs, due to the damage of nerves through leprosy - yet she gave me a little purse that she had crocheted.'
Another woman of influence came to mind when I visited the old women's wards at Anandaban Hospital.
I met Miriam Kumari when I was fifteen years old.
Miriam became a Christian by listening to the church services that were held on the flat hospital roof. She had no fingers or thumbs due to the damage of nerves through leprosy - yet she gave me a little purse that she had crocheted. I still have it today - and am reminded of the joy this woman found in Jesus and how she told everyone she met about Him. Even though she was rejected and abandoned by her family because of her leprosy, she knew she was immensely loved by God.
It was a surreal experience walking around the hospital compound - some things had changed, but there was a familiarity too. It was like God was saying, 'Do you remember this? I was here then and I am with you now.'
A Deaf advocate speaking the language of love
I met a new woman of influence - a Deaf woman named Dipa, who is a great leader in the Deaf community and the president of the Deaf Association in Kathmandu.
She introduced me to a group of older Deaf people who had been hidden away in childhood because their deafness was regarded as a curse from the gods.
These beautiful people are all between sixty to ninety years old, and were learning Nepali sign language and how to write in Nepali.
When I left, each of them presented me with a small posy of hand-picked flowers, but it was their gift of friendship and acceptance in a shared Deaf culture that I treasure even more - a gift that didn’t need language to communicate.
A café changing futures for girls
'Sisters Program is a pathway into safe and fair long-term employment for young women living in Kathmandu. This program will address issues of human trafficking and re-trafficking.'
While in Kathmandu, I had the privilege of going to the The Salvation Army Kathmandu (known locally as The Salvation Mission) Sisters Café & Beauty - an initiative to prevent young women from being trafficked and exploited. I ran an Art Therapy session there, asking the girls to make masks to show 'who' they really are.
When Captain Laldinpuii Chhangte and Captain Richard Vanlalngahaka shouted me lunch in the café grounds, the standard of food and service was exceptionally high. These young women of influence deserve to be proud of the skills they are learning.
'Sisters is an oasis in Kathmandu that provides good coffee, quality fusion foods and beauty salon services. Sisters began due to the awareness of the struggle for young Nepalese women to gain meaningful employment.' - The Salvation Army Sisters Cafe and Beauty
A woman who chooses to give it all up
'...it’s not necessarily about doing great things, but in doing small things with great love.'
Another woman who inspired me is Susan Mendies - who runs the Mendies Haven with her husband Charles. Established in 1967 by another woman of influence - Charles' mother and Canadian Salvationist Betty Mendies (known as 'Mummy') - Mendies Haven is a home for unwanted Nepali and Tibetan children.
Find out more about Mendies Haven and Betty's legacy here
Betty was my parents' good friend, and her home and heart were always open to anyone - from royalty to the poorest beggar.
Susan now carries on Betty's legacy as her own calling, forsaking her lucrative career as a doctor to become a ‘mum’ and role-model to 20 children. I spent Easter Sunday with them and was amazed at how organized and cheerful the whole group are. It is a real tribute to Susan’s skills and her practical outworking of faith.
I am incredibly grateful to all of these women of influence, who each show me that it’s not necessarily about doing great things, but in doing small things with great love.
And just like my mum, I’m sure I’ll be back in Nepal one day and that the memories and experiences will continue to impact my life - right up until the day I die.
Article written by Celia King
Celia has a Master of Counselling (Hons) from the University of Waikato and has taught Deaf and hearing impaired students for twenty years - some of whom have additional special needs. She has been counselling for ten years, a Chaplain for Deaf in Auckland, and involved in pastoral care for over thirty years. Celia belongs to The Salvation Army Glen Eden.
Read more about Celia's amazing counselling work here: www.specialisedcounselling.co.nz
Find out more about Deaf Interpreting New Zealand (DINZ), advocating for the training and recognition of Deaf people as interpreters working either alone or alongside sign language interpreters: www.deafinterpretingnz.com