An intern's tale

Many short-term volunteers who serve with INF in Nepal are medical students. Susan Greathouse is different: a marketing student at John Brown University in the USA, Susan left Nepal yesterday after a six-week internship in INF's Communications Department. Here is Susan's story.

One of the first questions Nepali people asked me when we met was 'How did you come to be in Nepal?'

My answer was that one day at my university in the US I was passing through the student centre and noticed a table selling INF handicrafts, and T-shirts with the slogan 'go to Nepal'. I was late for my class, but stopped to pick up a leaflet that gave details about INF.

Spending six weeks in Nepal as a marketing intern in INF's Communications Department has been such a beneficial experience. I've learned so much from seeing how a Christian mission organisation functions. More than that, I've witnessed the way that INF impacts people's lives. What does it meen to be 'the hands and feet of Jesus'? I imagine it starts with knowing the source of all love.

During time spent in Pokhara, I visited INF's Green Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre, a place where you can see God's beautiful work of reconciliation. I met patients at the hospital affected by different diseases and disabilities. I learned that many patients with leprosy are not accepted in their communities because of their condition, and many come to Green Pastures, carrying with them a sense of rejection that most of us will never experience. I also witnessed women weaving bags with INF's Partnership For Rehabilitation programme - sitting and laughing with them was a joy!

What I learned during my internship goes far beyond anything I could have gained from my studies. Organisational and physical structures exist to sustain INF's work in Nepal, but INF's core mission to serve the physical and spiritual needs of Nepali people is a response to God's call to be His servants. The most important thing I'm taking away from my experience is the truth that as God's children we are called to a labour of love. We are to be living witnesses of Christ's infinite love in a world which is desperately deprived of love.

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