The man who stole the rice

I was in the last of three trucks in our convoy when the procession came to an abrupt halt amid mounds of debris thrown by last week’s earthquake into the narrow, pitted dirt road. Through the dusty windshield, I strained to see why we had stopped.

Ahead of us, surrounding the first truck, was a very large group of men.

While there seemed to be some commotion at the first truck in the front, I noticed an elderly Nepali man reach for something near the first truck, which was partially obscured by the second flatbed in front of me. Then the man began walking toward us, bearing what appeared to be one of the 25-kilogram bags of rice our people had so carefully loaded into the three trucks after sunset last night.

As he passed us, I wondered if he had managed to steal the bag of rice while everyone’s attention was diverted to the crowd of men blocking the road. I was in the cab of the third truck, sandwiched between the driver and his assistant, neither of whom spoke English. So there was no one to alert to what might have been a theft.

Suddenly, the tightly packed crowd began to move back and the first truck started forward. The second truck started up its engine and followed, and we came again last. The entire episode was, momentarily, a mystery to me.

It wasn’t until after the whole day was over and some of us gathered over dinner around an outdoor plastic table at a roadside restaurant (with a view to the hazy, distant outline of the Himalayas) that I heard the story.

We had been passing through a village that had been flattened in the April 25 earthquake. When the men of the village saw our vehicles loaded with rice, they swarmed the road to stop us and demand that we give up the load — 305 bags in total, enough to feed more than 1,200 people for a month. These bags were destined for a larger, harder hit village several hours ahead on our route.

The Nepal District accountant and church leader, a young man in his 30s with a deceptively placid personality in any other situation, bravely stood up on the bed of the first truck and calmly — but firmly — addressed the demanding crowd. He explained that we were Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and, through the support of generous people around the world, we had purchased this rice and determined through careful research that a village further up the mountain desperately needed this assistance. He pointed out that nonprofit organizations like ours, who are trying to help as many people as we can who are in need, might be less willing to help this village in the future if the people behaved badly and stole from us.

At these words, the men were ashamed and they backed away from our trucks. But not before the elderly man slipped in and pulled a bag of rice from the truck, then calmly walked away.

The Nazarene workers collected contact information from the crowd, who asked them to consider coming back to help them, as well.

Our convoy continued on to the Tindhara village, home to more than 1,200 people, 34 of whom were killed in the earthquake. It had been determined by a needs assessment conducted on Friday, by a team of 5 Nazarene pastors who rushed there by motorcycle, that 100 percent of the homes in the village had been destroyed. The people didn’t even have tents, and were constructing temporary shelters by pulling the corrugated metal roofs from the rubble and propping them on stilts made of branches or bamboo, then draping the sides with tarps and cloths.

Many had lost the tools they used to farm, as they were buried when their homes collapsed. Some livestock were also killed by falling structures. Several told us that their stores of corn, millet and rice were hopelessly lost because, in the mess created by their fallen homes, the grains mixed with mud and dirt and were now inedible. One woman told us her family had ingested nothing but boiled water since the day of the earthquake.

The group of more than 20 Nazarene pastors and leaders, including the NCM Nepal coordinator and the Eurasia Regional NCM coordinator), spent more than two hours handing out the 305 bags of rice (well, 304, since one had been stolen on the way), as well as oil and salt, to each family, determining the amount to be given based on how many people were in the household. The calm and orderly distribution spoke well of the team.

To my surprise, I heard later that the man who had stolen the rice pulled up on a motorcycle midway through the distribution. He approached the Nazarene team and apologized for the theft, and he handed back the rice. He had been thinking about what he heard when our accountant had bravely addressed the crowd, about how we were just there to help, and how this village was in such desperate need. He felt he must give back the rice and apologize. The entire team was surprised and thanked the man, who turned around and left.

We had departed Kathmandu at 5:30 a.m. We arrived at Tindhara at sometime past 12:30 and, by 1 p.m., distribution under the hot, dry early May sun was under way. The team put up a banner that announced that we were Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, and on every bag of rice, oil and salt there was a sticker with more information about our organization. Every family had their food by 3:30. We said goodbye and departed, our leaders planning to return soon to continue ministry to this devastated village.

The entire experience was a glowing example to me of Nazarenes’ care and compassion for the “least of these.” Only a few in this village are Christians, but the church gave out food to anyone and everyone, with no strings attached regarding religion or anything else. Also, I was impressed by the teamwork, the organization, the good communication, and the efficiency of the operation. Finally, I was impressed with how it was the Nazarene pastors and leaders who made the decisions and led the distribution; this is truly a local church, grassroots-led effort here in Nepal.