After an awesome, adrenaline filled drive up a mountain in Nepal, we finally arrived at Kathmandu to meet up with our squad for a night. Kathmandu was great and Nepal is so beautiful. The whole time I was in India it never felt like it really sunk in. I never really felt like I was in India or going to be traveling the world for the next year. But a few days ago we were hanging out on a rooftop in Nepal soaking in the beautiful scenery around us and I realized that I am IN Nepal!
Our team will be going to Sarlahi which is located on the Nepal border by Bihar which is the poorest state in India and also the state we were in last month. I was happy to be out of India and had no desire to ever go back there so it’s funny how God works and we’re pretty much going back to where we just came from, but on the Nepal side of things.
We will be working with Nepali Youth Ministries. We will be going to villages to evangelize and educate people about basic hygiene and health. Girls here are typically married at the age of 12, and if they don’t get married or their families can’t pay the dowry than the girls are burned to death. Many girls are also victims of sex trafficking and prostitution and we heard stories last night of girls who refused that and were beat or killed. Many people here participate in hinduism or buddhism, and they even use animals and humans for sacrificial purposes. Hearing these stories and that these things happen here and are accepted and considered normal is hard to wrap my mind around. Ignorance really is bliss. When we were at training camp one of the guys was telling stories about some stuff he saw at one of their locations and he described it best by saying “It’s a blessing and a curse to know that these things are happening. We’re blessed by these people and blessed that we can help, but it’s also a curse because once you know this stuff is going on you can’t escape these realties.” You can’t just carry on like you don’t know these things are happening in the world.
Please keep our team and Nepal in your prayers. They have told us to prepare and be watchful of spiritual attacks from Satan since there is so much idol and demonic worship here which creates covenants with evil spirits. It’s going to be a hard month but it will also be very rewarding and I know that God is going to show up in ways that we’ve never imagined. It’s easy to wonder what the heck I’m doing here and get scared but I know that God is in me and He is far greater than any puny evil spirit. I know that my strength and courage comes from God, because I could never and would never do any of this on my own.
