In case you didn’t know, I’m from Oklahoma. Meaning I don’t really see mountains often. Or ever. So being here in Kathmandu, Nepal is mind-blowing daily. Our ministry this month is at Asha Nepal(Asha means hope). Asha is a home that resuces girls and women out of traficking in both India and Nepal. Our job here is to spend time with the ladies and form relationships with the kids. We were told about this Hindu temple not far from our house. I mean you could see it from our roof. We were told that our kids like to hike and that it was 1,000 steps to get to the top of the hill. So we set out a day to take our kids and go hike up the hill.
Nepal is a beautiful place. The countryside is like something out of a movie. A fairytale movie. The people are very sweet, like most Asians we have found out. Things are very easy going what could you not love about Nepal. However after talking to some “whities” the other day, it hurts how that view has to change. Each country starts out this magical place but once you find out what is underneath the mountains and hills and green country, it takes it’s toll on you. It has been this way for every country. The value of life here is very low. One of our new friends is an EMT working to train other Nepali EMTs. I’ll spare you some of the horror details but people killing one another and no one helping or caring. It’s like this everywhere, but somehow it seemed more heartbreaking here. People are trafficked everyday. People are killed everyday. And it doesn’t seem to really bother many. The religion all around us is Hindu. We have experienced Buddhists, Catholics, Muslims, Atheists and Christians all along the way and now Hindus.
As we started our climb up to the temple, after we had a stop at a nice little waterfall, I decided to play some music for the trek. Not sure what I wanted I look at the last song I was playing, it happened to be Gungor’s “Let there be light” off their Ghost Upon the Earth album. I decided to keep with that song since Gungor is great and a good calming song for 1,000 steps.
Darkness hovering
Grasping everything it sees
Void empty
Absent life and absent dream
Grasping everything it sees
Void empty
Absent life and absent dream
Let there be
Angels toil and crack open scrolls of ancient dreams
Countless worlds of his
Brilliant stars and breath and stream
Let there be (light)
Where there is darkness
Let there be light
Where there is nothing
Let there be light
Obviously a song about the forming of the Earth, but it took on this whole other meaning as we walked up to a temple that contains worship for hundreds of deities. Over the course of this Race there have been many times that I have felt the need to pray but could not find the words to pray. So I have found that often times songs, lyrics repeated over and over serve as a beautiful prayer. As I walked up the 1,000 steps I made this song my prayer. “Let there be light in this place. Where there is darkness here, God just let there be light.”
