Nepal was an amazing, beautiful, hard, and truly transformative month for the members of 3rd Generation P squad, myself included. We are encouraged not to have any expectations on the World Race, but when I looked back at my very first journal entry from Month 5 of my World Race, it is clear that I entered Nepal with great expectations. Certainly they were not met in exactly the ways that I would have ever imagined or even chosen, but nonetheless I think that I will always consider to be one of my favorite months of the entire Race. Here’s an excerpt from that very first journal entry which I hope will give you some insight into the beginning of my time in a country that will forever be near and dear to my heart.
We are in NEPAL! Already, there is so much and You are so, so faithful. Lord, I knew something would be different about this place the moment that our plane landed. I think that perhaps I subconsciously knew even before then…from hearing Cait talk and then seeing how beautifully You orchestrated this perfect plan to bring us to Nepal against all odds. When I took my first step onto Nepali ground, You whispered into my heart, ‘This is it. This is going to be something special.’ Funny, it goes perfectly with the theme of what You have been saying to me over and over again lately…that You have chosen me, annointed me, equipped me, perhaps even created me,
for such a time as this. (Esther 4:14)
Lord, I have no idea yet what exactly ‘this’ means…but I am so excited for You to show me. I already love this place so much!
That was the theme of my first few days in Nepal – allowing the Lord to show me glimpses of what the ‘this’ is. It took many different and unexpected forms – like discovering a little Argentinian bakery just down the street from our house where to my great surprise I was able to use my Spanish to communicate with the couple who owns it…in Nepal, of all places! Not to mention the pure bliss that Kathmandu evokes in every coffee-lover who walks its streets to discover a cute little cafe on literally EVERY corner! Our ministry was incredibly meaningful and most importantly Spirit-led, my new team was (and still is!) teaching me more about the beauty of sisterhood than I could have ever asked for, and my time with the Lord was rich and beautiful and all of the things that a perfect, life-giving relationship should be. I felt quite sure that Month 5 would be a turning point in my Race, and in my life – the season in which I first found myself right in the thick of the ‘this’ that the Lord had spoken to me about.
The events of May 12, 2015 brought about a lot of unexpected changes in my Race and really my entire life – many of which I have realized I will not fully understand for quite some time. They did not, however, have any undesirable effect on my personal confidence that this is it. This crazy, adventurous, exhausting, fulfilling, and surprisingly normal life that I live – this is it, this is ‘immeasurably more than all [I] could ever ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within [me],’ (Ephesians 3:20) and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
