PRAISE THE LORD!
The last few weeks here in Nepal have been amazing and so full. From the moment we arrived at our ministry home for the month, God has been working! I have been meaning to post a blog long before now, but I just can’t seem to collect my thoughts well enough to get one together. So far on the race, I would have to say month 3 has been the busiest and ministry packed, exhausting and rewarding, hard and challenging but so much growth through it, and relationships being built that go so deep.
Week one… We experienced ministry and prayer done at a few different temples. Plowing ground for seed to be sown throughout the city of Kathmandu and working together as a squad. The first temple we visited was quite the trek but the view was absolutely amazing! Coming back down, we witnessed some locals from Nepal getting baptized…which then turned into three of our own from the squad getting baptized themselves! It was such an amazing moment for our squad, celebrating together for what God is doing in the lives of those on this race!
Our squad was divided into teams and we had the opportunity to visit both a Hindu and a Buddhist temple. We sat around it and prayed, listening to the Lord and declaring freedom over the people and environment. It was very eye opening, surrounded by so many false and dead gods that so many put their trust in and believe will heal or answer prayers. I had experienced quite a bit of this during my visits in India, many shrines were set up and temples everywhere, but to be able to stand there with some of my squad and declare victory in Christ and freedom in the city of Kathmandu was such an amazing feeling of its own. When two or more come together and declare with authority Christ and His power to free those bound in chains, you can almost feel the ground shake!
Intentional quiet time in prayer = Amad. This is every morning of ministry for an hour done as a squad. It’s an awesome time to really dive deep into prayer and the Word, journaling anything and everything God puts on my heart. Seeking Him in the quiet moment separated from the world. After that hour, we spend an hour in worship as a squad…listening to music, playing and singing, listening prayer, etc. With this being all squad month, it is definitely a different dynamic of things but I love how intentional we have been with getting to know those on our squad who are not on our own team.
Our squad was again divided into teams for two days, switching out with visiting two different slums. When we walked into those slums, we already had a heart of prayer and readiness to love on and minister to anyone God put in our path. It was such a humbling experience witnessing my squad mates working in the gifts God gave them, no fear but complete faith that the people will receive and understand the truth of the gospel for themselves. It was such a blessing to stand there and love on the children of the slums, dancing and throwing them up in the air, twirling and playing and laughing! One of the girls gave them a piece of candy and their faces lit up. One more place in Nepal to always lift up in prayer by name, having the beautiful faces in my memory and heart, and trusting the lives to the Lord.
We spent three days in the mountains coming alongside to help build a community of 65 homes for victims of the earthquake that hit hard in 2015. We physically worked to bring beauty and new life to the homes that soon would hold hurting and struggling people who God loves so dearly. As we spent each morning, afternoon, and evening shoveling out dirt and leveling the ground around the homes, I couldn’t help but see that God was using this time for us to sow seeds of truth and eternal life and anoint this community with the presence of God. At the end of our visit, we hiked an hour down the mountain to meet the buses that would take us back to our ministry home. After we reached the bottom and enjoyed some doughnuts and milk tea, our worship team jumped into the bed of a truck and we had church right there! It was so amazing, worshiping and praising God as the locals walked by and soaked up what was in the atmosphere.
This month has been full of so much ministry, walking everywhere we needed to go and meeting so many people along the way. God has placed on my heart a strong love for Nepal and compassion for the people here, He gave me a glimpse of the soft and often broken heart He has for this country. I desire so much for the bondage and submission to false idols to break free and all eyes to look up to the heavens and recognize the One Who made the mountains, ones that are the largest in the world and incredibly amazing to look at. I pray for freedom to fall on this place so heavily that when dancing is going on in the streets, it’ll be because people can’t hold back their personal spiritually opened eyes to Truth!
