[featuring Nepal] …from December
Umm. Holy smokes.
Christmas has passed, and 2014 is already gone.
2015 is now
here. (a new year “” say what?!)
It’s crazy to think
our time in Nepal is finished. It seemed so long but yet so short!! It’s always
hard to leave a place knowing there”s work left to do.
” ” ”
Our time in Nepal was spent with an aquaponic food
company. It is simply beyond amazing what is going on there! They are growing
lettuce by taking left over water that has been saturated with nutritious fish
waste. YUM YUM YUM! Since there are lots of power cuts in Nepal, this kind of
technology has great potential (especially once you cut out the need for
fertilizer).
Our time here, unfortunately, was not spent doing aquaponics
(the biologist in me cries). We were, however, part of the first attempt in
Nepali history to begin building a house insulated by straw! I had the pleasure
of bailing hay by hand with a machine built by an American engineer. It is
older technology but new to Nepal. It was CRAZY. I’ve never done anything like
that in my life, and I honestly can say I enjoyed it.
“manual labor DUDE”
Now you may be wondering why this is a huge deal. Well, no
one really heats their homes or businesses here, even in the wintertime. Everyone
here just stays bundled up 24/7. Our contacts said people even go to bed in
knit hats to keep their heads warm! So even the attempt to insulate a home in
order to keep it warm is a foreign/new concept for many of the Nepalese. I hope
it is a success because it was QUITE a chilly month!
THE PERSONAL part:
I can tell you this: Nepal left me thirsty. Leaving, I felt dry, desperate to hear from the Lord. I can’t help but think now there
must be the same desperation across the land of Nepal. I believe the people there
are desperate for a spiritual encounter of another kind. They seek it in wooden
statues, elaborate temples, and burning sticks of incense everywhere (which
kills after a while). What they have yet to discover is that which they seek is
a living being and is actually a “WHO.” It is Jesus, the Living God, who is actually
seeking them. It makes what Paul said to the people in Athens really take on
some flesh:
22 Paul
then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I
see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked
carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this
inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you
worship”and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.24 “The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is
not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives
everyone life and breath and everything else. (Acts 17)
THE COMMUNAL part:
I learned in Nepal that community is a tragically beautiful
thing. I say tragic because sometimes people disappoint you or don’t do all
that they’re capable of. Sometimes you go through crappy times as a group not
because you personally choose to or even because you deserve to. Sound anything like
the story of Job?
I’ve been reminded that forgiveness does not equate to forgetfulness.
Sometimes trust is broken and needs to be regained. But with any offense, we as
God’s people are called to forgive ALWAYS.
“ romans 5:8 Christ died for us EVEN WHILE we were STILL sinners.
(still oblivious and sitting dirty in our sin, Christ chose to die)
Forgiving someone does not mean I forget the wrong they have
done, nor does it mean I have to make less of it. I can still extend them a
second chance and hope to see a change. Growth is still their responsibility,
and I hope to see that in anyone claiming Christ. Sometimes you just have to
sit, wait, and watch.
Although it was one of the hardest months for our team, it
was also one of the best. We grew quite close.
Do I regret the hard times? No.
Did some of us mess up? Yes.
Am I still upset? No.
Does God have a purpose in all the mess? Always.
The world, indeed, is not in our books and maps. It is
composed of the people around us. My question to you, the reader: Will you love
as Christ loved us? Even
when you feel like you are justified in not having to do so? that is true Christ-likeness.
So Nepal. I loved it. God has such a refreshing presence
there, which is hard to communicate through written word. I am thankful God
brought me there. I am thankful for our contacts and their love. God has a
great plan for them, and I can”t wait to see it unfold.
