Nepal is just as you would imagine in
many ways, and completely different in many others. It has the
beautiful scenic mountains, which in Kathmandu where we are staying
are far off in the distance, it has cold dry weather, except for when
there’s freezing cold rain and you walk in it for two hours with only
a raincoat, and it has a mix of Indian and more Chinese/Asian looking
faces, but it has some unexpected things too. For example, Nepal is
the birthplace of Buddha and the religion, but over 90% of the
population is Hindu and devout at that. If you thought India was the
Hindu stronghold you may want to think again. Nepal is heavy and dark
because of the strong Hindu belief here. There are evil spirits
everywhere, and the battle is very real here, you can honestly feel
it at times. Every time the local Christians get together first they
ask for forgiveness for unrepented sins and then they drive out the
demons and spirits surrounding them. I’ve been attacked physically
just with sickness that has been on and off with different degrees of
severity, although I am completely fine now.
We’ve gone on several prayer walks,
most of the time ending at some type of temple be it Hindu or
Buddhist. And almost every time I got to a temple a sense of darkness
comes over me, or rather a feeling of heaviness, but I know that the
Light is in me and I do not fear. So we pray for victory in those
places and that the souls that come there wouldn’t find what they’re
looking for and know somehow that there is another god who is the
true God.
We climbed a mountain at one point,
which turned out to be an interesting experience to say the least.
Two in the group didn’t feel well enough to make it all the way, so
went back down, but in a miscommunication instead of getting a ride
back home got a ride up the mountain and met the rest of us at camp.
We brought our food in our packs on the way up, so the food may have
not kept well in the hot sun, and some of us reaped the rewards later
the night and the next day. The night was fairly uneventful. We set
up our tents, made a fire, ate, sang some praise songs, and just hung
out. Because of the number of people there I would have ended up
sleeping alone, but because of the freezing weather and the
loneliness of a mountain top I decided to bunk with John and Vinny in
Vinny’s new tent. Now Vinny was super excited about his tent because
this was the first time he was using it. So three guys cram in for
the night. As a side note, his tent is called a frog and only has one
opening. During the middle of the night a mild case of food poisoning
sets in, and Vinny pops. Luckily most of the puke makes it into the
corner of the tent, but it went all over Vinny’s jacket, pillow,
sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. So of course we quickly cleared out
of there, while Vinny pursued a few more opportunities to relieve his
stomach on some plants. After cleaning up as much as he could with
toilet paper and wet wipes, by the grace of God we climbed into my
empty tent to sleep off the rest of the night. In the morning Vinny
started to feel a little better, but it switched to me and I began a
downhill process. By the time we left base camp and headed down the
mountain I couldn’t carry my pack, so Kacie carried it for me. I
began to enter a fairly severe dehydration mode along with a stomach
sickness. When we got to the bottom we decided to stop at a leper
colony, which just happened to be on the way home.
I’ve never been to a leper colony and
it was exciting and extremely sad, first because it was a Hindu place
and we got to witness to them and second because of the loss there.
Raimie through the help of a translator gave the Gospel to those who
wanted to listen, and the rest of us prayed over people there. I
prayed over one man and I felt the Spirit strongly. There weren’t any
healings, but the Spirit was there. After praying the sickness came
over me and I ended up vomiting in the middle of the leper colony,
which is an interesting place to, but I felt so much better when it
had passed. I then spent the next 20 hours upon returning to the
orphanage, where we were staying and ministering, sleeping.
Our main ministry so far in Nepal has
been working with the kids at the orphanage we’re staying at, along
with house visits and prayer walks. The kids are amazing and are
being taught how to live for Christ. It’s awesome to hear their
prayer times, they are intense! These kids pray more fervently than
most adult Christians I know. I’ve become attached to a few in
particular and I know it’s going to be sad leaving them, especially
this little girl who hangs on to me every time we see each other.
This Sunday the 20th we’re
leaving for western Nepal where we’ll be building a church and/or
homes. I’m excited for doing some manual labor since we haven’t done
any so far on the race. I’ll post another blog about what that
experience was after we get back, hopefully before we leave for
Romania. Please pray for safe travels, safety while building, and
protection spiritually as we’ve been told the village we’re going to
may have people who deal strongly in spiritual matters and may try to
attack us. Sorry for the long blog. Take care now.
This a picture of Solami and I rockin’
out after she finished working on my hair.
