This week has been one of the most intense, blissful weeks I have had. It was such a beautiful gift from God that I will treasure. Can I share it with you?
As many of my friends know, I have a heart for missions and there is a part of me that dreams about being in another country and living there. There is something so beautiful to me about going to another country and becoming one with the culture. I felt like this week gave me a taste of that so whether I will actually do long-term missions or if God just gave it to me as a gift, it was a blessing.
It was so good. My half of the squad went to east Nepal for a week to do ministry. We had a new friend come with us that helped us translate and also came with so much fire and passion to encourage us.
I think this week brought me so much joy because I was able to put my roots deep into the people of this country. I am such a deeply relational person, so this meant the world to me.
Many a night and morning I would sit outside where we were staying and be swarmed by kids going to school or coming back from school. Because I was American, they would stop and chat with me about where I was from, what my name was, etc. I also would ask them their age, if they liked football, etc. These were such great moments.
As the week went on, I felt like I was almost apart of the neighborhood. One day I ended up playing badminton with some neighborhood kids before church. One night I had about 10 boys come talk to me and they were all fired up about talking about football, their favorite team, and favorite player. Everytime I would ask one of those questions, all 10 of them would chime in loudly. The next day as I was walking to ministry, I passed two of the boys and they recognized me from meeting them the evening before. Another great memory happened a couple times, but especially the first night. Six neighborhood kids and two of our hosts were attempting to teach me and a squadmate Nepali. The whole time I’m pretty sure they were laughing at our bad pronunciation–I mean, I was laughing at myself! But I can now ask in Nepali “What is your name?” (“Tapaiko naam k ho?”) and respond with “Mero naam Hannah ho.” It’s so neat to be able to learn a little of the language and be able to speak it. Itt is also just so much fun! I enjoyed learning the little I know and it made me even more feel like I was apart of the country.
I also became good friends with the local Christians. I now have a little Nepali brother as I like to call him. He is so talented at playing guitar and he and I had a lot of fun giving each other a hard time. He also was very helpful in teaching me some Nepali. I also became good friends with the older son and daughter of our hosts who work in the ministry. We had a lot of fun laughing, but also having talks about life. We also had adventures like crashing a wedding, riding on a motorcycle, etc.
In many of the evenings, we would worship, share testimonies, and have a devo. The first night we did this, there was a beautiful moment as we were closing in prayer. One squadmate closed in prayer in English. Another squadmate closed in prayer in Spanish. The older son of our hosts closed in prayer in Nepali.
Three languages. 1 God. Beautiful fellowship and deep relationships. All loving God and wanting to out pour on His people.
As we left this week, it broke my heart saying goodbye. I even teared up on the bus ride home the first few moments which is impressive for me.
But what a blessing to have a broken heart because I was able to build such great friendships.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Jim Elliot.
“Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”
And honestly, whether you are out of the country or in the USA, you can also plant your roots deep. Will you take the chance of a heartache.
