I am sitting here at a little coffee shop in Nepal, having some me time before we go to ministry this afternoon. We have 8 short days left in this beautiful country. I don’t understand how time moves so quickly. It’s so easy to just go, go, go, without allowing reality to fully settle in. I know that God is good, and so present in all of the work we are doing here, but sometimes it takes a quiet moment of reflection alone with a good cup of coffee in hand, to see his work in everything and understand just how perfectly he has it all planned out.
I am on this journey that God had planned for me, even before I was born. This may be what he was referring to when he constantly told me that he had more for my life than what I was living, though I can only imagine this is just the beginning of walking in his greatness. As I sit here, I’m thinking about the fact that he chose me. He chose me to go around the world and pour my heart into these incredible people, people of cultures I otherwise would have never encountered. He chose me to share the good news of his love with those that are searching for more; searching for love, for hope.
It only makes sense that the Ministry we are working with this month is called Agape Ministries. Agape means selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love. Agape love describes the kind of love Jesus Christ has for his Father, and for his followers. This ministry has chosen to live their lives and their community based on this concept. Though 1% of Nepal is Christian, love is everywhere, hope is everywhere, and most of all Jesus is everywhere.
So much has gone on this month, almost too much to wrap my mind around. I wish I could share individual, in depth stories about all of my experiences here and how it has all been so random yet so fulfilling. In place of that I’ll share what has brought my heart joy and hopefully that can give you a little taste of the greatness and love I see here in Nepal.
Love is:
- A potluck centered around community every Friday night with our squad and the whole ministry team we work with.
- Smiles and a “Namaste” from every stranger you pass.
- Walking miles and miles barefoot in the mud to meet a community of displaced victims of the earthquake.
- Spending the evening with Gale, an American Woman we met at the International Church on Sunday. She cooked us a fantastic dinner and truly gave us a glimpse of home.
- Living in community, sharing a room with 14 girls to one bathroom.
- Praying for a Nepali couple and their new ministry, to then find out my team is working with them during our first week here.
- Having a cold cup of coca cola on the floor of a church as we sporadically share messages from the bible with a new pastor.
- Your friends spending hours picking through your head, trying to rid you of lice. (Not once, but twice)
- Sitting in a woman’s shop as she shares with us how the Lord has radically changed her life after losing her oldest sun and husband to a fire.
- Praying for a little boy in the hospital with typhoid, to be informed that God healed him the following day.
- Proclaiming God’s glory on top of a mountain, overlooking Nepal.
- Laughing hysterically through broken English over tea and cookies, as we share stories about life on the floor of another church, with two pastors and a new friend.
- Singing the one song our team collectively knows to a blind and disabled worship band as they drum along.
- Praying for hope over a man who lost his wife to suicide, is suffering from kidney failure and is raising two young boys on his own.
- Spending one hour in Amad, a quiet time with the Lord before heading out for ministry.
- Joining together in prayer after feeling the earth shake.
- Visiting a slum of people that moved here from the area in India we just came from.
- The eagerness in the young boy’s eyes to learn English as we challenge him with new words.
- Crying with your squad mate, as they vulnerably share their struggles, the raw and messy yet oh so beautiful testimony of how Christ saved them.
Though ministry has been so random and different each day, we have found love in the patience we endure as we try to piece together what we are doing. The connections we have experienced this month, the ministry we are involved in, the people we’ve met, have all been so predestined by God. As I see how everything is so connected, I try to understand how he does it. I’ve come to the conclusion that I never fully will. He has a plan for each and every one of us. He has chosen us individually to walk out something so beautiful. Whether we see it now or continue to brush past it, he will continue to seek us out and show us that he has a plan and wants to use us. Whether that be loving on people the best we can, or boldly stepping out in something new, everything is connected in a beautiful way, all planned out according to his will.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17
