Hey, It’s been a while!
I hope you all are doing well. As you may have noticed, I’m now in Nepal. We arrived Wednesday evening and as of this morning debrief has begun. We will officially start ministry on Monday. Also this is all-squad month so the dynamics are totally different. Very interesting living in a 4 level house with 40something people. I can tell already though that this month has a lot of fantastic, free-in-the-spirit things in store.
You will see below a few blogs I wrote but was unable to post while in India. Internet is very different. However, I think there’s been some intervention from the Daddy. We have our own WiFi hot spot at our location here in Nepal, which is why I’m able to post now. Still though, I’m unable to check my email. I can see what I’ve received but it won’t load…. So I’m just going with the flow for now.
There’s several people back home I’d love to check in with but right now God is making it very apparent that He’s got some stuff we need to work through this month. So I think it’s just a good opportunity to be present with what He’s doing here and not get distracted with the comfortable place I have with you all from home. I truly love and miss you guys but unless things change I probably won’t be keeping in touch as much as I had hoped. We’ll see where God goes with life. 🙂
Besides the spiritual turbulence things are pretty amazing. There’s been a lot of growth both on an individual level and as a team and as a squad. God is so good in His timing and His way of working everything out for the good. He has brought a level of unity, passion, and joy to our squad in such a short period of time- it blows me away.
The past day or so I’ve gotten to reconnect with some of my non-team squad mates. Sharing stories, hanging out, playing silly games, singing or dancing (of course), and eating semi-American food together (eg: ice cream, pizza, nutella/peanut butter, and as one restaurant put it “american breakfast”)- it’s been a great time to decompress and process through last month together.
Normally sharing (all) of my personal space would be hard, but I feel like there’s an unusual level of respect on this team and it really helps. The sense of community, generosity, and love is spectacular to be a part of….I could pretty much brag on my team forever. They’re some of the coolest people ever (and I fit in 😀 )!
We’re also located in a very happening area of Kathmandu, Nepal. This will probably the most adventure packed month due to everything being near to us (I mean we’re surrounded by the Himalayas for Pete’s sake). The city and mountains are absolutely beautiful. I chilled in someone’s hammock for over an hour yesterday and just starred at the landscape around me- good times.
Some potential adventures are hiking up Mount Everest (just partway of course), white water rafting (Lord willing- this is at the top of my list), bungee swinging, and zip lining. The great thing is that Nepal has one of the best conversion rates for us so everything is super inexpensive (1 American dollar equals 100 Nepalese Rupies). All the same we’re doing some research during debrief to see what’s actually feasible to do on days off. You’ll see pictures eventually. :3
Changing my tune slightly I’d like to make a request for my prayer warriors out there:
Please pray for openness, intentional vulnerability, and God’s presence to set the stage for whatever it is He has in mind. Also pray for healing. I’ve had some interesting stomach things going on (honestly I think it’s a side effect of fear) and there’re some suppressed areas of my past that God seems to want to bring to light. This is super scary for me but I’m trusting that He’s gunna do His awesome God thing and in the end it’ll be worth it because I’ll grow that much closer to Him.
Thank you so much for understanding my lack of reaching out and connecting. After I post this I’m going to check back about email and Facebook but if all else fails, you’ll hear from me when it works out. If there’s anything I’m learning to embrace at a much deeper level here is that you just gotta roll with it. Everyday life throws curve balls, the question is whether it’s worth catching or if you should just dodge it and move on with the game.
Again I just want to say that I love you all and truly appreciate the support from back home. Whether involved in prayer, financial support or passing the word along to others about what I’m doing, you guys are the bomb~ Seriously!
You all have a wonderful day/ week/ how ever long it is till we talk~
Please feel free to comment or message me. I promise I’ll get back with you as soon as I am able!
Love ya and God Bless,
Katie
