Namaste! (Pics)

One of my absolute favorite things about Nepal thus far has
to be the greeting.  Every time you
say hello to a Nepali, you place your hands together in a prayerful position,
nod your head in their direction and say, “Namaste.”  I find it much more enchanting than our typical “hello” back
in the States.  Don’t be surprised
if I come home and greet you in this same manner.  I’m pretty sure I’m adopting it and taking it all over the
world.  J

Saturday afternoon all teams dispersed to their ministry
contacts.  This month, our team
will be working with a ministry called Prison Fellowship Nepal, which devotes
their time and resources to helping men and women in prison, as well as the
wives and children effected by imprisonment.  In Nepal, if a child’s parent goes to prison and there is no
one on the outside to look after him or her, the child has to go to prison as
well.  Part of this organization’s
ministry is rescuing those children from the prisons and placing them in one of
their children’s homes.  Another
aspect of this ministry is providing a home and job opportunity for women who
have recently been released from prison. 
We are currently in our second week of ministry and staying at one of
these homes.  

This month, our team
will have a variety of ministry opportunities at three different
locations.  For the first week (Feb
5-10), we stayed at one of the children’s homes in Gothatar, Nepal.  There are fourteen kids in total there,
many of which had either been in prison with their parents, or were left with
family members that couldn’t take care of them.  There are eleven boys, mostly fifth grade and above, and
three younger girls ages five, six and seven.  Surprisingly, most of the boys spoke very good English.  The house parents, Kishan and Devi, are
two astounding followers of Christ. 
From the moment we met them, we knew they were extraordinary
people.  Kishan is 26 and Devi is
24.  They have a two-year-old named
Dishan, run the entire orphanage practically on their own, and both are currently
attending school to get their masters in Humanities.  On the very first night at this home, we sat in on their
devotion time with the boys.  While
in worship, the presence of the Holy Spirit was more palpable than I have yet
to feel on the race.  It was
unmistakable.   During this
time, the Lord gave me a word and a scripture to speak over them from Zephaniah 3:17 which says,

“The Lord your God is
with you, he is mighty to save.  He
will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will
rejoice over you with singing.”

After I spoke and regained my composure, Devi said that
someone else had spoken this very word over her when she was struggling and how
much it encouraged her.  She had
said at one time she could not remember where in the bible this scripture was,
and to have me speak it over her at that time meant a lot to her.  This really lifted my spirits.  I love when God uses others to speak
truth to his people.  This is the
reason I am on the race; to be used as a vehicle for Christ and share his
truth. 

On Tuesday we visited another one of the homes located in
Kathmandu where the main office also resides.  We were able to sit down with one of the co-founders, Dinesh
and learn more about Prison Fellowship and the influence it is having
here.   Until two and a half
years ago, Nepal was a Monarchy in which Christianity was not permissible.  Dinesh was a lawyer and served many
Christians in prison for their faith, and was even incarcerated himself for
preaching the Gospel. This was the beginning of his ministry, as God placed the
desire in his heart to minister to those in prison.  In 2008, as a result of a decade long civil war, the last
Napali Monarch was abdicated, and a federal democratic republic was formed.  This was a turning point in the
ministry of Prison Fellowship, as they were then able to begin building
relationships with the inmates.  To
this day, Prison Fellowship is the only religious organization allowed within
any the prisons of Nepal and currently has three chapels established.    

On Wednesday, our team was given the opportunity to visit
one of these prisons in Kathmandu. 
Kelly and Scott had an incredible conversation with 65-year-old French
atheist (you will have to read one of their blogs for that story), and Suzi,
Melanee, Erin, and I sat down with two Nigerian men and an American-Canadian.  All three of these men were already Christians,
however they said we were a great encouragement to them and were pleased that
we came to visit.   We were also able to arrange for a bible
to be purchased for one of the Nigerian men that no longer had one.  It definitely felt really good to be
able to uplift their spirits.  The
two Nigerians had been in prison for four and a half years and still had about
four left to go.  At the end of
those four years, each man has to pay $7,000, or serve another four years in
prison.  I can’t imagine what it
must be like to be locked away in a foreign prison for so long without any hope
for release in the near future. 
They asked for us to keep them in their prayers; definitely something I
all plan to do this year.

For the remainder of our time at the first home in Gothatar,
we taught bible lessons and sang worship songs with the children.  Since the boys spoke such good English,
we were able to communicate with them on a more personal level and really help
cultivate their faith.  We asked
Devi and Kishan how we could better serve them and the children, and they
recommended a few areas the boys were struggling in.  Scott and Kelly sat down with a few of the older boys and had
a good heart-to-heart, teaching them the importance of protecting themselves
from the work of the enemy, while the girls prepared a more structured lesson
on respect for devotion.  We broke
R.E.S.P.E.C.T into an acrostic and touched on seven areas of our lives that
respect should apply daily.  Below
is a picture of the acrostic and the bible verses we used to go with each
point.  I think it really made an
impact on the kids.  They seemed to
enjoy it.

On Thursday morning we visited the children’s school.  It was actually really interesting
seeing how school operates in another country.  It was very well structured and had classes from nursery up
to tenth grade.  We sat down with
the vice principal and had tea before visiting the classes and learned all
about its history and the Nepali school system.  This particular school is one of the best in the area and has
many students graduate and move on to upper level classes.  In Nepal, school only goes up to tenth
grade.  At that point, each student
takes an exam that determines whether they can move on to eleventh and
twelfth.  It is not required to
continue on this route.  Most
students that are serious about college decide to carry on through the twelfth
class.

Also on Thursday, the girls took a trip with Kishan to a
place called TouchNature where they make soaps, candles, shampoos, oils, and
many other products.  Both Kishan
and Devi used to work there.  This
Christian non-profit organization provides jobs for single mothers in Nepal and
even offers a nursery for women that need to bring their young children to
work.  It was remarkable watching
these women mold and cut the soap and package them for shipment.  We even bought a few of the items from
the shop-we couldn’t help ourselves! J

We left the first home in Gothatar on Friday morning at 5am
and headed for the Women’s Rehabilitation Center in Chitwan, where we currently
reside.  It took us a little over
five hours to get here, but it was worth it; the drive through the mountains
was breathtaking!  As soon as we
got out of the van, we were given jobs-it was great!  There are currently three projects being done that we will
assist in over the next five days. 
The first is a chicken coop. 
We spent most of the day Friday digging holes for the support
beams.  The second is a
fishpond.  They already have one,
however it is not nearly big enough, so on Saturday and Sunday we spent the
majority of our time moving large rocks into a pile.  The third project is a swimming pool for the children.  We will probably spend most of Monday
and Tuesday working on the fishpond and helping with the swimming pool.   We will be staying at this
location until Wednesday morning then heading off for Pokhara, where we will be
until the 23^rd.  Our
final days in Nepal will be spent back at our first location in Gothatar and in
Kathmandu.