Since leaving India for Nepal almost two weeks ago, I feel like so much & yet so little has happened. First, I had to say goodbye to some very special children from the polio home at our India ministry GEMS (Gospel Echoing Missionary Society.) The joy and perseverance of those young children equally broke & filled my heart. I had some sweet moments of the Lord’s presence as I loved on those precious kids, especially as some recovered from their orthopedic surgeries in the hospital. I was able to pour the love of Jesus onto them and their families, praying for them and sharing sweet smiles and laughter (for more on these kiddos, check out my previous blog).
children from GEMS polio home
Although my heart ached to leave my newfound friends at GEMS, I could not have been more excited for what was to come in Nepal! From the first moment I looked into this year in the mission field, Nepal was one of the countries I was most excited about exploring. I couldn’t wait to experience the beauty of the mountainous landscape, the crisp clean air, the sweet faces, & the colorful prayer flags—I had this country of beauty & pure innocence in mind.
Before leaving India, we were faced with change as the entire squad arrived to spend the last week with us for a mini debrief. The challenges for me began as soon as the first vans of squad members began arriving. All of the sudden our “home” for the past month became a hostel for 40 other young people (also multiplying the smell, mess and noise exponentially). I struggled to find time during this last week to spend with the people who had become a part of my life & ministry in India, but the Lord blessed me with some sweet moments of ministry when I made the time to follow His voice.
At mini debrief, we were informed that our teams would be changing before leaving India. My team was dispersed in three directions, with Kate & Logan Brendel being moved up into team leader positions (Anne & I were placed on Logan’s new team along with 3 others, Kate became leader of an all-girl team, and Savannah stayed with Logan Brock.) The change was hard but good, sentimental but conducive to growth during this next season of ministry. A sweet thing happened & our new team was paired with Kate’s team for the month, allowing for a month of transition before losing my closest buddy & teammate.
my new team: me, Anne Cedergren (back)
Logan Brendel (team leader), Jessica Gasperin, Emily Adkisson, Michael Choi (front, L to R)
After a few days of worship and time together in India, all 45 of us boarded a bus headed for Kathmandu, Nepal. It was a long & uncomfortable 31-hour bus ride, but we eventually pulled into the Kathmandu bus yard where our ministry contacts would pick us up. Since we had just had major team changes, most of us weren’t really sure what was in store for ministry this month. We waited for a couple of hours to be picked up & taken to the house where we would be staying for the month. Our ministry contact was 12 hours away in the village of Ilam, where we learned we would be traveling to in a couple of days to do ministry. While it was rather unfortunate we would be boarding another bus so soon (not to mention we would be going 12 hours back in the same direction we had just come from in India), many of us were thrilled at the opportunity to get out in nature for a week. Images of hiking, sleeping under the stars in my travel hammock, sitting by campfires, and doing house visits in the villages filled my head. After a couple of days of rest, rejuvenation and exploring the city, we left the majority of our things at our house in Kathmandu and boarded a public bus headed for Ilam. We had our necessities on our backs, enough snacks for the bus ride, and the company of our ministry contact’s wife Rita & 10-year-old son. I was not super-excited to be on this well-used bus, with seat covers that had most likely never seen a washing machine & local men hocking lugies every few minutes… this was my glaring reality for the next 12-15 hours. Yay! As we began driving out of Kathmandu, traffic was thick and we stopped 8-10 times to let more passengers on. As we entered the stretch of winding mountain road, traffic came to a stand still and we inched along for around an hour. I looked at Anne sitting next to me & said flatly, “Anne, I’m just gonna pray.” I came before my Heavenly father and asked him to kindly grant me patience & a heart of thanksgiving, to surround us with his angels, and to keep us safe. I’m thankful I listened to my heart and sent this request up to my Papa, because pretty soon I would see it answered.
I slept for the entire trip, waking up occasionally for pit stops or to change positions. Each time I opened my eyes I was unsettled by the reckless driving, passing on narrow hilly roads, flying through potholes, and taking curves on what felt like two wheels. I tried to fight it off and go back to sleep—what could I do other than pray? This seemed to be the norm for driving in Asia: go as fast as possible, dodging all obstacles as closely as possible and honking your horn continuously. Around 4am, less than an hour from our destination of Ilam, I awoke to a loud crash & severe pain in my head. Our 2nd driver had fallen asleep and crashed into an illegally parked bus on the side of the road, sending our bus of 30-40 passengers into a ditch. I’ll spare you the details of the next hour, but let’s just say it felt like a small scale plane crash. A few locals were badly injured, but everyone survived and our teams made it out with minimal cuts, bruises and concussions. Our team spent the next 6 hours in hospitals, getting checked out and stitched up, while Rita (contact’s wife) received care for a considerable head wound.
As we began to process and share our stories from the wreck, it was amazing how many of us saw evident protection from God—some people had just repositioned to face away from the window, while others had covered their faces with face masks or pillows (protecting them from the glass of the shattered windows.) For the first time in my life, I was able to be joyful in a tragedy because I was able to see the Lord’s saving grace and mercy. It has been a struggle to not let this attack from the Enemy get us down, and we have been fighting off the physical and emotional pain caused by this event for over a week now.
As we heal, we are trying to reclaim the excitement and joy we had upon arriving in Nepal. I have had to fight to push the disappointment of missing out on village ministry in Ilam out of my mind. I was so looking forward to that time in the mountains, and I was not thrilled to come back to a 3-room house packed with 17 people. I am learning a lot about boundaries, compassion, patience, and tolerance this month. As an independent, organized neat freak who lives alone, it has been quite the challenge to joyfully accept people (and all of their belongings) in my personal space– I am learning selflessness, and praise God for it, although it is a slow and painful process! I just keep asking the Lord to give me more of Him and less of me, to continue to refine me and mold me.
I am thrilled that our team now has the opportunity to go to the Tibet border this weekend for one week of village ministry, with even more hiking than would have been involved in the previous village trip! I am so grateful that the Lord is redeeming the disappointment of our lost ministry opportunity in Ilam. I am so thankful to have wonderful cool weather that makes it feel like Fall even in Nepal, and the weather will be even cooler in the mountains~ we were told there will even be snow on the ground! We’ve got our base layers and winter hats ready to go, so bring on the wilderness and chill~ I’m ready to put that sleeping bag to good use!
We haven’t had a ton of ministry opportunities in the past couple of weeks because so much time has been spent in travel and recovery, but so far in Nepal
I've had the chance to…
be the hands of Jesus, lightening the load for these sweet girls as they collected water
from the neighborhood well…
be the face of Jesus, encouraging & praying with two believers
(there were 17 of us in this tiny bedroom, but it was wonderful)
and be the voice of Jesus, sharing of Christ's love with this non-believer
and telling this woman she's beautiful.
