I’m sitting here in La Pana, a bakery owned by a beautiful Argentinian couple, on my last day here in a beautiful little country called Nepal as I type this.
My last day…in Nepal…already?!
I have so many bittersweet emotions, it’s almost ridiculous. I’m going to miss this country and the people here so, so, so much! As I said in my previous blog, as soon as I got off the airplane, I believe I heard God tell me that I was really going to love this month and how right He was. Well, that statement rings even more true days after writing that blog post.
I have learned so much in Nepal and have been challenged in different ways. I have seen the sadness and devastation in Nepal but I have also seen the love, joy and hope. There is beauty in the brokenness of Nepal just like in every part of the world.
I could bring up a lot of amazing memories in this blog and write about them….like….
When Jen got attacked by a money and he stole her whole bag of bananas…
When I visited families living in a slum-like area because their homes were destroyed by the earthquake….
When I went to my first Nepali church where the “untouchables” are and felt like I was entering into a fairytale world…..
When I fell in love with the people at that church…
When my old team and I helped rebuild a church with a pastor who has an amazing, incredible heart….
When we screamed truths and prayers about God on a mountain top….
The many times I got to spend time and build relationships with the amazing people in my squad….like at “Old Testament Prom”….
The Friday nights my squad and me got to go to Shabat Shalom and fellowship with each other and God…
Spending time at Ahmad and hearing the voice of God and feeling His truth and goodness every morning before ministry…
When we got to “go bananas” and worship with amazing kids at an orphanage…
Finding out this amazing bakery that I’m currently at has pumpkin bread….
When I found out I had lice in my hair….twice…
And so many, many, many more.
But what I’m going to emphasize in this blog, which I believe truly captured this month and the heart of the race, is a day my squad and me experienced called, “Faith Day.”
Our host planned a day for my entire squad that would stretch and grow our faith in beautiful, unbelievable ways. When we got to the Ahmad Center, we all were sitting chatting about how we felt as we waited for Brian, our contact, to explain what Faith Day entails.
Finally, he started to speak.
Brian explained that on Faith Day, we would go out in our teams with no food, no money and no phone-only water. The goal was to get a free meal, transportation and share the gospel. He asked us to pray as a team before we head out and ask God for pictures or clues so we would know where to go. So, we all did exactly that.
So, my team and I got together and began asking the Holy Spirit for clues and people who we would interact with that day. God began speaking to us and we began writing things down.
We all felt like we were supposed to go a temple, we thought maybe the Monkey Temple….some of the things that were written down were:
An American
Monkey Temple
Brown Cow
White Sign with big black letters
Two windows with two horizontal bars
Rainbow Shoes
Public Tap Water Station
Indian looking lady with a light pink flowy shirt with red lipstick
Upside down water container
There were more things we wrote down, but THESE people and things played major roles through out the entire day.
As I was walking back to the ministry house so people could drop of their bags and grab water, I saw two girls in walking directly in front of me in the distance. One of them just so happened to have a long pink flowy shirt with the same pants I saw in an image God gave me. They were holding tin water cans to go get clean water. I felt the Holy Spirit quicken my spirit to run after them, so I did.
She didn’t have red lips, but oh my goodness. This encounter was one of the most AMAZING encounters of my entire race, maybe my entire life.
The girls were Christians and in English their names mean, “peace” and “grace.” We explained to them how God had shown us that we would meet them and they were so amazed and encouraged. We prayed for them and then they started speaking encouraging words over us.
They told us, “God is with you and He is faithful. He will provide for you!”
They then shared with us that they are apart of an orphanage and they call the pastor and his wife who run it, “mom and dad.” They had so much love and respect in their hearts for this amazing couple. They invited us to come back the next day to meet their parents. I agreed!
The next day, I got to go with them to their beautiful home. The orphanage is called, “New Creation.” Their “parents” have such amazing hearts that are passionate about sharing the gospel and bringing hope to kids with no hope. The kids there truly love them and God and have so much faith in Him. My faith was extremely strengthened after meeting them. Please be praying for this family as they do God’s work, and the two girls I met because they are needing to go to university or get a job soon.
Now..back to Faith Day…!
After that amazing experience, the day just got better. I’m going to be brief about the other experiences we had that day, but that doesn’t mean that they were any less important or impactful.
We ended up walking around 2 hours, because of frequent stops, to Nepal. On the way, we went to a building that was owned by a temple that had monkeys around it. We were able to go and pray for a couple people in there. Afterwards, I saw a white sign with big black letters. That was a marker to show we were going the right way. Brian saw around three brown cows along the way and an upside down water jug.
We went into a couple restaurants and asked to pray for their business. A couple agreed, many didn’t. But that didn’t stop us.
Finally, we reached Thamel and as we began walking down a certain street, we notice there are two windows with horizontal bars. We thought maybe we were supposed to pray for a lady that owned a little shop under it. As my team mate began to pray, another team mate runs up and brings a woman who is from Switzerland. The team mate I was standing with is from Germany and she lived in Switzerland for a few years. We got to hear Jen, my team mate, share the gospel with her in her native tongue. It was AMAZING! And that lady….yeah…she had on rainbow shoes.
After that experience, we decided to walk to a bakery called Hot Breads that is next to the hostel we stayed at the beginning of the month to see if they would give us any free food. Well, when we get there, we see a squad mate who just happens to be American. After we see her, we go in, and the awesome employee gets permission to give us a Vegetable Sub and cut it up for us to eat. After that, we go outside to chat with the other team that was there…and lo and behold…they were given $120.00 AMERICAN USD…and they were able to give us some of that to get more food and transportation home.
Wild, right?
We serve such an amazing, personal and adventurous God. He is so real, guys. My faith grew so much on that day..hence the name, “Faith Day.”
Later that night, however, truly tested me. My team, along with two other teams found out that there were going to be a few changes.
Team changes.
The guys on my squad are going to be doing “manistry” for the next two months…and therefore that meant team changes for us girls. The three other girls that were on my previous team and I got split up…and that was so hard. I just had felt like I had gotten truly close to the girls on my team this past month, and now we were splitting up. Even though that was really hard, I also had peace. I love all the girls on my new team.
I know that God planned this for a reason. I’m not going to lie and say my heart isn’t still grieving the separation, but I will say a part of me is excited for this new season. My new team is called, “Soturi” which is a Finnish word for “warrior.”
So this is a new season, with a new team of people and the journey to a new country. I will no longer be in Kampong-Cham, but I will be staying at an orphanage in Phnom-Penh. Please be praying for us as we journey there later this evening.
If you feel led to donate, please do so. I promise you are sowing into good ground with what the World Race is doing.
I love and miss you all so much!
Sincerely,
Meraia
