It’s cold and dark.
That would be my response to anyone’s questions.
“How’s Nepal?It’s cold and dark.”
I really don’t know what else to say. Because it was, cold and dark.
But let me explain…
For the northern hemisphere, the December days are short. This is well known to all who call that hemisphere their home. But more than that, Kathmandu was a valley completely surrounded by foothills.
Sidenote: foothills in Nepal are what we would call mountains in the Shenandoah or Appalachain region. But in Nepal, the “foothills” don’t even compare to their sharply-edged snow-blanketed Himalayan mountain ranges seen as a background to the foothills. So they’re called foothills.
Back to the Kathmandu … Due to the nature of the valley, the sun disappears behind the foothills decently early in the afternoon, making the days even shorter. Thus, my memory of Nepal recalls darkness for the greater amount of time we were there.
But also, it was cold. Yet, it was solely deemed cold by its relativity to various factors. For instance, we just spent the previous month in India, none of us had a decent wardrobe for colder weather (besides that Patagonia quarter-zip and raincoat, the key to warmth was layering), our apartment for the month had no space heater and the gas tank to our bathroom water heater ran out in the first week (also, there was a gas shortage in the Kathmandu Valley for the entirety of the month). The cold I experienced in Nepal was nothing compared to those snowy frigid days I spent crossing the Drillfield at Virginia Tech where the icy wind blows in every direction to pierce the face just so, but the cold we did experience was ever constant, exposing us to an enduring cold that seeped into our bones. Granted, the sun warmed us during the day (cue the shedding of layers), but once the sun dropped, and it sank down quickly, the cold settled in yet again. (It’s worth mentioning that the apartment building we were living in was built from thick concrete thus allowing the cold to linger inside the house even as the outside atmosphere was toasting the surface).
So Nepal was cold and dark. But that answers remains insufficient as it is a gross misrepresentation of the love and warmth we felt from the Nepali people and culture.
I could tell you of the remarkable community of the Bhaktapur Messiah Church and how they adopted us westerners as family. I could share with you the dear friends I made in that church who taught me Nepali dance. I could inspire by telling you of Bipin and Sarah, revivalists who walk in the intentionality of the Spirit daily. I could relay to you everything I learned by spending a whole day visiting refugees from Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. But I know that at the end of it all, my words would never fully express the immense love we experienced in Nepal. And yet, I guess this is my attempt to do just that.
We were foreigners there, strangers in a strange land. And yet, we were made to feel right at home. Nepal is used to welcoming outsiders. It’s the apex for people who are amidst a quest to find more from their existence. Spirituality is everywhere in that land and citizens of the world travel long and far to discover their enlightenment. And despite this, or perhaps because of this, the Christian community there is on fire! They live amongst those that are blind to truth, they meet those that are unaware that they’re seeking a Savior in Christ Jesus, they are surrounded by empty rituals directed towards physical idols. But this is nothing new to the people that have always belonged to our God. Even so, these Nepalese Christians redefine accepting foreigners as family. After all, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. That truth was ever prominently expressed in Nepal.
And I found that December was the ordained month to witness this love and warmth of a foreign culture. For I am certain that the holiday season, centered around the faithfulness of our God to send His Son to our earth to be a Savior, well exposed that love and warmth at heightened levels. At a time when it is easy to let one’s mind wander to a place it’s always considered home, I found that home is where the Body of Christ is.
All month long, we shared the Christmas story with a variety of audiences. And with every retelling, we closed declaring that Jesus was and is and will forever be the light of the world.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…The true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become childre3n of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” –John 1:1-5, 9-13
So Nepal was cold. And dark. But the darkness will never be able to outweigh the Light that pronounces itself in the land that is blessed by the majesty of God displayed by the towering, domineering landscape.
