During our month in Nepal we lived in the city of Kathmandu. Our contact was Reuban Rai and his family who run Churches Network Nepal. They are in charge of running a bible college, bible distribution, planting churches, leading worship services and evangelizing.
During our month we had several different ministries. At the beginning of the month we lead worship services (preaching, singing, and sharing our testimonies) and helped Reuban with his bible distribution. People would come from all over Nepal (a friend of Reuban’s literally walked for two days to get to Kathmandu) to get a bible written in English. It made us thankful that we can drive a couple miles to our local Barnes and Nobel to purchase one with no problem or effort.
Then in the middle of the month we took a bus ride (16 hours) and hiked (5.5 hours) into the mountains to visit Reuban’s parents house. We stayed in a bungalow in the jungle and ate bananas off a branch while sipping fresh chai tea. We got to see the beginning of an orphanage and school Reuban is creating for future World Racers to finish after monsoon season is over. We then hiked back (3.5 hours) and had multiple uncomfortable, long and sweaty bus rides (about 25 hours, with Nepalese people literally sitting on us the whole way!) until we got to ride elephants and then eventually head back to our home in Kathmandu.
When we returned from this trip we started teaching computer classes to a month long bible camp Reuban’s ministry lead. We were able to sit down with the students and teach them anything from how to use Microsoft Word to blogging on the internet.
We had such a fun month living in community with Reuban’s family and friends and working with the other team that we could only celebrate one way with…
So on one of our last nights in Nepal we all gathered around the table and sang Christmas songs while eating mashed potatoes and cookies and drinking hot cocoa and apple cider. We later watched Elf and woke up the next morning for a secret santa gift exchange at breakfast. It was truly an amazing way to end a really great month.
Reuban and his family were such a blessing to our two teams, we could not have asked for a better contact. Reuban is a ball full of energy and life, spreading God’s word and love literally all over Nepal. His family was so gracious to provide us with freshly prepared food for every meal and beds to sleep in.
**Please pray for Reuban’s ministry and bible students as we have learned that Christianity is under attack in Nepal. It is becoming dangerous to be a Christian and even worse a priest. We can only hope that the government and other non-believers will open their hearts and leave them be to worship God as Christians.
Reuban is also always looking for bibles to be donated to his ministry site to distribute to his loving bible college students. If you are interested I would be more than happy to get you in touch with him.**
Here is his website for more information:
http://www.churchesnetwork.com/
