So I am alive, I promise! I am sorry that I have not updated all of you guys since being in Nepal.
Nepal is the fastest growing Christian nation in the world. For the first week and a half we lived in Kathmandu, Nepal. The first few days we partnered with missionaries here already who are doing amazing work. We were given the opportunity to pray for families in the slums and pray for prostitutes in an area where dark magic is practiced frequently. Then, we proceeded to remodel a floor in a house into a school for children in the slums. I will share more about that in a future blog.
I wanted to take you alongside of the life of a missionary in one week in Nepal!
Sunday:
7:00 we head out to the mountains not knowing what we’re doing or where were going. We follow a pastor into a mini-van. So excited, we all had our own seat we were prepared for a four hour bus ride to the mountains close to the Tibet/China border. However, about twenty minutes later we get out and are taken to a bus station preparing for another four hour ride. Imagine the bumpiest ride you’ve ever imagined and multiply that by two while there being no room to move! After the five hour drive, we made it!
Walking up the mountain with our big packs, we settle into the home we will stay in for a week! 11 girls cram into one room. We walk outside to view the beautiful Himalayas and hear the roaring river crashing into the rocks down the mountain. Looking to the right, we can see the beautiful snow-capped mountains of Tibet!
Heading downstairs, at the bottom of the orphanage, we all gather to worship the Lord with the missionary family and nine children after eating rice and lentils. The children are adorable as they sing us a welcome song and worship the Lord with us. Off to a great day!
Monday:
All having ONE bottle of water, we get told we’re going to hike a mountain that day! We eat some crackers and start off on the trek up the mountain. Walking on the road, we say ‘namaste’ to adorable street children, see goats jumping off of the mountain, and children as young as six carrying bricks on their back attached by a rope around their head to help their families build homes.
After three hours of exhaustion of climbing the mountain, we come to a Christian home that the missionaries knew. There we say ‘Ja-Maci,’ which means Praise the Lord. Priase the Lord, they invited us into their homes while we curled up under their blankets and ate some crackers. They generously provided us some hot tea. There we cooked some rice and lentils for lunch to satisfy us until we reached the top of the mountain.
After another short hike, we made it! The view was breathtaking. Surrounded by the Himalayas, we have time to worship the Lord while staring before us at the snow-capped mountains. At the same time a soccer, ‘football’, game is going on behind us.
Tuesday:
Waking up, I walk out to the balcony to read scripture. Looking down the mountain, there is a beautiful six year old girl next door who is washing her clothes and putting them on the clothesline. She then proceeds to wash all the dishes. Forgetting to use the soap, her mom comes out and scolds her. Then she just looks up and smiles at me.
Having a slow morning, I go downstairs to play with some of the children. This little boy wanting to be spun around in circles over and over again. He goes ‘run, run, run!” We spin in circles, screaming with joy at each other. This proceeds into a game of duck duck goose, singing songs, and teaching the children dances.
Painting time! The bottom floor is being turned into a temporary school. We got to paint the pink walls a beautiful white.
The missionaries we work with then asked us to pray for the school that they are trying to build for the orphan children they hold at their house. Trekking down the mountain with the children, we walk to a playground and the foundation for a future school. The children play while we pray over the place that will be a future school Lord willing. After we form an assembly line to hoist bricks down the mountain to the school to help the workers with the process of building the school!
Next thing you know, we are told they want someone to preach the next morning at church. The Lord prompted my heart to speak, so that night I got to stay up with the Lord preparing what was going to be said the next morning.
Wednesday:
Hiking up the mountain to a local church, we arrive at a house-church. Even though we were later, we were on Nepali time! The pastor told me that since I was preaching they’d wait for me! Walking into the two bed-room house, we started church. We worshipped with the Nepali people with Nepali songs, I got to preach on Luke 4 and temptations with an incredible 11 year old translator, and then we prayed together. Walking to the house next-door, we sat on mats overlooking the mountains to be fed crackers and tea with the other church members!
Later that afternoon, we head to another home-church and fill up one of the rooms. The pastor preaches in Nepali with no translator. We pray during the service and praise God for so many Christian brothers and sisters in Nepal.
Thursday:
Breakfast is at 7:30. We go downstairs and then are told it is at 10:00. At 10:00 we get some rice and lentils. We’re told lunch is at 12:00 and we’ll go to the Tibet/China border at 1:00 if there is a bus to get there. At 12:30 we’re asked if we’re ready to go on the bus to the border. We said that we needed lunch first; they forgot to cook us lunch. Then around 2:00 we have eaten lunch and head down the mountain to catch a bus. After waiting for about an hour, a vehicle that looks like a truck pulls up. Two of my teammates and I get to sit on the inside of the truck, while 11 others pile into the back and some on the top! Driving up an unpaved mountain proved to be a bumpy ride. Stopping, we got to see a beautiful waterfall on the side of the road and take some pictures. Then we proceeded to go to the Tibet/Nepal border. Getting out of the truck, we started walking and saw the gate that marked the border. People were trying to talk to people on the other side of the gate that looked like either family or friends who couldn’t cross. We were allowed to pass the gate to walk in the area in between the two countries. We could walk up to the line that marked China. Our ministry leader then asked us to pray for China. China is a closed country so it scared us, but she has done it before. It was an incredible opportunity to pray for China, where Christians are persecuted so often. Guards then told us not to move. We were so scared but then they proceeded to let us walk back towards Nepal.
We saw a grocery store for the first time in a week and all rushed in to buy some snacks and chocolate! Then we didn’t have time to get dinner so we were handed a little muffin thing and began the drive up the mountain. I never thought I’d die before on the Race until this moment when our truck seemed like it was almost turned on its side. We made it up the mountain to this small little house. We got out of the truck, put on our headlamps, and walked over the rocks to the house.
The night turned into worship, prayer, speaking words of encouragement to this church, a dance party with so many, praying for many for healing, and then they respected us so much they killed a rooster and cooked it for us! Praise the Lord we got some dinner. I got the rooster head! I guess it must have been good luck.
Driving down the mountainside in the back of the truck with a tarp covering us as a blanket looking at the moon, I was scared to death yet so in awe of where the Lord has brought me.
Friday
Our day off, whew! Some went bungee jumping off of the second highest point in the world. I got to spend some time with the Lord overlooking the mountains. Then played peek-a-boo with children down the mountain behind one of the walls of the house we were staying at which resulted in laughing for about ten minutes!
We finally got some food around 2:00 and then proceeded down the mountain to the rocks and the river where we got to read and soak in the beauty of the Lord.
At night, our team leader prepared an incredible Good Friday service. We got to reflect on the power of the death of Jesus and what the cross meant to us.
Saturday
Church day! We stayed in this village with not too many people. However, the church was packed! People trekked from all over the mountains to come to church! Sitting on the floor with children and women all around me, we began to worship the Lord together. Men sit on one side of the church and women on the other. Church worship had gone on for about an hour and all of a sudden I saw my team leader got sick so I rushed out of the window of the church (it was too crowded to go out the back!) into our house to check on her. Later, we realized we were locked in the house and couldn’t go back to church! Church lasted from 10:00-2:00!
At night, the missionary family prepared food for us to eat on the roof top. We got to eat with all of the orphan children as well as the workers there looking at the mountains. The night ended up with children dancing to ghengham style and African songs with us!
Sunday
Sadly, we had to do what we’ve had to do so many times this year already. We said goodbye to the amazing family and new friends we made the past week.
Thank you so much for allowing me to go on this adventure and allow us to be used by the Lord in ways I never would have imagined before. I will add more specific blogs later on, but I wanted to give you a brief view into what we’ve been able to do through your generous support!
