It’s the beginning of the month in Nepal and I’m in a funk because I’m expecting to do sex traffic awareness stuff, but instead I’m at a Christian school where I cannot talk about Jesus. I was like okay God what’s the point, why do you have us here. Then I was thinking, the race is what you make it Laura and God has you here for a reason. So I prayed and changed my attitude. The school ended up being successful we painted the Lost Sheep parable and attributes of Jesus and when the children came back we were teachers for those few days we had them. However, my favorite part of the month was my ministry outside of ministry.
On the race it is extremely important to stay hydrated and drink lots of water. Our host know that water is important to us and we pay them to provide us with clean water. This month (especially the first week) the water was really thick, had floaty things in it, and tasted like milk. I was not able to drink it without feeling nauseous. So some teammates and I decided to walk to the shop to get some water. 3 of us got side tracked talking and walked past the normal place we would go and that was when God led us to the Waterman. He was really nice and added bonus was the water was COLD. You come to find that on the race the norm is room temperature water so when we find cold water you better take advantage of it. We went back the next day and he put chairs our for us and told us to sit down. While we were there God was saying I needed to be praying for them. God told Jaime they were the reason the water tasted weird to us. God told her he was ready and he was our ministry for the month. Our host is friends with the waterman and didn’t really have much faith that anything could be done with him and his family. Each day we would go and there would be a new family member we would meet. There was a total of 15 of them in 1 house. The next day we went back and he fed us snacks and his sons took us to their house to meet the rest of the family who wouldn’t come to the shop to meet us. They gave us more snacks and juice and we sang a few songs for them. Before we left we invited them to come to church on Easter and they said they would. We went back and told the ministry host and he said that’s good but he is a business man and will tell you whatever so you go to his shop. He told is that waterman had been saying he would come to church, but he never comes so i will believe it when I see it. It was discouraging not having the support of the host behind us, but we knew God wanted us there. We continued to go almost everyday to sit and talk with all of them and just bring Jesus’ love with us.
Well it’s Easter Saturday (which is the church service) and there was no sign of them. Jaime and I looked at one another and prayed for them to come. The family didn’t end up coming to church that day which is probably a good thing because the pastor and his wife washed the whole congregation’s feet and we did the Lord’s Supper. I don’t know about you, but if that were my first church service ever I would have been so confused and I would not have wanted to have anything to do with feet washing. I would have thought that was the gross and weird. I’ll admit I was a little bummed, but I understand.
Easter Sunday was the best day ever! It was the beginning of a new week at school and we all were hanging out in our room waiting for class to start. Jaime sees this little boy looking in our room and she says Laura they are here. I was confused and she said come on. We went out of the room and waterman was signing is 2 sons and 2 nephews up to go to the Christian school!!!! My heart was sooo happy! Thank you Jesus!!! You cannot openly talk about Jesus at the school but I know questions will arise and Jesus is going to do some work in their lives. Our host was surprised to see them, but was very grateful to have them. I think it shows that his ministry is making a difference in the community even if it doesn’t happen when he asks for it. God’s timing isn’t always our timing. We just have to be persistent and he will give us the desires of our hearts.
We go back again to the store and this time his oldest nephew was there (we had only seen him one other time) and he was talking to all of us. Jesus came up and I asked him if he knew who Jesus was. He said he knew that he was just another god. I told him Jesus was the most important and the only god you need. The subject was changed but Jesus came up again and his nephew told us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. We asked how he knew and he told us he read it in a book his friend had. Jaime told him that it’s called the Bible and we asked if he had one. He said he wanted one but couldn’t find them anywhere. We left really excited and asked our host for a Bible to take to him. The next day we brought him the New Testament and he was so eager to read it. Shelby asked him if he knew how to talk to Jesus and he said no so we showed him how. When Shelby finished praying he said oh it’s like a conversation. Yes!!! He gets it! We go back for our last time to say bye and his nephew came back and we asked if he read any of the Bible and he said he did and he talked to Jesus while he was reading…AHHHHH Jesus is so good!!! He is ready. I’m convinced he will be the first in the household and the rest will follow! Seeds have been planted and watered and are ready to sprout 😀
When your race isn’t like you are expecting don’t sulk in a pity party. Pray, get over it, and ask God what else he has for you. The race it what you make it!
