These past 6 months I have been waiting for a country or a ministry to steal my heart. This past month in Nepal just might have done it. I can’t really explain what has stuck out and made this place different from all the others, (maybe it’s just my attitude or the fact that I have more experience under my belt…), it’s just special to me.
If I’m being honest I didn’t even realize how large a part of my heart Nepal was laying claim to until these past few days. Our modest day to day activities hardly seem like the stuff that emotional attatchments are made of and yet here I sit thinking back as I try not to embarass myself by crying.
Seriously there isn’t a whole lot to report about our time here. This is what an average day here looked like…
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6:30am: wake up.
7am: breakfast.
8am: send kids to school.
9am: team devotion/feedback.
10am-12pm: grass cutting or jewelry making or candle making with the women.
12pm: lunch
1pm-2pm: free time
2pm-3:30pm : english lesson with the women.
4-4:30 or 5pm: play time with the kids.
5-6pm: study time with kids.
6pm: dinner.
7:30-8:30pm: devotion with kids and women.
10pm: lights out.
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See what I mean? Our team kept fairly busy but there’s nothing extremely out of the ordinary, nothing that screams ‘LIFE CHANGING’ or ‘UNFORGETTABLE’. We had a very simple and straight forward month of ministry and for some reason it totally wrecked me.
For those who haven’t read the only other blog I wrote about Asha Nepal let me explain a little about it. First of all everyone who lives at the house of rest is somehow connected to human trafficking. The women who live at the house have been rescued along with their children after being kidnapped or sold to work in brothels in India.
I’ve struggled all month to figure out exactly what to say and how to say it which is part of the reason why I haven’t posted many blogs about Nepal. Just like in Thailand I am struggling to communicate what human trafficking really looks like. Descriptions seem to pale in comparision and sometimes the individual stories are hard to tell, even in a place of hope far from the brothels.
Yet as our ministry begins to draw to a close and saying good bye starts to become a reality I am finding myself extremely broken up about leaving them. The other day our team had a day off and we weren’t at the house all day, when we finally made it back I realized how much I had missed it all day. I love sitting on the swing rocking back and forth with Elaina, Nomretta and Abisikka. It drives me a little crazy but I’m going to miss the hundreds of weed bouquets I recieve every day or the clumsy braids the kids put in my hair. I’ll miss our crazy study times and our sweet times of worship. I’ll miss the cooks smile and, eventually, I may even miss the rice and dahl. I’ll miss sitting on the floor with the women making jewelry and candles. I’ll miss seeing mountains on every side, the cool breezes and absolute beauty of Nepal.
But more than anything I’ll miss living side by side with the beautiful people at Asha who have overcome much as a community. I have been blessed to see them care for and lift each other up as their day to day trials continue through simple childhood struggles to major health issues like HIV/AIDS.
