11 things I learned in Nepal:
1. Christians are thriving in Nepal
Like I mentioned in my last blog, Nepal has the highest growing rate of Christians in the world right now. That blows my mind! Even though their number is growing, the country is still dominated by the Hindu faith. Sometimes in America I think that people say they are Christians because it’s all they know, but that is not the case here. The Christians here had to make that decision, even though it’s not the popular thing to do. This makes their faith that much more real. They were willing to risk losing their family or social status for their faith.
2. Monkeys are terrifying
There’s this temple in Thamel that has become a tourist destination since it is inhabited by hundreds of monkeys. We enjoyed our time walking around and looking at all the mom and baby monkeys, and Rachel decided to buy “monkey cookies” so we could feed them. In less than 5 minutes I heard her calling for help. A GIANT monkey had climbed up her and stole the cookies from her. Then, it tried to attack us when we wanted to get the cookies back. Needless to say, we had been played, but we bought some more and kept them zipped in a purse for safety. It was fun and also nerve racking to see how close the monkeys would come to us to get the cookies. We were having a great time until a monkey sneakily stole the cookies from Rachel AGAIN! I swear that the monkey knew that we had been feeding their friends, because after that they would get mad when they would come to us and we didn’t have any food to give them. Like they say, “It’s all fun and games until you get robbed by a monkey…twice.” Or something like that.
3. There is power in vulnerability
When we arrived to Nepal we had a quick squad debrief in Thamel. We spent this time resting, processing, and listening to talks led by our leadership team. Our squad mentor gave a talk about vulnerability, and I wasn’t exactly excited about where it was leading. Being vulnerable is SO hard for me, but it’s something I’ve been growing in over the past few years. After the talk almost everyone on the squad stood up and said something they have struggled with and maybe even never said aloud before that night. It sounds cheesy, but man it was powerful! There’s so much freedom in feeling fear to say or do something, and then doing it anyways. What I learned is that when you’re in a loving community, sharing those scary things is really not that scary at all. Also, one lie that the devil tells you is that you are completely alone in your struggles and that no one can relate, but that’s not even close to being true. With nearly everything shared, several other people said they dealt with the same thing. Vulnerability is difficult, but it’s so necessary to feel the freedom that our Father has for us.
4. When your head itches, have it checked
This month I had the lovely gift of receiving lice, probably from holding a small child in the slums. My head had itched for a few days so I had my teammates check. I was so bummed when it was confirmed. I just had burning memories of hours of treatment and tying all my stuffed animals in trash bags for a month. Quite traumatizing as a five year old. After several treatments and hours of my teammate searching through my hair (Hillarie you are a rockstar) I STILL had lice. The ultimate trick was putting mayonnaise in my hair and sleeping with it over night, and it worked like a charm!
5. Rest is important
They take their rest very seriously at Agape ministry. Every Friday we would celebrate Sabbath shalom, which means to rest in God’s peace. The night starts with a large Nepali dinner and fellowship, followed by worship and listening to someone give a message. The whole night is spent focusing on rejoicing and resting in God’s presence. Truly resting on the Sabbath is something that I want to continue learning and sticking to throughout the race and even once I get back home.
6. Paragliding was sick!
On one of our off weekends we got the opportunity to drive up to Pokhara to see the sites and attractions. One of the main attractions there is paragliding. I was stoked. I’ve always wanted to go paragliding, but getting to do it over Nepal was like a dream. As I was flying through the air I realized that I was starting to feel sick. And that says a lot for someone who doesn’t ever throw up. I made it to the ground safely, only to find that my teammate Allison threw up as soon as she landed. When another team went we found out that one of them threw up in the air! Even though it was a little rough, everyone said they would totally do it again. What a great and funny experience!
7. God is clearly pursuing His daughters in cabin restaurants
We did all sorts of ministry while in Nepal, but cabin ministry was the most challenging and stretching for me. From the first day we met the girls until the last day we saw them, it was incredibly to see how many doors God was opening for them. They were so curious and willing to learn more, and there were several weird coincidences that made it clear that He was at work. If you are confused and have no idea what I’m talking about, then go check out my blog about cabin restaurants.
8. You can go for quite a while without running water
I’m just going to come right out and say it…I went an entire week without showering. I think I’m equally disgusted and proud at this fact. The reason for this was because our water tank ran out of water on the days that we couldn’t get it refilled. Let me tell you, this led to some pretty interesting situations. You wanna shower? Ain’t nobody got water for that! Want to do the dishes? Let’s just let them pile up instead. Okay but can I at least do laundry? Not unless you want to clean it with just dry detergent powder. Can you PLEASE let me flush the toilet then?…I think you get the point.
9. There is beauty in simplicity
One of the main ministries we did this month was daily visiting the local slums. It was hard for us to see how these families live and know that there’s nothing we could do. Sometimes we would gather all the kids and bring them to the classroom they had created. Other times we would simply go on prayer walks around the slum. Even though these families had very little, the kids were so happy. We would throw rocks into the water, play hacky sack with a rubber band ball, play hand clap games, and build floating boats out of trash to send down the river. Their lack of possessions never stopped them from finding joy. I think that’s a lesson we can all learn.
10. Cooking with your teammates creates a bond
We had the entertaining task of cooking for ourselves this month. I’ll tell you, you never realize how many different opinions you have on a team until you all go to the store together for groceries. If you thought us shopping for food was fun, then you should see us cook it on a gas stove with limited utensils. Anyone heard the Alanis Morisette song that says, “It’s like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife?” Because that was literally our life. We decided to make cooking and eating an interesting challenge to see how few dishes we could dirty, and we were pretty good at it. Here’s a picture of us eating on the floor of our kitchen (the only room that had a light) all out of the same bowl. This one-bowl-pasta has become a team tradition now!
11. Every day can be an adventure if you choose to say “yes”
Throughout this entire month we kept having moments of asking, “What even is our life?!” We got to see the tallest mountain in the world. We daily saw cars and people stopping to let the cows do what they want since they are considered holy. We got to meet people and witness their reactions when they heard about Jesus for the first time. Yeah, there might have been power issues in our house and we went without running water, but that’s SO worth it when you are seeing fruit from living mission minded. And all these amazing moments would have never happened if we wouldn’t have said YES to the plans Father has for us. It made me wonder, how many times have we missed amazing things in our life because we were too scared to say yes?
Fundraising update!
I am only $650 away from reaching my next deadline on December 31! I currently have a fundraiser going on that you can read about in this blog. If you would like to donate just click the “Support Me” link on the left. All donations are tax deductible!
