This past week of ministry was spent in a Nepali jungle. We visited rural communities that are far removed from any form of city life. Their lives revolve around harvesting enough crops to keep their family healthy. The vast majority of the villages don’t have schools or any form of education. Sickness abounds every hill. Factors like this made living among the Chitwan community a harsh reality check.
Extreme poverty: It’s the subject of many documentaries and endless TED talks. It’s talked about in textbooks and statistics all over the place. It’s this idea I thought I understood. Then came this past week. I’ve been struggling with feeling great frustration as I witness what poverty does to communities. Anger wells up inside of me as I pray for a man dying of tetanus infection- something that is both preventable and treatable in the States. I’m left speechless as I walk through forgotten Nepali villages in which everyone is illiterate within a 50 mile radius and their whole life depends on the land and how much food is harvested at the end of the cropping season. I stood there praying for a mother and her newborn baby just minutes after giving birth in a broken down wooden room that rats and bats inhabit. I sat there feeling hopeless as I talked to a family that got the children drunk each day just to mask the pain of malnutrition.
I’ve faced realities I will never be able to fully process. Writing this blog makes me realize how there’s no way of glorifying what this lifestyle is like. No amount of filters or bubbly words will hide the fact that darkness is real and it’s hurtful. BUT hope is not lost. I left Chitwan feeling frustrated, yes, but I also left feeling motivated and inspired. Things can change. Education can be introduced to change the vicious cycle of poverty. Children can be given opportunities to learn and make a difference in their community by simply being introduced to reading. Electricity can be reliable and accessible through solar panels (which the organization, Samaritan’s Purse, is already on top of in rural Nepal and it was incredible to witness) and new crops can be introduced to the fertile land and boost nutrition.
It was hard to grasp at first but God is working in Nepal whether I take the time to see it or not. Being in the jungle and witnessing a life that brought so much pain was disheartening at moments but I know God motivates us to do great things that bring glory to Him through it all.
