It broke my heart to hear about the recent current events In America. I walked into my favorite Nepalese coffee shop completely oblivious to the chaos back in my own home. There it was on the front page of the Kathmandu newspaper. Deadliest Mass Shooting in Modern US History. Conversations of questions, concerns, speculations and disgust circulated throughout our community for the rest of the day.
This world is so broken, so in need of a greater power to bring peace.
We clearly aren’t doing a good job of it ourselves.
It’s a sad fact that every time we turn on the TV, or read the news we are swamped with updates of the latest tragedy, war, or injustice. No one is looking to the news for the stories of grace, redemption, and healing.
Perhaps if we heard more of those stories we would know what exactly to put our hope in. We would know what it looks like to impact the world for the better.
I want this blog to be just that. The breath of fresh air, the crisp breeze on a fall day that Southeast Asia’s, 90 degrees and 80% humidity has me longing for.
I have decided that for every evil that occurs in this broken world there has got to be someone, somewhere, doing the unmentioned acts of beautiful good.
So here is a story about the unmentioned good, the slice of heaven I was lucky enough to participate in last week.
Happy Thursday!
The slice of heaven I speak of is called “The Prayer Tower” and about 9 of us spent some time there with Pastor Narayan, the amazing Nepalese man behind it all.
Some of us were sent to help with manual labor around the property, as well as to participate in a prayer night. In retrospect I feel like we gave so little compared to what we left with.
After spending just one night there I left with my soul singing, my spirit souring, rejuvenated, light as a feather.
I have never experienced the presence of God, of love, and of joy as much as I did in this place.
17 years ago Pastor Narayan had a vision from God that he would create a heavenly community on the edge of the Himalayas centered around a Prayer Tower. This Tower would be a building where 24/7 at least one person would be praying or praising. That’s right, non-stop, all day, and all night. People told him he was crazy, that it would be waste of resources and would never be sustainable. But Pastor Narayan explained to us that obviously when God calls you to do something crazy, the only suitable answer is yes.
So brick by brick he has built this compound in a village on the outskirts of Kathmandu. It overlooks rolling hills of farmland and rests on the edge of a mountain in the Himalayan foothills. He doesn’t have much but knows how to make beautiful things out of what he does have.
The compound is massive and between each wing there are open courtyards of gardens, terraces, and porches for watching breathtaking sunrises. Everywhere you look is blooming with colorful flowers and greenery. He has farm animals, sells honey, and eats a strict vegetarian diet from the food he grows on his land. He only builds as the resources come and is quite innovative. For example the wing he is working on now has windows made from recycled tires.
When I heard we were going to a prayer tower where prayer had been occurring non-stop for 17 years I imagined there must be some highly devout priests, or pastors, running the ship, sacrificing the fun things in life all in the name of prayer. But I have yet to mention the best part of this place.
Pastor Narayan wanted his community to be a place for anyone rejected and casted out by society.
In most places in Asia where Hinduism is prevalent, all disabilities, physical and mental are seen as curses. If someone is born with these defects they are thrown from the family as a way to remove the bad karma, and a potential generational curse from one of the 350 million gods. Here, more often than not, someone with disabilities is better off dead, left to the streets, or sold into human trafficking, than kept around to curse a family. They are seen as worthless, serving no purpose in the world except to bring shame.
So here at the Prayer Tower live these lovely souls. Handicap sure, but so full of joy and gratitude. There are people in wheel chairs, deaf, blind, mentally disable, some missing legs or arms, some with speech impediments. But they all have a job to do. A purpose to serve. Love to give.
I received enough hugs, smiles, and Masala Tea in this one night to crack my heart right open.
They are given jobs such as cooking, cleaning, watering flowers, or leading group exercise, all depending on their abilities. But most importantly they steward the Prayer Tower. They care for the Prayer Tower in the way a new mother cares for her infant. Not one hour goes by when the room is left empty.
Not one hour for 17 years.
Before they had no worth, no purpose and now they live and breathe with purpose.
Everyday they pray not just for Nepal, but for the world. When I was visiting it was Palestine’s day.
After that they pray for the people they love, for teams that left them 3 years ago, for prayer requests that are emailed in by strangers from all across the globe.
Through Pastor Narayan’s yes to God, God has restored the lives of so many. The residents at this place love the Lord with fervent deepness. They know what it means to be raised from death to life.
When the earthquake struck the valley, Pastor Narayan and his family crowded all the residents into a corridor. They prayed unceasing just like any other normal day. Pastor knew that if the building started falling he couldn’t physically get all the people in wheel chairs to safety fast enough.
They prayed and they watched out the windows as all the surrounding buildings crumbled to the ground, catapulting debris down the mountain from all directions.
Not one brick in the Prayer Tower even had a crack in it after the last tremor. Not even one crack.
Every morning and every night they sing and worship together and I know heaven has got to sound something like what I heard on that mountain. It didn’t matter that the worship was in Nepalese and there was the speech impediments, the sign language, and even the mute. You could feel in the depths of your soul the room being flooded with deeply genuine praise.
So if you turn on the news and see the world crumbling around us from all directions, just know, that on a mountain in Nepal, stands a strong tower, pouring out prayers and deep deep love for this Universe we all get to share.
1 John 5:14
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing,
