For ministry last month, we teamed up with another team, The Seekers. They are another all girls team, and we lived with and did ministry with them for three weeks. I remember when we first found out that our two to teams would be together for Nepal. We were all a bit apprehensive about having 13 living in small quarters, doing everything together for three whole weeks? That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. But it wasn’t. Our two teams bonded very quickly and soon we had forgotten that we were even two separate teams.
Our teams also quickly fell in love with our ministry and ministry hosts. Our ministry was a sort of jack of all trades. Our first week we spent going to churches in villages outside of Kathmandu encouraging the pastors and congregation of the churches. We would take a variety of transportation to get there including lots of buses, taxis, good old fashioned walking. One day we even hiked ten miles up and down a mountain for ministry! It was humbling to see how a lot of the people in the villages only have small tin buildings to worship in and are very oppressed by their neighbors and villages and yet they still worship God and praise Him. Our second week we spent volunteering at a pure Hindu preschool and kindergarten. The little kids were so cute and adorable. Because it was pure Hindu, we were not allowed to share the gospel with the kids but we did get to share with the teachers there whom we also loved. On our last day at the school they held an assembly and the children sang songs and recited English rhymes to us. The teachers also made us really sweet and cute goodbye letters. We were so sad to say goodbye and leave them at the end of the week. Our last week we spent in our ministry host’s home town of Gurkha visiting homes and encouraging people. That week was crazy. Gurkha is situated on a hill the Himalayas. We stayed in a church that was at the very top of a hill at the top of the town. Every morning when we woke up we saw the Himalayas rising out of the clouds on one side and Gurkha and valleys on the other side. We spend our time encouraging members of the church there and getting to know our host’s family better. Our team was honestly so sad to say goodbye to Nepal at the end of the month. It is a rivetingly beautiful country with amazing food and some lovely people. But it also really needs Jesus. It is very difficult to be a christian in Nepal and I feel honored to have been able to spend a month encouraging and coming along side Nepali Christians as they have equally encouraged me in their faith and resilience.
