This month in Nepal has been full of living out true missional life. The biggest question I keep asking myself is am I going to be able to keep attentive to the Lord’s promptings back in the States? Will I be just as willing to share what God is saying and doing when no matter where my feet are planted on this Earth? Something our squad as a whole is working towards is living out what we believe. So our team wanted to put that into practice this past week. We spent some time in the morning asking the Lord to highlight people, colors, words, or an item before we headed out to talk with people.
The Lord showed me a fruit stand with bananas on it…Of course I had no idea what this could mean, but it always makes me excited to go out and find out what God wants to do. So off Lauren and I went! We first walked down by the lake and began talking with a Tibetan woman who was selling jewelry. Lauren had already had a previous conversation with her, and the woman began sharing her story with us. She is a Tibetan refugee who walked here with her family when she was very young. She’s lived in the refugee camp ever since and has started a family of her own. She’s experienced so many trials from the losing a child to having to sell bracelets to make an income. She shared with us about her Buddhist beliefs which created an open door for us to tell her that we were Christians and how we’d love to pray for her. She didn’t want prayer from us in that moment, so Lauren bought a bracelet and we left. We lifted her up in prayer as we began to walk on.
Lauren realized that she had spent the last of her rupees to buy the bracelets and wanted to stop at the ATM. She made a comment how she kind of felt bad for stopping to take out money when this time was set out to talk and minister with people. She knew it was only going to take a few minutes, but those few moments mattered and I am about to tell you why!
We began to walk down the road in search for a fruit stand! Just as Lauren says to me “Girl we need to find a fruit stand” we turn the corner and there was TWO! We were about to approach the cart and there was a man with tattered clothing ahead of us. Both of his arms were disabled most likely from a work accident. He begged for some fruit, but the man turned him away. I quickly went to the cart and began to pick out fruit while Lauren went after the disabled man. We wanted to buy some fruit for him. I asked the man for two mangos and two pomegranates. He put them in a bag and then finished it up by throwing in two bananas. He asked for 450 rupees. I then realized I had only brought a small amount of cash with me to pay for lunch and it wouldn’t be enough, BUT because Lauren had just stopped at the ATM we had enough to purchase the fruit!
So why was that ATM stop important? Honestly, because God’s timing is perfect. He had already orchestrated each moment that we were out there walking the streets. He gave Lauren the impression to speak with her friend by the lake and He laid it on her heart to purchase a bracelet. This led us to stop for a few moments at the ATM. This slowed us down, but for a perfect amount of time. Had we not stopped at the ATM we wouldn’t have had enough to cover the fruit to give to this man. And if we hadn’t have to stop to get more money we may have even missed this opportunity to bless this man with some food.
When we gave the man the fruit we found out he didn’t speak any English. He took the bag with a smile full of gratitude and walked away. Even though, we didn’t get to really speak with him or even get to share the gospel with him, in that moment it didn’t matter. Love was our mission that day and that’s what was lived out!
