Photograph of Pastor Ramesh pointing to his home down in the valley.
My team and I had our first day of hiking ministry. I was really worried about it since usually when I go on long hikes, I end up getting either dehydrated or physically exhausted which results in me getting sick. This happened in both Morocco and Ethiopia and also numerous times throughout my life. So, I went into today very hesitant. My team and I tried to get as much information as we could from our host about the distance, amount of time, and incline. He “reassured” us that all we have to do is take two buses and then “we will go up, up, up, and then down, down, down.” We would end up at a church down in a valley where our team would be preaching and encouraging Nepalese Christian believers. To ease my mind and prepare for the hike, I told myself that I’d be hiking five hours there and five hours back. I didn’t want any surprises so I purposely overestimated our distance.
After the two bus rides, my team and our host ended up at the top of a hill on the outskirts of a village. Our first obstacle was to ascend straight up to the top of the ridge. Within seconds, my muscles were aching and within minutes, my body was burning up. It was a straight up incline for about twenty minutes. When we reached the ridge, it was all down hill from there. Our path led us down the side of the hill (which I’d like to call a mountain) taking short cuts off the beaten path and following man made trails straight to the bottom. Surprisingly, I was actually loving it. The air was cold and we had an incredible view of terraced fields across the valley. On our walk, Rachael saw a sole of a shoe on the ground and she joking said, “people are losing their sole’s out here!” There was one after another on the side of the trail that it almost became a game of how many we could find. About halfway down our decent, I could feel my legs and calves starting to get shaky as if they were jello. I was praying for flat ground. Once we reached the bottom of the valley, we crossed the river where we met the preacher of the church, Pastor Ramesh. He led us farther into the valley to a village where we met in a church made of metal that was supported by bamboo. I loved our time we spent here. We got to worship and share the gospel with brothers and sisters in Christ. The members sang Nepali songs that we recognized and could sing along to in English.
When service was over, the group started our ascent back up the hillside to the top of the ridge again. This time, we followed the dirt path because it was starting to sprinkle and it would make the trails too dangerous to climb. Walking along the dirt road back to the ridge, I kept finding more and more soles of shoes. Not thinking anything of it at first, I kept walking. Then, to pass the time, my mind started to wander. How many people walk this road? Could you imagine walking so much that the soles fall off? Do locals struggle walking up and down into the valley? Most people living down in the valley don’t have ways of transportation. The team saw a few motorcycles here and there, but most everyone walks. As we got closer to the top, Pastor Ramesh pointed down into the valley and said, “that’s my home.” He was pointing to a small rectangular building off in the distance. Our host then began to explain that Ramesh walks roughly six to eight hours almost every day to go into different villages to preach. His only means of transportation are his feet, and he wants to walk! Here we are, grumbling that our legs hurt, irritated about getting rained on, and praying for a kind stranger to pick us up. Little did we even think about the fact that Pastor walks this every single day. To me, this is what it means to live a life of ministry. How far are you willing to travel to spread the gospel? Are you willing to walk until you’ve lost your sole?
