Okay okay, this title is very dramatic. But I need to catch your attention to read my blogs somehow right?
So the last ten days of my life were spent in a fiery furnace, the earth version of what hell would feel like in my opinion. I sat outside a man’s mud hut sharing encouraging words on our last day drenched in sweat from head to toe thinking to myself, “I sure hope Jesus is the way or hell is really going to suck.” I can confidently say that I have never sweat so much in my life as I did while in Chitwan National Park. The best part is that I held onto my sleeping bag for this month because I figured it would be the coldest month on the race. I, in fact, did not need my sleeping bag at all. The opposite of that. Most nights we would come fresh out of a bucket shower (the best part of the day) and instantly would return to sweating when lying on our sleeping pads under our bug nets. We even attempted to go without a sleeping pad and just sleep on the wooden barn floors instead in the hopes of cooling off. The days would reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with a heat index of 120. This is one way to hit my breaking point. And man did that happen this past week. It honestly takes a lot for me to get there, and I got there. Coming from the beautiful Midwest climate, this year has been quite the transition. I would consider myself a baby in this heat. And that is exactly what I was.
It was an incredibly hard 10 days to not put myself in the victim circle, to not just want to pass out in a coma and come out of it when I returned back to Kathmandu in cooler weather. That did not happen, unfortunately. But boy did God do some cool things in those 10 days. Be showed me how to get out of the victim circle, to fight to choose joy when that is the last possible thing I want to choose. To show love to these people in this beautiful remote village, to even have this opportunity to be here and live life like they do. Walking these dirt paths with corn fields, mud huts, buffalo, tigers, cobras, spiders surrounding me. To share the gospel with a witch doctor, traveling on these dirt paths that seem to go on for hundreds of miles into this National Park. I seriously wonder how the heck God chose me for this crazy freaking life. HOW LUCKY AM I.
Our ministry consisted of going to people’s huts and singing English gospel songs, sharing the gospel with them, and if they were already Christians, giving them encouraging messages from the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it. Such a great opportunity to be able to come and share the love of Jesus. But let me tell you about my favorite moments on the Race.
Those moments that aren’t structured. No plan. Just go and let the Spirit lead and I just do the following. These are the best times.
So here is one of those moments that occurred while I was in Chitwan.
Our first day of ministry is spent going to a Christian man’s house and sharing a word of encouragement with him. Suddenly three girls walking by with machetes and empty straw baskets catch my eye. I immediately know where I am going after our organized ministry. Once finished at the man’s house, I head for the grass fields to find the young girls. I of course bring my squamate Bri in on this because she is always down for the next fun adventure. So we head out and we find the girls cutting grass in the field with their machetes, filling their woven baskets to bring back and feed the cows. Bri and I approach them and with very broken English we have a conversation. In these moments it is easiest to just communicate through actions. And so we ask if we can have their machetes and we start to cut the grass. They watch us and probably wonder what they heck these Westerners are doing, coming out to do their chores for them. But this is exactly what I enjoy most on the race. Letting others feel loved by my actions. It doesn’t need to be some elaborate conversation (clearly that isn’t an option without a translator at times), it can simply be approaching someone and just loving them with your actions. And these are the events that end up being my favorite on the race. The ones that aren’t planned, simply Spirit-led. And I am so blessed to have my beautiful and adventurous sidekick Bri to do it alongside with. She radiates joy like no other and she’s, simply put, just dang fun to do life with. Thanks for being you, Bri.
So we spent the next hour filling their baskets with grass, enjoying the broken English conversations and just showing God’s love in our actions towards helping them with their chores. We walked back with them to their village homes, said Namaste, and went our separate ways.
So yes, it was dang hot and yes there were times I honestly wanted to throw in the towel. But then I’m reminded of these simple moments on the race and why I’m here. To show a love like Jesus. Simply put, to love always.
1 John 3:16-19
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.
