WELCOME to a blogging series I have started about Nepal it is called:
Earthquake: incredibly loud and extremely close
I hope that you enjoy each blog about how the earthquake, people of Nepal, Hinduism, and the aftermath of devastation has affected me. This is my last part in this series, enjoy!
Part Three
Here I am, months later still trying to gather my heart over the dark place of Nepal. I have been dreading writing about it and not because I will forget about it but just because I feel like I could write a book about this country. I left off with helping out a special needs house build some bricks and there is a LOT of other ministries we did in Nepal that I am leaving out. Instead of focusing on one ministry we did a lot of helping out here and there with refugees, soccer ministry with slum kids, women’s brothel ministry and so much more. I will fast forward to the part where I trekked in the Himalayan Mountains.
I sit here and laugh to myself because it sounds so much more adventurous than it actually was. You probably are thinking about some snow covered mountain top and having to warm our frost bitten hands up by a fire. That is what I thought too but oh man was I wrong. It was hot and we had to dress modestly. The time had finally come for us to start our trek. It felt like forever because the date kept getting set back and the length of time on our trek seemed to keep getting shorter and shorter. The day had come and we were finally leaving. We took a jeep and strapped our packs to the top of it and drove for 5 hours to the base of the mountain. We get there to find out that our two week trek was now turned into two days. Super disappointed and almost unable to compose myself, I sat there and wallowed. We had been talking of this trekking ministry since we got our new team. We knew about this. I was praying to get this particular ministry when I first heard of it in India and here I was so let down because of some miscommunication? So we left and trekking up a pretty steep mountain that was actually more like a hill. We “trekked” which was more like walking. I brought up the rear. I just wanted to be alone, take my time and sit in my sorrow. I thought I just wanted to enjoy this walk and drag out as long as possible. It didn’t help much either that I was way out of shape. Let’s be honest still am. We stop at villages and my teammates shared sermons at each stop. Six messages in total and I got out of preaching. I didn’t honestly have the heart to at that point. We didn’t see naked people living in caves because of the earthquake they moved out of the caves. They were now unsafe. They had clothes because we were not the first missionary team there so they because more westernized. In fact, some of them had cell phones with you betchya Facebook.
We ate wild honey with bee larva in it straight out of the honeycomb. They blessed us by giving us Mountain Dew at each rest point we took. I don’t think you know how big of a blessing it is that they did that for us. They carry everything they need from the markets up the mountain to their home. That means that all the liters of Mountain Dew that were brought up were carried on their backs in a basket… for us. It is really humbling to have someone you don’t know want to do that for you. We spent the night in a small barn with eleven other Nepalese pastors. We came back down the mountain the next day and we stopped at a village by a river to give one last message. We were the first ever white people that we have ever come in contact with. That was pretty cool. First, India and now here. Our group was the first people the make impressions on them of white people, specifically America.
We got back to our launch point at the base of the mountain and was planning to head back to the city the next day. We talked to our main host and there was some mix up so now the trek was back on. Our spirits started to get excited again. We got a test go and now we were ready for the REAL thing after the weekend of church services. So we went to church for the next couple of days and preached. It had been a week since any of us showered because there was no option to so we walked to a river. We probably walked for at least an hour to reach our shower spot. They said beware of crocodiles and tigers. IS THIS REAL LIFE? Yes, yes it was. It was one of the most unique shower experiences I have ever had in my life and at this point that is saying something. The current was strong so swimming just came after cooling off in the heat washing the sweat from our hike off that happened a couple days prior. We were clean and ready to hike again. On our way to hiking we decided to hike up a different way so we took a bus two hours to a different base and then an hour rickshaw ride to another village were we spent another night in a church. We woke up that morning and Eric became really sick after a couple of days being sick. So we made a decision as a team to go back to the city. Eric ended up having a parasite and we got back into the rickshaw again. I was so annoyed. Not because we were going back to the city but because this grand adventure of a ministry was not at all how it was said to be. I got myself all excited for weeks to do something that I thought was really neat. We loaded back into a rickshaw and it was packed with people wanting to get back to the city.
There was no room on top of the rickshaw or to hang off the back so I just sucked it up and got into the rickshaw with strangers. I was so done. I was DONE being in front of people that didn’t speak English without our translator, being disappointed and going on this grand goose chase. I looked around at my woe is me this sucks attitude and pulled out my food to eat since I wasn’t going to need it because we were not trekking. Not now and not ever. Dramatic, I know. I offered the food to everyone in the rickshaw and watched them eat these peanut butter balls and dried fruit. Then it happens.
This man looks at me and desperately I look back at him and ask “Do you speak English?” He said he did. The very next time out of his mouth was “Are you a Christian?” I was so dumbfounded. I responded that I was. “I was looking for someone like you to talk with.”
I haven’t heard from him and I have no way of contacting him but I knew why we went to the mountain and didn’t climb it now. I knew my temporary annoyance of the whole thing was now so purposeful. The WHOLE hassle of going back and forth on trekking and then not was put together for that right time to get into that exact rickshaw so I could talk to that specific man who was looking for a Christian to talk to about his problems. Man, when people say God’s timing is perfect I hadn’t really understood it as fact until that happened to me and my team.
With that, I end this series as Nepal became like an earthquake in my heart. It devastated my soul but awakened me to see how God moves.
Continuing Thoughts:
Pray for my team SUMMIT as we are separated for the month. The men are doing ministry month and the women of the co-ed team come together to serve with one another. Pray for SUMMIT to grow individually so when we come back together we can lift one another up. Pray that people in America would open their eyes to Jesus as well as hid themselves of self-adoration. Pray for the leadership at the orphanage that we served at in Cambodia as we are leaving them behind and continuing on into Thailand. Pray for the children to get rid of their lice and for the special needs children that I worked with.
If you have anything YOU need prayer please email me at [email protected] as it is extremely important to lift one another up in prayer! I am trying to pursue a better prayer walk with the Lord.
