The Nepali Way

Namaste friends and family! My team has already been in Nepal for a week and a half, which is hard to believe. On the Race, days can sometimes seem long but weeks and months fly by.  Thus far our experience in Nepal has been totally different than our time in India. While there are a lot of similarities between the bordering countries, Indian city life and Nepalese village life carry totally different tunes.
 
In our village, south of Kathmandu, life is simple. When the sun rises around 5:15 am, the day begins. For women, the daily routines of meal prep, making tea, doing laundry, and sweeping begin. Some women stay at home all day, while others join their husbands for work outside the home. The jobs I have seen thus far include farming, working in the rice fields, brick making, goat herding, working at chicken coops, or construction. Children, escorted by their parents, walk up the mountain around 8:15am to go to school. The only concerns for the Nepalese people are the ones right in front of them. They live a moment-by-moment life that always has time for a conversation with a friend or welcoming random American guys and girls into their home. The Nepalese people are also some of the hardest workers I have ever seen especially Binita, our housemother for the month. She is constantly prepping for meals, boiling clean water, making tea, sweeping outside of our rooms, and doing our laundry behind our backs (let’s just say she does a better job getting the dirt out of our clothes than most electric washers …she’s hardcore). I’m sure my perspective is a little biased since I am living with a Christian family, but overall there seems to be a selfless and friendly spirit amongst the people of Nepal. Whatever they are doing, whether it is working, enjoying time with friends or doing house chores, they are 100% focused on that task.
 
I had no expectations for Nepal because I had never heard much about it and the only pictures I had seen were of Mount Everest. I am really enjoying this month in Nepal, but it was an adjustment because I now have the opportunity to live differently than I ever have before. Yes, I am in a different physical location and being constantly surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains is pretty awesome. But my daily schedule now includes “life-giving activities” I never had “time” for back in America. I have a couple hours in the morning and afternoon to just be. No expectations, nothing to get done or catch up on, no Internet to check, but the opportunity to just BE. Time to sit in silence with myself, to soak in the sweet peace of Jesus, to hammock on the roof with a good book. Time to sit around a table with my team family for meals, to share stories of life back home and dreams for the future, to play random games of hacky sack, or hang out with the Church Pastor and his family. I love it.
 
Our ministry this month is through a local church in one of the villages. We do a variety of things and our schedule isalways subject to change, but the most consistent ministry we have been doing is evangelism. We travel to different villages and locations in our region handing out tracks and asking God for divine appointments along the way. So while we have a destination, our ministry is what happens while we are hiking and walking.
 
Each day we hike for 5 -6 hours up and down the Himalayan Mountains sowing seeds of the gospel through tracks and conversations. While tracks may not be my favorite way of sharing the gospel, our ministry contact really wanted us to spread the word of Jesus in this manner so that initial seeds can be planted. At least half of the people we come in contact with have heard of Jesus, but have no clue who He is. A lot of Hindus view Him as an important man or even worship Him as one of many gods. It’s really awesome to know that truth is being spread throughout the region and that light is spreading throughout the villages, commanding darkness to flee.

This past Monday, my team also travelled to one of the largest leprosycolonies in Nepal to encourage, pray for, and minister to the residents. This was a hard day of ministry because we walked 4.5 hours just to get to the location. So by the time we got there, we were only able to stay for an hour and a half. But this was such a sweet time to pray for these men and speak truth into their lives about who God says they are, His love for them, and His desire to heal them. I got the opportunity to talk to and pray for one man who has only been there one week. I was able to explain the gospel, give him a track, pray for him, and continuously tell him how much his Father loves him and that he has not forgotten about him. Such an amazing time.

So many other memories and impressions have already been made; here are a few more that I want to share:

• Playing soccer in the valley with my team and one of the Pastor’s sons, while the sun sets over the Himalayan Mountains
• From Cows to Goats and Lice to Leeches: Goats are everywhere. In the road, riding on cars, standing on statues in the temple…it’s almost worse than it was in India with all of the cows. Lice were a problem in India because most of the kids had it really bad. So far we don’t have lice in Nepal, but leeches are everywhere and have already attacked a teammate and myself. Gross
• My teammates Becky, Justin, and Alyssa prayed for a Hindu woman’s wrist because she was experiencing a lot of pain. When they asked her how to felt, she just smiled and immediately asked them to pray for her back! If this wasn’t enough of an answer, she later told the team she has no more pain in either spot!
• Between walking and taking the bus (and maybe a taxi), the city of Thamel located in Kathmandu is about 1.5 hours away. This town is super touristy and is the hot spot for any hikers coming to travel through the Himalayas. This town is a nice vacation away from village life with internet, good American-ish food, delicious espresso, and fun Nepalese shops.
• On “holidays” in Nepal, they play music NON-STOP from sunrise until midnight and freakish, mask-wearing creatures corner you in the streets for money. That sentence made it sound worse than it is, but it’s not the most enjoyable experience. And after the first 5 hours, the music gets pretty annoying.
• Yesterday, a Hindu woman led us to her mother’s Christian church where we were able to pray for them, drink tea, and encourage one another. Their church is located in a spiritually dark area so it was awesome that God led us to these people to remind them that He hasn’t forgotten about them.
• The “meal” system is quite interesting and for the most part functions like this:

• The government in Nepal is in bad shape. Every leader or political group that tries to run the country ends up corrupting one thing or another. Therefore a lot of the “public systems” such as transportation or school aren’t reliable. For instance, today the transportation drivers were on strike, so we had to walk 2 hours to church. Not very fun.
• We met a Hindu man who owns a very large farm near our village. He attended a Catholic school but practices Hinduism. When he heard we were Christians, he called for two of his employees who are Christian so we could pray for them. The boss and the Christian couple also told us that their “house” was possessed by demons and bad spirits, so we were able to go to their home and speak life and peace into that situation as well. It was crazy how God used the Hindu boss to connect us with his Christian employees and how eager, the boss was for us to pray for the couple. We were able to speak truth in his life as well 🙂
• Yesterday morning, I was able to preach at a service for people in our village. There is a smaller leprosy colony near our "home" so most of the people that came were pretty sick. It was an awesome opportunity where the Holy Spirit spoke through me to remind the men and women of God's character and His unfailing love and faithfulness to them.

 
These are just some of the stories I have to share thus far and I’m sure I am forgetting some. But hopefully this blog gives you an idea of what life is like here. Continue to pray for divine appointments, open eyes and ears to the gospel, and physical health for my team! I am so thankful for each of you! Much love to America and please, eat some Bojangles for me.