Greetings from Nepal! It’s been a few weeks since our team
has had internet, so this blog is meant to update you on what we’ve been doing
and share the things that God has taught me.
Our team was sent to the district of Sarlahi in South Nepal.
Even though we missed out on the mountains, the scenery is still breath taking
and the weather has been amazing. Our ministry contact’s name is Pastor Achute.
I’ll post another blog with more info about him. He and his family have been so
wonderful to us. Our team has been living in their house, and getting to know
the family over the passed two and a half weeks.
Our ministry outreach has mainly consisted of going out into
the nearby villages and spreading the gospel. Because of the language barrier,
we’ve been using tracts to help start conversations and show why we are here.
When a translator was given, we were able to do door-to-door ministry and speak
at schools. A couple of us have spoke in church as well.
It has been such a huge learning experience, and a very
surprising one too. Our team has had to learn a lot of flexibility and
openness. Because of previous experiences, a lot of us were skeptical to hand
out tracts. But, God used the experience to show us that He will move wherever
His servants are willing. We are not here to do ministry in the way we see fit,
but in the way that God calls us to.
Also, being out in the middle of nowhere with no connection
to home has been a huge learning experience. I think we have all gone through
our first real encounter of homesickness at one point or another during this
month. But, the solitude has allowed for us to really dig in to God’s Word, and
to go deeper in some different situations with Him.
For me, God showed himself this month as: Revealer,
Provider, and Informer. He revealed so many things about myself to me that I
have tried to ignore. This was a painful process at first, but is so healing in
the end. A strong spirit of performance had been developed in me. There was a
fear in me of not getting things right, or not being good enough for the task
at hand. As a result, I would be working under an immense self-imposed pressure
to be pleasing. But, the affirmation I would seek in return was always from
people, which of course would be inconsistent and fleeting.
I have found God grabbing my attention and showing me that I
was praying for His presence and movement in my life, but then continuously
trying to work out of my own strength to please people. I wasn’t even aware of
this exhausting cycle in my life, because I have become so used to living in
it.
Since revealing these things to me, God has helped to tie
the puzzle pieces together that built that mindset in me. And, He has been
telling me of my true identity that is found in His Word, rather than the
“successes and failures” that people label in my life.
The more I learn the way that God truly sees me, the more I
step into my real identity.
I believe that if the church would earnestly seek deeper
knowledge of who God is, and learn what He says about us, then we would begin
to truly be set apart and be so much more effective in spreading the Kingdom
here on earth.
God counts His followers as children and heirs to the
righteous inheritance of Heaven. He shows no favoritism in who He gives this
inheritance to either. (Galatians 3:26-29)
In a world where everything is conditional and inconsistent,
Jesus came with the sole purpose of dying on a cross for you, so that you could
spend eternity in Heaven with Him. (1 Peter 2:24)
Through Christ’s love gift accepted in faith, God calls us
His own in love and protection. The God who parted the Red Sea accepts you and
sees you as His beloved. There is power in that acceptance! And there is
authority in your voice when you speak His truth. We have authority in the name
of Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:18-23)
He calls you worthy. He calls you pleasing. He finds
significance in your voice. He protects you; where the light of Christ is,
darkness flees. He loves you perfectly, and this love banishes fear. God has
fashioned an eternal home for you, and has a specific task meant only for you
to complete until you reach that home.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that
we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the
world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1
