It was ever expanding, the black cloud. It wasn’t like the black smog from “Lost” that was a ball of smoke and a tail that made a clicking sound as it drew close to Mr. Echo, but rather as it spewed from the Hindu temple on the mountain it grew in width and charged the city below. As we continued to pray over Hindu and Buddhist temples through out the week, I kept seeing the cloud crawling through the streets and alley ways we walked. A few days later, we went to a home for the disabled on a different mountain, and at lunch as I looked over the valley and city, I saw a white cloud radiating from this mountain, meeting it’s enemy in the city below. And that is when the scales fell from my eyes and I saw for the first time that the light and the dark actually exist and this Earth is just the battlefield for the war that surrounds us.
This month was hard; I let out a deep sigh as I rethink about the month that is now behind me. The Lumes were suppose to trek the mountains to unreached villages, only all of us got very sick and ended up staying in the city, teaching english in the mornings and doing various outreaches in the afternoons. Five of the six girls one the team were treated for both bacterial infections and parasites. It was all very Alien like, except not quite to the extent that Sigourney Weaver faced.
Nepal was both spiritually and emotionally draining as I learned more about both the Hindu and Buddhist religions that dominate the country. We were here for Tihar, The Festival of Lights; it’s a five day festival that celebrates the goddess of wealth. The city broke out in full party mode, even the animals were decorated as they celebrated along with cows and crows. The third night was the hardest for me. On the third night of the festival, the people decorate their houses with christmas lights, paint ornate images of various gods on the ground, and play loud music as the children dance to fire works in the streets. As I walked home that night, I stopped at one house in particular and prayed over it as I saw that there were tea light candles from there drive way, up the steps and into their house. Hindus believe that on the third night, the goddess will fly over the city to see how she is being worshiped and to entice her to bring one more wealth, they try to “outdo” the neighboring houses. As I prayed, all I could think about was the last plague of death that the Egyptians faced. This festival was beautifully distracting, every sense flirted with; a sweet aroma filled the night, the orange flower garlands were lovely to touch, songs of praise were sung, and the lights stole one’s attention. Only it was empty praise and for the first time, it wasn’t beautiful to me.
I’ve had lighthouses on my mind this month. Before I left for the race, my family and I went up north to visit my oldest brother, and there I toured to my first lighthouse. No two lighthouses are alike in the entire world. The actual light bulb is the same, whether it be a watt bulb or in the old days a candle. It’s the same source of light, but it’s the glass shell and spin table that makes each unique. The architecture of the shell is what allows the light to be seen at a certain distance out at sea, and the timed spinning table is what casts the light out and can tell a sailor where they are in the world based off how long one can see the light for. Lighthouses are a symbol of safety and home, and they have been on my mind because the house we were staying in was a lighthouse for the city that symbolized home and safety for us. Just as I saw the black cloud from the temples both on the mountain and in the city, I saw walking lighthouses throughout the city in each person that proclaimed the name of Christ. We are each lighthouses, our light is a signal for those who are lost that home and safety are near, our light penetrates the dark, and the darkness will not overcome it.
The first week we were in Dhobighat, I read 1st John 1:5 and pass it to you. “For we have received this message from him and declare it to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all”.
