There was a lot of excitement in the room when our team read about what we would be doing this month. All of us have a deep desire to work with women at risk in red light districts in Asia and that was exactly the ministry we had been given. Things were looking good. Not only would we live in beautiful Pokhara, Nepal, but we would also work with a ministry that we all had a huge heart for. At least that was what we thought.
It only took us a few days to realize that our expectations for the month were not going to be met. Through some miscommunication, the ministry host that we thought we were going to be working with was no longer able to host us.
We spent our first morning after finding out we were on our own asking the Lord how he wanted to use us this month.
Let me backtrack a moment. While we were waiting on our host to get ministry organized, we had already taken the initiative and were doing our own sort of ministry during the day and at night.
During the day time, we did what we began to call “hippie ministry.” Pokhara is a huge tourist destination for hippies that are on spiritual journeys. We decided, why not make them a part of our ministry? We spent our mornings and afternoons, praying and asking the Lord where He wanted us to go and who He wanted us to talk with. We split up and went to different coffee shops or wherever we felt the Lord wanted us. One day for me, it was very clear that my ministry for the day was myself. The Lord met me for coffee and I got to spend the entire afternoon being filled up and connecting with Him. Another day, I had the opportunity to meet and make a friend from Germany. She ended up hanging out with our team that night, and we had an awesome time getting to know her and listening to her story.
Then at night, we spend our time walking through the red light district and praying for the women as we walk by the dance bars.
Ok, back to asking the Lord how he wants us to spend the rest of our month.
I’m not sure what we were expecting to hear, because it ended up being so simple. He just wants us to keep doing what we have been doing: walking in trust each day and being open to where He wants to take and use us.
I think if we had been told that at the beginning of the month, we would have been disappointed, but the Lord knew exactly what we needed. He walked us into it slowly and showed us to trust the work He is doing. We tried to process if what we were doing had purpose or not, and He showed us that it did and that our work here is not done.
In many ways, this month has been more like real life back in the States than any other. I’m learning what it looks like to go about a more normal day and still invite the Lord into it.
We are not sure what our next 10 days in Pokhara will look like. Some of us are praying that the Lord will send us on a trek in the mountains to share the gospel in unreached villages with another WR team. Others are hoping they can make friends while playing their ukulele by the lake. Either way, it’s going to continue to be days filled with following the Lord where he wants us to go and trusting that He is doing work here through us.
