hey. i wanted to give you guys an update on my time in nepal. this month has been really different than our month in india. our time in india was nonstop. we had almost no free time. we spent most of our day travelling, and doing ministry, and by the time we made it home, we were wiped out. this month has been pretty laid back for the most part. our ministry is where we are living, so we havent done very much travelling. in india, our team spent most of the month trying to figure out how to live in community. how to be around the same 6 people every day and not want to kill each other. i think we made huge strides from day one to the end of the month but this month has been completely different. this month, we have grown far closer. we are really beginning to become a family. we have realized that even though we are all used to a completely different life and have come from completely different backgrounds, we are united under this same mission. a mission that we were individually called to, but a mission that we cannot complete without each other. this is the part of the trip i thought i was going to struggle with the most. being away from home is fine with me. going without is fine with me. but i love my alone time and, to be perfectly honest, there arent many people i love being around. i knew this was an area where i was going to have to grow to get the most out of this trip. God has really changed my heart this month. i love my team and i certainly wouldnt be as effective without them.
one of the projects that we had been given was to do a promo video for asha nepal. we thought we had the whole month to complete it. nope. we found out on the 12th that it had to be done on the 18th, and that it needed to be 15 minutes long, because one of the directors of the organization was going to a conference in australia to promote asha. we had not shot anything yet. we spent the next couple of days shooting interviews with women that are, or had been, in asha. i hacked into a computer, that they had but didnt know the password to, so that we would have two computers for editing and after a few late nights, we got it done. luckily, michael is a graphic design major and is quite good at editing. oh and i want to thank the talented josh via for providing the background music (journey people might recognize some of it from the "testify" series a couple of years back). michael is going to cut a 3 minute version for the website and i will post that when it is uploaded.
i have a few things that we need prayer for. first, i want to thank the people that have contributed financially, and through prayer, to getting me a new computer. your sacrifice and obedience mean more to me than you will ever know. pray that God continues to provide the rest of the funds that i need to get it and have it shipped to me in thailand.
i, as well as a few other members of my team, have had trouble sleeping this month. not sure exactly why. the barking dogs certainly dont help. pray for peaceful sleep for the team. it could easily begin to make us less effective if it becomes a consistent thing.
bhuvan is one of the directors at asha. he is a great man who has done so much for this oganization. he has shared with us that this isnt where he ever saw himself, but this is where God called him and he said yes. he told us when we got here that his wife was going to give birth to their third child while we were here. she went to the hospital monday and had a little baby boy on tuesday. he was early and is having some trouble breathing. pray that God keeps his hand on the boy (they havent named him yet) and on the hearts of bhuvan and his wife.
we just found out last week that a woman, named bobita, that lives here at asha has a tumor on her uterus. we have been praying fervently that God will heal her. we know he is capable of it. we have felt tumors shink under our hands. it is nothing to Him. she goes in for surgery next tuesday. we are praying that the doctors find nothing to remove. join us in that. pray for healing. you dont have to be here or know the woman for God to answer your prayers.
thank you so much for your support in so many ways.
i love you all
austin
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