22 days ago I came to Nepal. I came into Nepal and the first month of The World Race expecting to spend 11 months serving God through serving others. I thought I would be spending this first month of the Race pouring into others: encouraging them in their faith, loving on them, serving them and teaching them about Christ. Don’t get me wrong, I have been blessed with the opportunities to do those things while being here…but mostly, they (the Nepali people) have been doing all of those things for ME. Over the past 3 weeks, they have shown me and taught me more about living out a life of prayer, faith and love than I could ever have shown or taught them. They truly have shown me firsthand what it looks to live a life like Jesus would. Throughout my time here in Nepal, I have learned so much about who God is, about His word, and about what it means to truly live and serve in His will. But above all, the three things that God has taught me during my time in Nepal through the lives of the Nepali people is the power of Prayer, Faith and Love.
“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For our ancestors won God’s approval by it. By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s command, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible.” – Hebrews 11:6
I have been taught since Sunday school as a child that faith is the base for a Christian life and for the majority of my lifetime, I have claimed to live a life by faith. I always thought of faith as believing in something that I couldn’t see and believing that God is always in control even when it is hard to see or understand. Those things are all true, but there was something missing in my understanding of faith. I thought of it most simply as just believing, but it is so much more than that. Nepal and the Nepali people have taught me that faith isn’t just belief in your mind or just in your heart, faith is a whole body experience. True faith is what gave Peter the ability to walk on water towards Jesus. True faith was Noah obeying God’s command to build an enormous Ark despite what any one else may think all because God told him to. True faith is a Nepali person choosing to trust Jesus with their lives and identify themselves as a Christian although it often means being disowned by their family, friends and everything they have known and cared about as well as persecutions of my different types. True faith is not living life with fear, but instead choosing to fully and completely trust God with everything that happens and anything that could happen. Faith is an action, a choice, an answer, and a way of life. The Nepali Christians here live their lives by faith. They trust God to provide for all of their needs on a daily basis and they trust that He will guide their steps and provide for them along the way. They rely on their faith in God for everything and it is truly inspirational to see how many of them truly have faith that can move mountains. They have challenged me to stop picking and choosing every day what in my life I choose to have faith about, but instead to simply choose faith every day.
In Phillipians 4:6, we are told “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
I have been a personal witness this past month to how the Nepali people NEVER hesitate to pray for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING in their daily lives. Having the ability to have a personal connection to God through prayer and the power that prayer has are what the Nepali people rely on in their lives. Whether they are sick, struggling, sad, and downhearted or they are joyful and thankful they turn to God in prayer. One of the primary focuses of our ministry here in Nepal has been dedicating time to Prayer Intercession. Every day of our ministry here, we would have Prayer Intercession with the Nepali people anywhere from 30 minutes long to 4 hours long of time just spent in prayer together. I can honestly say that I have never prayed in my daily life for the length of time or with the passion that I have since being here and learning from the Nepali people. Their prayers are not simply long winded requests or drawn out words, their prayers are full of passion, authenticity and praise to our God. The Nepali people always pray aloud without any shame. Sometimes I would open my eyes for a few minutes during our prayer intercessions simply to watch them pray and every time it was hard to not start smiling from the true beauty in how passionately and whole heartedly they communicate with the God who saved their souls. They don’t pray often because they have to or because it is required, they pray often because they GET to. In their eyes, they GET the privilege of coming before the creator of the world with their praises and requests, so why would we not take the opportunity to do so as often as we are able?
I have seen the power of prayer here in Nepal in a way that I never have before. I have seen people become healed from sicknesses after prayer, I have seen people come to Christ, and I have even seen demons driven out by the power of prayer. They have showed me that prayer is our direct connection with God and that there is more power in prayer than we even can comprehend. It’s our decision whether to take advantage of the power of prayer in our lives and see radical change or to sit by and only use it when required.
Last, but certainly not least, here in Nepal I have been taught about Love. Specifically, love for God, for His people and for the world. I wish I could paint for you a picture of what it looks like when a Nepali person loves. It is completely raw and beautiful. I can see love in their eyes when I talk to them about Jesus or about God’s word. One of the biggest ways I have been shown God’s love this past month has been through the way that the Nepali people have served my team and I since the moment we arrived. I know what you’re thinking, aren’t we supposed the ones coming here to serve them?!? That’s what I thought too. But honestly, since the moment we arrived at our host family’s house, the Nepali Christians here have been literally serving us in every way possible. At first, I felt resistant to their service and would always try to take over the dishes after a meal or help clean up. But after they continued to shake their heads at me and tell me no as they continued to serve us, I realized that their service was an act of love towards us. The communities that we were in, were primarily of a Low Cast system which means that they are very poor and humble people who live nearly day to day and primarily survive off of their own rice and plants. But despite their humble lifestyles and incomes, they were continually making us delicious Nepali milk tea and serving us crackers and biscuit cookies. Every single House Church ministry that we attended in the many different Nepali people’s homes we were continually given treats before we were allowed to leave. But to me, their acts of service and love were some of the most precious gifts that they could have ever given us and that I have ever received. They beam God’s love and they are continually sharing it with everyone around them. They love in a beautiful way with the beautiful love of Christ.
I had the opportunity to attend an International Church inside the city this past Sunday morning and a woman who is here in Nepal visiting to do work in a local Christian school spoke words to me that have stuck in my mind ever since. She told me that she wanted me to know that God has already gone before me to all of the places I will go these next 11 months and she told me that I don’t need to fear because He will be right there next me the whole entire time. Then she told me that I should remember that it is not faith that casts out fear, but perfect love that casts out fear. As soon as she said those words to me, I instantly thought of the Nepali people. In my mind, they have so many more things to fear here in their lives than I do back in my comfortable life in the United States. They have the fear of persecution, the fear of being abandoned by their families for their decisions to follow Christ, fear of having enough food to eat or enough money to survive and so much more. But they have so much faith in God to watch over them, that His perfect love begins to flow through them and cast out any fears that they could have. As amazing as it has been to meet the Christians here in Nepal and see the way they live their lives out for Christ, what truly continues to amaze me is the God that is living inside of them and creating it all. It is God that their lives point back to and it is Him who is working through them and in them and in us and through us to love the world.
I am and forever will be in awe of the awesome God we serve, for He surpasses all knowledge and everything that I could ever imagine. And what an amazing gift to serve a God that we can be in communication with whenever and wherever we are and a God who loves us with a perfect love that casts out all fear!
