God definitely has his fingerprints all over this country and the people of Nepal; I see the Lord’s face everywhere here. We have been constantly moving and chowing down on mountains of rice every meal, our team calls them “Rice Everest.” Our ministry contact has been touring us around to churches all over the Kathmandu area, so we are able to experience the Nepali culture from all over. This whole month has been filled with blessings. Our host family is phenomenal! Our papa and mommy have really treated us like their daughters (in Nepali “Churi”), hugging us and telling us how much they love us. Every meal we pray and have life giving conversations with our Nepali parents and siblings. Our guides have been like brothers to us, we have called our group of 9 the “Siblinghood.” I am finding out how radical this month has been over the past few days. We walked into this month not knowing what our ministry would be like, or what we would be doing. I was surprised to find out we will be going to different churches all over Kathmandu/the outskirt villages of Nepal and preaching. The Lord definitely wanted us to grow in this. Personally, the idea of preaching was nerve-wracking. I questioned my own ability; thoughts popped into my head of doubt. But my sisters reminded me where my strength truly came from. Our host has been so gracious and taking us to cultural events throughout Nepal. I am blown away by the beauty of this country and how much hospitality the Nepali people have. We came to Nepal to be a blessing to others but in return we feel as though we are being blessed. After each Church we attend; we are honored with cookies or a lunch and conversation with the pastors and people of the community.
During these conversations we try to be intentional with their community and encouraging to the pastors. I have been really interested in learning about the earthquake and how this tragedy a year ago has shaped their lives today. Many people have shied away from speaking about the earthquake. Earlier this week, we sat down with a younger pastor whom in his earlier years, led trekking through the Himalayans. His hunger to learn more of the word was so beautiful, saying he wanted to start a bible school for the youth. He shared with us how the earthquake affected their ministry and their lives. He shared in broken English about the earthquake. The information I did gather from this pastor revealed it happened on a Saturday morning church service and many believers were worshipping “The God.” They felt an uncontrollable shaking that he said was the longest 25 seconds of his life. After the earthquake’s initial shock, their church continued to worship for 3 hours. Many believers passed away that Saturday morning. Churches were destroyed which caused a lot of disbelief in their Christian community. There were hundreds of people in churches who went home with the Lord that day. The community came together doing disaster relief.
My heart aches for the Nepali people. The earthquake has caused a lot of turmoil in their lives. For our Papa- his church was destroyed in the earthquake and he hasn’t had a basis to preach his undying love for the Lord. This man is literally always worshipping wherever we walk singing “Hallelujah” and playing his sarangi for us.
This Monday morning at 5:30am we were awoken by intense shaking that lasted about 10 seconds from an aftershock can earthquake near Mount Everest (thankfully, there was no casualties, or much damage.) I grabbed Hannah’s hand and she calmly said to me “do not be afraid” the three other girls in our room started praying. Being a Minnesotan, I have never experienced any kind of aftershock from an earthquake. Everyone in our home woke up and checked to see if each other were ok. My heart truly hurt for our Nepali native friends, this same shaking happened about a year ago only feeling twice as long and six times as strong as what we felt. I am sure fear consumed their minds, and flashbacks of what they saw a year ago came back. We were all ok and no damage occurred where we were.
Please continue to pray for the restoration of hearts for the Nepali people. Please pray that our papa will be able to restore a church that he can continue preaching and worshipping from. Pray for our sermons to touch the lives of who they need to touch. Pray that the Lord will provide funds so I can remain on the ministry field.
I feel so thankful to you all of my supports for allowing me to stay on the field. Together we have hit my November goal to stay on the field. In order to be fully funded I must raise $3,736. If you feel led to support Global Missions let me know. I would love to share with you about how the lord is working in my life. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to be here, and am blessed by all my supporters.
XO, B
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