After being here for a little over a week, my team and I have realized there really is no such thing as structure here at Asha Nepal.
Every day has looked a little different, but it has been keeping us on our toes. A couple of my teammates (Michael and Jenifer) are working on a commercial for Asha Nepal. Jenifer is also helping update their magazine and website. My teammate Ally and I are home schooling two of the girls here in Math (they call is Maths here) and English. Austin and Michael have been doing devotionals with the boys in the morning; and Jenifer, Ally and I have been doing devotionals for the girls. My teammate Layne and some of the other girls are helping with a five-year counseling plan for the women here, and Layne has also really connected with the women in the kitchen serving and helping them in whatever they need.
Honestly our biggest ministry this month has been to just be with the people here. They love when you are just around them. One of the main ways they show love here is through food, so they love to share and they feel loved when you eat with them.
One of the older ladies that has been here for awhile, her name is Chanda, has really opened up with my teammates and I. She has such a need in her life for love and it has been so fun getting to love on her.
She would always come up to us and give us big hugs and say "I love you" so I taught her the I love you sign and now she comes up to us and does that sign all the time!
The other day I spent an hour or so sitting on the porch with a couple of the women here. As I sat there I was thinking hmmm I don't really know what to say because none of the kids were around (they usually try and help translate for the women) and the women I am with don't know English very well at all. But I knew I was supposed to just hang out with them whether I could understand or make conversation with them or not. I started trying to talk to one of the women and she was able to ask me about my family and she knew some basic words so I was able to tell her I have Dad, Mom, Sister, Sister and Brother. Then she opened up with me and told me about her family and that she had brothers who were twins and two sisters, but that one of her sisters has been missing for 9 years (I came to find later her sister was trafficked to India). I know this was a moment of vulnerabillity for this women and I pray that God would continue healing through moments like these.
After we had sat and had a broken but great conversation, the other woman that was there said "Sister, you do?" and she stuck her tongue out of her mouth and tried to touch her nose! I loved it, and this was the first of many little trick games we played. We tried to touch our tongues to our elbows, contort our fingers or make them look broken, do the human pretzel, flip our eyelids, etc.
It was such a joyful and silly time but it was so cool to see God work in the moments when I wonder how I can even connect to these women that I can't understand and that can't understand me.
Later that night after dinner we were up on the roof and brought up a couple computers and a speaker and had a dance party! We taught them some American dances, and they taught us some Nepali dances! It was so much fun dancing, singing, laughing and praising the Lord through song and dance with the kids!
God is moving in working here in Nepal in many ways. I am so excited to see how these relationships that are formed, with Christ at the center, bring healing and restoration to the women and children here at Asha Nepal.
