What a huge breath of fresh air physically, but also spiritually Nepal has been. Our squad has been blessed with the chance to minister and spread God’s love and glory among this beautiful mountainous region. Our new team started off the month by exploring the city, including a temple, shopping, and the beautiful mountainsides. We also got the opportunity to do a church service in Kathmandu and then going to do a number of house visits to encourage and pray for local believers. It is always so amazing at how much these people serve us with cookies and soda despite having so little to give. I always walk away feeling more blessed than them.
(Tough being tall sometimes)
From there we headed to our first village ministry where we stayed at a local church and helped them perform many baptisms of fellow believers, including one of our own.
(Baptizing Chelsea!!!)
(Team RC)
(Why not get a bath to last for the next few days?)
Next we headed to our second village where we told to construct a bathroom for the village church that they were going to build. Needless to say, I don’t have the greatest construction skills, but we bought the materials and laid the foundation down. Lots of mixing cement and laying bricks down, but we trust that God will bring workers in behind us to complete the work.
(Laying that foundation. Right behind us is our bathroom/the cornfield)
(Wrestling goats and losing by the look of things)
(I never rode inside a vehicle. Either on the top/out the side/on a moto, or we walked over mountains or tubed across rivers)
We had a long hard hike over a couple of steep mountains to the next village. We had a couple of close calls, but everyone made it safely. This village was really remote and it was our job to design and start to build a school there because the village kids had to walk 4 hours every day to get to the current school. This included crossing a huge river where some kids had drowned previously. It was really hard work bring stones up a mountain and digging a trench, but well worth it when you look in those kid’s eyes.
(Fun 5 hour hike. Tough, but beautiful)
(Celebrating a mountaintop together)
(The land of the new school)
(Determined to not let the little kids show me up. Not easy carrying a basket full of stones up a steep hill using your head)
The night before we left the third village, it monsooned all night. Of course, we had been praying for rain the whole time and it hadn’t come, but the one time we pray for it to not rain, it pours. So we had to tube across one river, ford another one, take a makeshift boat across another one. All to get on a bus and ride on the top of it sitting on a pile of bananas ducking so we don’t get decapitated by power lines. The bus rocks back and forth, making us think that it was going to tip, but we survive, and hop on another bus. Arrive at our destination, and then travel to pray over the land for a future orphanage. All wrapped up by an 1 1/2 hour long church service that doesn’t end until 10:30. Up at 3:45 the next morning and on a 14 bus ride back to Kathmandu.
(Trying to cross a huge river and not get our packs wet)
(Crossing the river. Who needs waterparks in Nepal?)
So, a great adventurous month for me and my team. I really feel like we helped start a movement in the different villages we got to go to. Pray for a spirit of refreshment once again as our squad prepares to head to Africa for 3 months. Our first country will be South Africa, and we will be helping launch a new ministry in Coffee Bay off the SE coast. There will be 4 teams together and it should be an exciting time, but I know that Africa will also pose many spiritual challenges so be in steady prayer for me and my team. I can’t believe 6 countries have come and gone! Love you all very much!
