Nepal has been the biggest blessing. Just when I had come to the point of being done with the world race, Nepal has redirected my gaze and reminded me why I’m on this trip. Although I’m excited to be home in America in a month, I am so thankful for the time I have here in Nepal with my dear friends and my wonderful ministry host family.
It has reminded me we all deal with the same lies, even though they take different forms. It has reminded me of the brokenness in this world and the power of my savior.
Nepal has made the Bible come alive for me.
It’s like I’m walking into passages I have read all my life.
Funny how entering a predominately Hindu country has strengthened my faith like no other country before.
One of the biggest blessings to me in Nepal is witnessing the Christians here. It’s very easy to be a Christian by tradition, not by conviction or decision, especially living in America. You don’t have to sacrifice much to be a Christian in America. In Nepal, you sacrifice everything to be a Christian. When you could get in trouble for it, you sacrifice everything. Even though I live in a country with religious freedom, I want to live like these Christians. I want to give my everything to Christ.
Nepal has opened my eyes in so many ways. It is a closed country, the preaching of the gospel is outlawed. It is a Hindu country, with many Buddhists as well. On one of our ministry days, we went to a Hindu community and walked around with the mission of covering the area in prayer.
We walked past a temple where they make sacrifices. We walked through a park area where people were creating altars and preparing to make sacrifices.
I’ve read about sacrifices made to idols in the Bible, but never have I witnessed it. It has made the Bible become so real. I no longer read the Bible as old stories, but as now. I see persecution, I see sacrifices, I hear recent stories of people posses by evil spirits now freed by Christ. It’s not old stories from the past, it is now.
This experienced opened my eyes to the lie that only Hindu countries have idols.
The reality is, we all have idols. An idol is anything put before God. In America, we have idols that we give ourselves to, but they look different.
Although Americans don’t kill goats on an alter, they do give all they have to many things, to name a few: clothes, food, drugs, happiness, success, beauty, money, approval, reputation, romance, safety… People sacrifice everything for some of these things; anything that gives them purpose, or takes away the pain of feeling like they have none.
So interesting how darkness is everywhere, but can sometimes look so different from country to country.
It’s an interesting perspective I get to see, looking at America from the outside looking in, but knowing the inside. People who live in poverty often look at the USA and believe the lie that it is a perfect land where you have everything, and must be happy.
The truth is, you can have all the things of this world and they will never satisfy. There are people who have everything you could ever desire, and it’s not enough. All the things of the world claim to give you so much, but once you get it all, you realize it was all a lie. It satisfied you for a little bit, but soon it leaves you feeling empty and alone. It is a cycle of needing more and more, chasing after that short satisfaction. Also, I don’t think people understand the level of poverty that exists in America as well.
One of our first days in Nepal, we went to visit an orphanage. I got to play with these two little girls for a little bit and they carried more joy than most kids I have seen in America. These kids have nothing, literally nothing, not even parents. But they opened their hearts to us so quickly, they loved us so well, they broke the darkness when they smiled, I saw the sunshine when they laughed.
From everything the world has ever told me, this makes no sense. We are supposed to be happy when we have more. When I think about the USA, I think of it as such a sad country. The country that has so much, and it’s still not enough, it will never be satisfied. People who have so much sell themselves away to drugs, to forget the pain of life, and all the lies it has sold them. The feeling of always needing more and more. The self-centeredness, what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours. The country with no shortage of food, yet girls all over the country have eating disorders.
Our countries are so very different, but at the root of it all, they are so similar! We were created by the same God. We are all just people. Yes, we are people who have different cultures, food, living environments, mindsets, opinions, experiences, but at the root of it all, we are all people.
We struggle with different and the same things, and we feel the same things. We all know what it’s like to be happy, excited, mortified, tired, angry, brave, sad, heartbroken, sorrowful… We all believe some lie that we aren’t enough, we need to be prettier, or more successful, or better than everyone else, or more talented, or funnier, or whatever it is, to have some sort of feeling of worth.
We are all broken, searching for worth, satisfaction, belonging… hope.
I am sitting in Nepal, a country very closed to the gospel, yet I have never been more sure of my God.
My God is the living God, who is so gracious he bore our sins so that we could be close. If we ask him to forgive us and continue to seek after him, He calls us his sons and daughters. He satisfies our longing soul. He brings peace to the broken heart, and rest to the weary soul, and freedom to the captive.
When talking about the giant earthquake a few years back, my ministry host said this,
“The earthquake took everything from us, everything but our hope.”
The devil can take much, but that is one thing he can never take, our hope.
That is why I’m on this trip: hope.
To share the hope I have.
To serve
To learn more about who I am so I can better serve and love people in the future.
To have a heart for the world
The world sells so many lies, we can’t escape it. Even though it may look different, the lies still creep in, often without our knowing. My prayer is that God would continue to break the lies and open my eyes, and let the light of hope flood in.
God, break the lies
Open our eyes
