Evangelizing to Mountainous villages in Nepal is one of the biggest needs in the world.
And we got to do exactly that. We trekked through the Himalayan Mountains to villages to potentially have the opportunity to evangelize.
We began traveling before the sun rose- seven hour bus ride and then a two day long trek through the Himalayas all so we could potentially be able to evangelize to even one person.
Nepal is a closed country, so it is illegal to evangelize openly unless someone asks you to share about it, which seldom happens. We went to three homesteads in the village. When we came across someone, we would ask if they were interested in hearing about our faith and we could only share if they said yes and invited us in. The first homestead we came across, the Nepali woman politely declined. The second homestead we spoke to an 82 year old man for about 30 minutes. He said he knew of Jesus and the power He holds but he didn’t know anything about Jesus or what He did for us. The third homestead we spoke to a woman and her daughter and they were very interested in what we had to say. She said that there have been a few other missionary teams come to her home before. She has heard about God’s love a few times but didn’t really know him. We let her know that the Lord continues to send teams to her to remind her of His love and faithfulness. The Holy Spirit worked through our words greatly and I could feel Him moving. She accepted Christ and it was incredible to witness!
We trekked for hours, our bodies were so sore. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done physically, especially because I was sick.
That night we stayed in a village home. We all sat on the floor around a small fire in a pit in the floor while our host cooked dinner and then breakfast for us the next morning. Our host did not know the Lord, so we and our translator/guide, Kumar, ministered to her and her husband and shared the gospel. They were both Hindu and after hearing the gospel, were interested in what we had to say – but explained to us that because of their Hindu families and culture, they were unable to be Christians or their families would shun them. We had a conversation about God’s love for us and how following Christ is not always easy but it’s always worth it.
Kumar, our 21 y/o Nepali guide who translated for us 5 girls at our village home. He is a really awesome dude who was so eager to learn about anything. Mid-conversation with to our host (still sitting on the floor after dinner), Kumar asks us “Do you ever feel the Holy Spirit?” We reply, “yeah, all the time”. He said “Oh man! That’s so cool. My brother does sometimes but I never do.” He thought he had never heard from the Holy Spirit. But then said “sometimes I see things in my brain, like this, what’s happening, right now, and then they happen later, I don’t know”. He said he had a vision previously of us five girls sitting around the fire with him. We said “Kumar, that’s a vision bro! You get visions! That’s God speaking to you!” And he was BLOWN AWAY. He was so in awe that he hears from God. I suppose he didn’t assume that his visions were from God. He put his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. He shook his head. He peaked at us through his fingers and widened his eyes so wide as if to say “are you serious right now? GOD speaks to ME?” He stood up, patted his chest over his heart, looked up, and said “all is well, all is well, all is well in my soul”. Something shifted in Kumar. We got to see that happen. He went from a lukewarm Christian to a man on fire for Christ. He returned to sitting with his elbows on his knees, shaking with excitement. He told us that he would never do anything but follow God again- because now he was absolutely positive that God has chosen him. Kumar knew the Lord before but was unsure of his relationship with Him. Now that Kumar was standing confident in his place with God, as a chosen son, he expressed to us that he would devote his every move and action to the Lord.
We slept so good that night in a little cabin with five beds. None of us were expecting beds, so that was incredible. After trekking uphill for so long and then going to bed after feeling the Spirit move the way He did that day- I’ve never slept better. That’s what life is made of there!!
Something that was small but so good:
I was sick while we were trekking. I was very congested, had a horrible cough, and I couldn’t hold food down very well. After our first day of trekking, we had dinner and then went to bed. I woke up at about 3am to throw up, so that’s super great!! Kind of miserable, but anyway. We trekked for the entire day the following. I coughed the whole time and had a weak stomach. Eventually, we arrived at our village that we would stay the night at. We walked down the stairs, there’s a beautiful view of the Himalayan mountains, the sun was setting, and then our Nepali host walks around the corner with cups of warm ginger tea for us all. Geez was that the best cup of tea I’ve ever had.
Trekking may have been hard and I may have been miserable at times.. but if I was meant to be there that night just to encourage Kumar in his faith and watch him become unwavering in his faith- It would be so worth it and I would do it a thousand more times.
