As we packed and prepared to come to Nepal I will admit I was weary. I was tired from a month of overwhelming physical and spiritual exhaustion in India. Don’t get me wrong. I treasure our experiences in India and the people we were able to meet. But I must say, in regards to the depths of the spiritual climate and the intense need for Christ to reign, India is unlike any other place I had been before. So in the final days of our time in India, hidden behind the tearful goodbyes and anguish filled prayers for the Lord to do a mighty work in the precious lives of the people we met, I’ll admit I was drained. Praying for families to witness God’s loving power, being away from home for the seventh month in a row, trying to be a loving wife at all times, living in community, loving the people we encountered, pursuing God on a daily basis… It was a lot to bear and the more I tried to do it all on my own the more I realized I couldn’t.
So coming to a new country seemed daunting. A new place, new people groups, new living situations… I didn’t know how I was going to handle being uprooted yet again in order to start over with a whole new ministry.
But in the true nature of God to be faithful to His children, God quickly displayed His purpose in constant change and His complete ability to renew us each morning the second we flew over the border of Nepal. His almighty power that I had experienced through the heavy but hopeful tears of temple prostitutes in India was expressed through the magnificent display of His breathtaking creation in the Himalayas. Flying into Kathmandu, we were literally eye level with unbelievably beautiful snow-capped mountains that whispered to me how much God loves me. I instantly felt refreshed and couldn’t help but beam at the potential that Nepal had to offer after being in its vicinity for a mere ten minutes.
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Nepal is magical.
Nepal is eclectic.
Nepal is an outdoorsman’s dream.
Nepal has captured my heart as a place that is literally as close to heaven as earth will get.
And Nepal still needs Jesus dearly.
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As you probably already know, our team is doing something quite different this month. All other teams on our squad have been paired with hosts, as usual, to aid their respective ministries in bringing Kingdom to Nepal. But our team has the unique privilege of researching and pursuing new contacts for the World Race to potentially come alongside in some capacity to help further what God is doing through their obedience to serve. (See Katie’s perfect description of Unsung Heroes month.)
So ministry this month for Team Change (along with one of our fearless squad leaders, Patrick Doty) looks like us sitting at coffee shops, researching new ministries and contacting friends of friends in Nepal, and asking to meet up with these new contacts to hear about their ministries.
In the first day of research our team, renamed The Dream Team for this month 🙂 was able to contact over 50 ministries and schedule over 10 meetings to discover what God is doing through His children in Nepal. All in the first day! How crazy!!! God was and continues to be all over the process of meeting with ministries, hearing their dreams, experiencing their passion, and understanding the obstacles they overcame to be doing what they are doing today.
It has been so sweet to see God’s favor in pursuing Unsung Heroes. It’s shown us that He wants His kingdom to reign. He wants His children to work together to spread His love to unreached people groups in Nepal. He wants us to be a part of what He is doing here.
We have learned that less than 10% of Nepal’s population is Christian and a good majority of Nepali people have never even heard the name of Jesus. They have no idea of the hope they could have in a true savior. And the folks we are meeting with are working diligently to bring the gospel to those unreached people groups because they’ve realized if they don’t, who will?
It’s shocking to hear, but of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world, only 5% are missionaries. And of that 5% of missionaries, less than 10% are pursuing unreached people groups.
God has blessed us with the invitation to share his precious gospel with the whole world. And it has been humbling and inspiring to meet people that are truly answering His calling.
We have had the honor of hearing story after story of God faithfully bringing dreams and visions to fruition simply by people being willing to obey. Its been beyond encouraging to sit down with people and hear how God put specifics on their hearts for how they were to reach the nations… and they didn’t let the world’s expectations stop them from marching forward and stepping out in faith.
From the meetings we have had with truly humble servants of the Lord, I have learned that there is danger in the unknown, there is risk in the uncertainty, there is discomfort in uprooting your life… but there is also an insatiable curiosity within us to recognize a dream, expand a vision, and go on an adventure with God to reach ALL nations.
I am truly inspired to dream. To live. To obey. To move.
Why should dreams and passions God gives us ever be too crazy to live out? Why should anything be impossible?
In my weak moments on the race I have found myself complaining about being away for eleven months… But now I am thankful for this time to dream and am inspired that God wants to display His extravagant love for me and all of His children by bringing me on a constant adventure with Him to reach His people.
“Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?”
– Oswald J. Smith.
