A few days ago we hiked up to a monasterey. Like most monasteries it was on top of a mountain or hill as they call it in Nepal. We endured a two hour hike straight up the grassy hillside and rocky cliffs. Our contact Megh and a couple of other men, who were with us, kept us motivated as we strived for the top. It was a hard climb, I wanted to give up a few times but it was well worth it. I prayed to God for strength and He provided because I made it. On the way one of my teammates asked Megh "Are you sure there is a monastery?" She was joking but I was starting to wonder that myself. We are out of shape Americans and not use to this sort of thing. We were huffing and puffing but the Neplaese men were climbing like they did this everyday.
When we finally got to the top, it was an amazing view. We could see the whole town below us and the monastery looked like a smaller version of the white house. Huge white pillars at the top of the stairs hid the elaborate paintings and sculptures of the buddhist fairy tales over the ceilings and walls of the entrance way. The surrounding grounds were covered in golf course quality grass with manicured shrubs and flower beds. The garden was quite shocking because we have not seen anything landscaped since Europe.
Big red dooors, with big brass knockers in the shape of some of some sort of animal, towered over me as I went inside. I think my jaw dropped as I stood inside gazing at the huge buddist idols at the opposite side of the room. The walls and ceilings were covered in more paintings and the floor was carpeted in red with backless benches facing the center of the room. There were pictures of famous monks and people important to buddhism sitting on tables beside the idols. It is an amazing sight to see but it brought me sadness that they have gone to so much trouble to worship gods that don't exist.
We met one of the head monks and had tea with him. Our contact Megh later told us about the time he spent at a Monastery as a child before he was converted to Christianity. We also met an eccentric man who was living there while teaching English to the monk children. He told he believes both Christianity and Buddhism. We talked for awhile about our faith, explaining why we believe the truth written in the Bible. Then we said good-bye and headed down the hill. We stopped at a couple believers' houses on the way to pray for them and encourage them in their faith.
It was a very good day. No one was saved or converted. There were no miracles like I hoped, but God put us there for a reason and I believe that we helped prepare the soil for the seed. Now it's up to the next God sent workers to sow the seeds. Now we are in Kenya working in God's great garden here; sowing, planting, watering, fertilizing the Holy Spirit in the people of Africa.
And very importantly, ourselves too!
