Hello my name is Courtney Rae Jackson and I am currently sitting in a bus that is flying up and down this very curvy and bumpy road on top of the mountains of Nepal heading to a hostel where we will stay for a few nights to cave hike and white water raft before returning back to meet up with the rest of my squad at another hostel for a few days to chill BEFORE HEADING TO AFRICAAAAAAAAAA
And yes… my thoughts and feelings about this past month of ministry in Nepal is as hectic and crazy as that run-on sentence of what I am currently doing.
My team and I at the beginning of this month did many house visits, preached in many churches, and taught the cutest kiddos in a private Nepali preschool. IT WAS SO FUN. I love house visits and being able to talk to people. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE preaching so that was a baller time. And wow wow wow wow I love children so being able to be “teacher Corny” cause they couldn’t say my name correctly was amazing. I used to work at a daycare and I led Sunday school every Sunday for 5 years so it was just amazing.
This past week we ventured deep deep deep into the mountains to a small but BEAUTIFUL village in the tippy tops of the mountains and did many house visits, preached a bit, and visited many temples and religious landmarks. We visited this one temple where they did animal sacrifices and the walls, floors, stairs and statues were all covered in old and very fresh blood. We had no wifi, lived at the top of a hill in a small church where we had to climb up around a bajillion stairs to get to it everyday, and we hiked and walked everywhere we went for ministry. It was harder than it sounds, I promise. Every meal was at our hosts parents house and so we had to walk to and from the church at least 3 times a day on top of hiking between 5-10 miles each day. And I don’t mean like the American hiking where we climb small mountains… I mean hiking up and down and around the steepest and tallest mountains in the world quite literally. (And no for the last time I did not hike Mount Everest… lol)
Even though I feel like I am jello and I have never been so sore in my entire life… this might have been the best week of my life. I learned so much about other cultures and what it really means to live in a foreign country where they truly have nothing. No transportation. No wifi. No running water. No electricity. No luxury. And honestly I didn’t even have it that bad. I wasn’t the one who had to carry the huge heavy jugs of water up and down the stairs to the church when we needed them… or the person who had to hand pick, wash, gather and make our food everyday for every meal… or the person who had to do so many other things that was just simply provided for us. The worst thing I had to do was not shower for a week, share a squatty potty with 12 girls and 4 Nepali men and church members that would come and go, and freeze every night because it got so dang cold. We didn’t have it near as bad as the people that live there everyday.
I learned how spoiled I am to have all that I have too. Many of the people I met and spent time with this week from the village told jokes, played games, played so much instruments, and simply would spend time together to pass the time in the day. At first I was annoyed at how many times I was asked by a Nepali man to figure out a riddle that really didn’t matter that much to me… but I quickly learned to see the beauty of it and to enjoy it because it made them happy.
They had such a passion for Christ too because honestly… he is all that they have. When they would pray they prayed with all their hearts. When they worshiped it wasn’t to put on a show, they truly were giving everything they had in full force to the God of the entire universe. Every Christian person you would come across would proudly and boldly tell you “Praise God!” (In Nepali). At first I looked at it as a simple greeting but I quickly saw how much they truly meant it without fail each and every time.
It so true when people say that when you have nothing you learn to really appreciate everything. These people were some of the happiest and most joyful people I have ever come across in my 19 years on this crazy big earth.
Nepal has been AMAZING and there is still so much I want to talk to you all about. I want to write about how I literally had the BEST ministry hosts on the face of the entire planet this month. I want to talk about the BEAUTY that is Nepal. I want to talk about how amazing my team is and how much I LOVE THEM. I want to talk about our CRAZY Halloween party that we had. I want to tell you guys everything. There is so much to share. My mind is GOING CRAZY. Ahhhhhhhhhh.
I’ll just write another blog and post it like super soon. Ahhh.
****PRAYER REQUESTS****
-Gods protection, guidance, and love over the many ministries and people I met and fell in love with over this month.
-Gods love to keep pouring out of my team onto my ministry hosts and their family for the remaining 3 or 4 days we have with them.
-God to keep my heart set on where I am and where I am going rather than what I have left behind or have sacrificed. While being on this bus I had a hot sec of sadness of missing my best friend Cady and our crazy car jam sessions and other things from home. Trying to jam to Nepali and Indian music just isn’t the same.
-God to keep protecting me from sickness and injury. I have yet to be hospitalized and I am very happy about this fact and I would like to keep it this way.
-God to keep pushing me in vulnerability with my team and the people I am ministering to. -God to keep pouring into me. It can become very exhausting pouring into other people and being the one teaching others rather than the one being poured into.
-That I will continue to sacrifice and surrender.
Thank you for reading this super crazy and random blog! I love you all and I really do appreciate how much you all have invested into me through reading my blogs and supporting me. Talk to you soon! 🙂
