As my previous blog stated this blog will share what we did from when we arrived to Chitwan to when we traveled to the Himalayas. These weeks are not exact weeks, but with how random our days were I still feel the need to share a little about each day!
(I cannot add pictures to this blog yet but have them ready to go once I have stronger wifi)
Day one, we traveled to Chitwan and arrived in India. Not really, but it was definitely as hot as India, not by numbers but with the humidity we felt just as hot! In that we settled ourselves in then jumped right into ministry again by walking to a nearby church. I had one hour to prepare my testimony to share with the church, I decided to edit my old one and was doing some treasurer things before it. I only began working on it with 30 minutes to go and then our host came in and said, okay get ready to go. So I had about five minutes! But, I was able to get it edited to be appropriate for the culture of Nepal and to share it with the believers in the church that night.
That night we learned the lesson from the title of this blog, when the sun goes down the frogs come out. And they like people… Especially people sleeping on the floor of a church!
(Here will be a picture of the church we spoke at from where I was sitting, it’s a hut roof with a cement slab underneath it)
The next day we awoke bright and early to being told to go see if our shoes were outside since apparently we had been robbed overnight. I prepared myself for them to be gone as I walked outside and I honestly forgot my Chacos were in my big pack for a few seconds. When I first went outside and I thought they were stolen. My flip flops were still there, but they are broken and from Peru so not exactly what they were after. I am thankful to have not lost my shoes but also thankful to live a few seconds thinking that I had to abandon my shoes, it showed me a little about myself in that instance.
Anyway, that day we missed morning ministry because of the shoe issue and the need to go into town to buy new shoes for some people. So in the afternoon we hiked a super far uphill journey to a village up in the hills. We made it to what we thought was a zoo, but it was just a park that had a gate and an entrance fee. We prayed for the village there and the people in it. For the lies they were believing and for the bondage they were living in to be broken. Then we waited, Nepal time is give or take 3 hours… So after a short while we walked to a church and prayed with the pastor and for the church to get a new building. Then we walked back, the walk back took a third of the time. We are pretty sure the hike before was training for what was to come!
(Here will be a picture of us outside of what we thought was a zoo after our long hike up the steep hills!)
The following day we hiked to a waterfall! The hike took some time and was even more difficult than the previous day. The hike was a prayer hike so we prayed as we hiked but then when we got there we were given a little time to bath in the waterfall and just enjoy its beauty. It was such a gift! After we hiked back down with our translator to a small shop and talked with the people who owned it. We drank some Mt. Dew, so later we would see the “mountain view” there is one of our dad jokes from this month! The family was very interested in what we had to share, they told us that they were very interested and said Christianity sounded very good. Their shop was mainly made to sell alcoholic drinks to the people hiking by though. Christians in Nepal do NOT drink so it would change their livelihood. Then we learned another excuse that kept them from allowing a change, even though they found Christianity so appealing, their grandfather was a witch doctor. When I heard that I was so driven to share even more, but I could see their hearts were closed for the time being. We left soon after, but the seed planted will be watered via our host, I know he will continue stopping there on his trekks!
(Here will be a picture of the waterfall!)
The next day we hiked in the afternoon, the morning was our time of reflection and to enter journey markers. We hiked up the road to a home and four of us entered the house to share the Gospel with the family while the rest of us prayed outside. It was so awesome to just be outside, with random goats and chickens walking up to us as we prayed. A school bus drove by and children saw us praying. Then we walked to another home and all talked with a family together, sharing the gospel and playing with their children. After talking with the family, we walked to the location of a new church and prayed over the building and over the community it was in. We also sang worship songs within the space that will be the church too.
(Here will be a picture of me holding out my hand to a newborn goat that we met along the way)
The next day, oh goodness this was a day to be remembered!!
We went evangelizing, and shoot, God showed up!
Reflecting on this day brings me so much joy!
So, anyway, we went to a home and split up into two groups to talk with people who wanted to come talk to us Americans. They were invited by the pastor, but not to talk to us about God, even though that was totally our plan. But, before we went there we prayed over a man and his family. We had to wait for the next pastor so we waited at the home of the man. Two young men saw us and wanted to practice English with us, so they walked over. We chatted for a bit and then it was time to go. We asked if they wanted to come with us and they said yes, so they came with us and heard all of our conversations. We talked with several people and in the middle of sharing the gospel with a man he had to leave, so we asked the young man who was in our room with us what he thought and after a few questions he accepted Christ! Seriously! He did! And he told us how excited he was to share this information with his family and lead them to Christ!!
Look at God!
Bringing a person we were not going to talk to about God into the room to hear about Him!
So then! He went outside and ate with the pastor while we ate lunch by ourselves. Another young man came because his mom brought him. His girlfriend just happened to come too, he did not want to hear what we had to say and left halfway through our conversation so we just talked with her. She found Christianity very appealing as well and knew it would help her boyfriend. He had a huge bandage on his head from a gang fight. She then asked a few questions, and then… accepted Christ! Once again someone who we were not planning to talk to! She said she wanted to guide her boyfriend to Christ because she knew he needed Him. She knew his life needed to change.
We walked home after that, on fire!
So, from this week I hope you take three big things away from these stories:
God moves even when we don’t plan on it!
God messes up our schedules so He can show up!
God is so good!
The next blog might just contain a vlog because after that day we headed out and traveled to our town we began trekking from!
This one might take a week or two to get put together, and I will need STRONG wifi to upload the blog so please be patient with me 🙂
