Just another day in Nepal for team Rooted. Teaching.. yard work.. resting and soaking in God's amazing and gorgeous country. Like most afternoons Tye and I along with Julie head out with about 20-25 of our students to visit homes and just hang out. We have to leave early tonight though because we had duties at the place we are living to pull weeds and do some landscaping.
As we were saying goodbye to the kids they were asking about going to the forest to visit the next day so we agreed. Walking back a few students ran up to us with terror in their eyes telling us to not go to the forest, there is a man there that will cut off your head. Not sure if they were kidding or not (because these kids have the funniest sense of humors) we were like nuh uh i don't believe you… then seeing the look in one of my students eyes i became very uncertain if he was joking. As we returned to our home i asked our contact Theresa if what they had said was true. She said yes.. there is a man in the forest who tells everyone he is a god and that if you travel alone bad things have happened, including people's heads getting cut off!
I of course shouted- SHUT UP! .. don't worry she knows i don't mean actually shut up.. but thats just the way i talk.. i really have to break that habit..
She continued to tell us some crazy stories about the Hindu faith and things they believe.This one really grabbed the hearts of all of us.. we couldn't believe what we were hearing.
There is a superstition that the Hindu people of Nepal have is that when they are building roads and bridges (thankfully there isn't many of them) they believe that for "good luck" or maybe just because of some delusion that you must bury children under the bridge… still alive…
I couldn't believe what i was hearing.. I hear Trey beside me mutter.." is this a dream?"
Then she continues to tell us of a set of twins that this happened to and some other children that she knew of. I couldn't believe my ears. And because it is socially acceptable the police can't do anything about it and no one says anything. Can you believe a religion that believes it is ok to bury children alive? I wanted to vomit when she was saying these things to me. Its not fair, and its not right. This people and children deserve better. The fact that these children didn't even get a chance at life. But much worse is the people who live everyday thinking that this is ok. That this is what their god wants from them. Its desgusting. The only positive thing i can think of out of this is that these children didn't have to live in a world filled with this terror. That God saved them from death… In a different sense. He cherished these lives so much that even though what happened was aweful and is the worst possible thing i could ever image, to know that these children are sitting with their father in heaven looking down at us and smiling, thankful they didn't have to live in a world so full of darkness. It reminds me of the scripture "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory that he will reveal to us later." Romans 8:18
I pray for these children in Nepal that i have come to love so dearly. That i spend every day with, teaching or just spending the afternoons walking the village streets visiting families.. drinking tea with their mothers and having corn. Greeting them with their mother tongue and hearing as they all giggle at my accent. I can't even entertain the thought of something like this happening to them. Im angry, sad, and mortified at the same time. I am also thankful that God has put me in their lives in this season. To be able to see and hear these things and know i am respondible for making a difference. I pray that they come to know the truth… i know.. and i thank God, that he has a plan for each and every one of them. I pray that you guys reading this will take time out right now to bow you heards and pray for this Nation. For this village of Nijgadh where very few people know the truth about God or live in any kind of freedom. Pray for deliverance to spread this nation. That Nepal will become a christian nation that will drive away all darkness. And pray for these children. That they will become Kingdom builders. That they follow their hearts and find their true calling in this life. That they come to know that they are princes and princesses and that their heavenly Father loves them sooo dearly and that if He had to do it all again just for them, He would.
