I was not ready to experience a cold month at all, but in all I learned a lot about who I am, what I am capable of, and how much I only need the things that God provides for me. Someone once said, “Don’t take anything from anyone that you can only get from God.” This really rang loud throughout my month in Nepal.
Here’s a little bit about Nepal. Nepal has been through some rough times in the last year. One thing that has made times tough in Nepal was the tremendous earthquakes that they experienced in May and April of 2015. It was a devastating natural disaster that effected the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their lives. It is estimated that over 8,000 people were killed during the earthquakes. With more than 20,000 people injured, and displacing upwards of more than half a million families, because their homes were flattened or in conditions that deemed unlivable.
Another reason that Nepal is having rough patches is the fact that they signed a new constitution that India doesn’t like at all. To stay away from political things, I will just say that India has put an embargo on things that are imported into Nepal. So what do this mean for Nepal? Well, gas of any sort is extremely expensive. Whether it is for a car or cooking it has a high price tag. Basic medical supply’s that are used for sustaining lives are hard to find at a price that is affordable.
With that all being said, Nepal has been one of the most interesting, most adventures, most life changing month that I have had on the race so far. I probably say that each month, or something along the same lines, but the truth is, it was. With each month of the race you learn about who you in Christ more.
This life that I am living with the Lord is crazy. I don’t think I would have ever imagined what would come about during my time in the field, and God being someone who is faithful in everything still shows up and brings kingdom alive in my life. I don’t know why I was chosen to go, however, I sure am thankful for that choice because I would never take it back.
If you would have asked me when I was younger what I wanted be doing with my life, I would have said I want to travel the world, but I was not a believer then. God being the Good Father that He is gives us the desires of our hearts, but the twist is that those desires or plans will not be entirely ours, nor will they look like ours in anyway. Traveling the world is a dream many people desire to do, on vacation or as a recreational activity, and when I was younger that is exactly what I had in mind. But God, He is the master mind behind who I am today, and here I am doing what I wanted to do but in a completely different way than what I would’ve expected years ago. I wouldn’t change it for anything.
Wow!! Where do I start?
Oh I know!!! This month my team was placed with one of the craziest people I know to this day. His name was Reuben. If you look up his website (<<here) and look how clean cut this guy is, you would never ever imagine that he was a completely different person. He is in his 40’s and acts like a 20 something year old. But this guy has one of the biggest hearts for his people that I have ever seen. He truly resembles Christ with complete abandonment. What an incredible host to have. We were joined in all of our endeavors with two other teams, so basically half of the squad was under his watch, care, and what an incredible journey he took us on this month.
We started our month off with debrief and team changes. We said goodbye to our old teams and said hello to our new teams. Debrief was in Katmandu for about a week, where we met up with the rest of the squad, and the leadership team that are in the states. Jesus met us there and He brought life in everything we did.
After debrief we went to our ministries with our new teams. Like I said earlier my team was together with two other teams. The first week we all spent time in different ministries. Our team went to an earthquake relief camp, where we spent the week in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. It was breath taking to be where we were.
While at the relief camp, we would reach out to the children and youth in the area. We sang songs, taught bible stories, played games, and loved on the people. Even some of the adults would join in on some of the things we did. Some of them not even knowing who Christ is, got to hear The Gospel for the first time. Most people in Nepal are Hindu or Buddhist. The smiles that were seen on the faces of the children will always be in my heart; including some of the adults that joined in on singing songs about Jesus. The joy that they had was incredible. Some of the most joy filled people I have met lived in the camp.
There was this older gentlemen that was always right in the middle of it all, all the time, crushed my heart tremendously. This guy had to be in his 70’s to early 80’s. He would jump around, dance, and do all the actions of our songs, with incredible joy. He had a childlike heart, and that is what Christ calls us to have. This guy is exactly what Jesus meant when He said we need to have childlike faith. However, I never asked if he believed in Jesus, yet I know he has been seeking after Jesus’s heart for a while. So if he is not, I’m sure he will be soon.
During this week I think I set a record for myself in how long I went without a shower. A whole WEEK, and guess what I was okay!!! That was a huge thing for me, because I usually take a shower every day. I like to be clean, but for this week we didn’t take a shower. It showed me a lot about things that I have worried about in my life that were so small and basically I really didn’t need to worry about them anymore. I took a step closer into who Christ has called me to be. I know it doesn’t seem huge, but for me I learned to not care about things that are meaningless, and it took not taking a shower for a week to learn this for me. I might be a completely different person when I come back, pre-warning!!
After a week of no showers, doing VBS, loving on people, preaching, using squatty potties that were too small to stand up in, seeing a bull fight for the first time, sharing life with one another, hanging out by a beautiful river, and hiking up a side of the mountain to share a bible story with another camp because of language barrier, we returned back to Katmandu. But before I go on I must tell you about language barriers that we experience.
So this is how language barrier works somewhat on the race. We were told we would be going to hike up the side of a mountain. It was HUGE. They told us it would only take us two hours. It took us four to five hours, with some help at the top, by riding in the back of a dump truck that was full of sand and people, and also the help of a bus, for the last part, which probably shaved off another hour of hiking we would have done. This was pretty fun though. When we completed hiking up this mountain, and taking our modes of transportation we find out we were not going to feed people like we were told, we did it to go sightseeing. So since we were still wanting to do some ministry we ask if we could go find some ministry to do. Oh by the way, at this point we were with one of Reuben’s helpers, not him. We were told we could go to another relief camp to share the bible there with the children that we on the side of this mountain, so we walked over there and got to experience some incredible people, they heard The Gospel probably for the first time in their lives. Moral of the story language barriers suck sometimes yet God shows up and turns it into something that glorifies His name.
Returning back to Katmandu we took showers and washed our clothes. Then repacked to go to an orphanage that Reuben was building. He needed help carrying materials up to the top floor so they could finish. So for a couple days we were a moving crew. Assembly lines were created and the small project that he gave us was completed in a few days.
After we moved all the material, we were sent to small village to help build a part of a school. However, we had to hike through the mountains to get there. Racers have been coming to this village to help build this school for years and will still probably continue to hike to get to there. While we were there we got to experience, along with all the people of the village, the first ever vehicle to make it to the village. Hence the reason why we had to hike. Even though it was a tractor it was huge for the village. We all celebrated together. It was an awesome time, and a huge blessing for us because we would’ve had to carry all the materials in there for our project
At the school we got to build the foundation for some rooms for teachers to live there. The school was originally built for students so that they didn’t have to cross the river to get to school. Which was a huge blessing to them. Many children have been swept away by the river and have died trying to attend school. It was very awesome to see how God was using this school to provide so much for the children there in the village.
While we were there we stayed in our tents and had camp fires every night. We got to experience no power, no Wi-Fi, and we had community while looking up at the stars. It was amazing. Every morning was foggy and cold, but we got to have some of my favorite breakfasts on the race there. We even got to eat eel that we caught in the river. Fishing here was a new experience for me because it was done in an untraditional way, and a way that I can’t put on here.
After a while of being in the village we had to hike back. This time we took a different way. We had to go through the river that the children had to cross and where we fished that week. The river at places had a strong currant and could sweep you away. Good thing we had some locals to guide us through it.
I instantly regretted bringing so much weight with me yet again. At first hiking through the mountains to get there was pretty hard with all the stuff I brought. We had the chance to leave most of our stuff at the orphanage. I didn’t take that option. That was a mistake. It was even harder to wade through a river with all my stuff.
However, this was probably one of my favorite things this month and will probably continue to be one of my favorite things on the race. It was so beautiful. I can’t even describe it in words.
We went back to the orphanage, packed back up, and left to go back to Katmandu to reunite with the rest of the squad mates and say goodbye to our squad leaders that were alumni and welcome our new squad leaders that were raised up.
Nepal has been by far the most adventurous month of the race so far. As we flew out of Katmandu to go to our next country we got to see Mount Everest in the far distance. It was a pleasant site to see as we closed in on our next country. God definitely made it a beautiful picture for us.
