So it has officially passed the 1/2 way mark on the race. And I’ve realized that in the midst of the wonder and adventure, traveling is work. It can be frustrating, confusing, lonely, exciting and everything else in between. You sometimes forget to eat, struggle to sleep on trains, planes and all manners of vehicles, and you’re dependent on a language that isn’t your own. You check and double-check and hope you get on the right train or the right bus, going the right way, at the right time, to see the right city (ahem the Budapest incident).
And here’s the thing, sometimes you don’t–like in Budapest–and you end up carrying all your heavy bags in circles. Sometimes you don’t get on the right train or go to the right place or eat the right food (and get food poisoning). Sometimes you arrive after what seems like an eternity of traveling, with too much luggage and not enough sleep and it’s all you can do to not sit on the curb and cry, wishing you were back home in your own comfy bed or with familiar friends. Sometimes the language barrier is so big that google translate cant even help and all you can really do is laugh hysterically (Bulgaria). Sometimes you get sick multiple times in the jeep winding around the Nepali mountain roads and bumping up and down like there’s no tomorrow. Or sometimes you are crammed so tightly into a Nepali bus that skirts the side of cliffs that you very awkwardly “make friends”–theres no such thing as personal space. There may times when you can’t figure out how to turn the lights on in your room so you use your cell phone flash light as your lamp until you figure out which of the MANY switches is the right one (ahem, India). You climb on a bus, get lost, and end up having to hire a rickshaw to take you back in the right direction (Thamel)….it all taking much longer than expected before you reach your destination.
You do your best, and sometimes your best is just awkward and tired.
But then sometimes you meet the most incredible people along the way
You get to eat plums straight off the trees and play futbal with kids (who have captured your heart) all day (Bulgaria)
You get to rock climb and go to coffee shops with local friends (Albania)
You get to ride horses and milk cows, and eat a feast every day, and laugh until your stomach hurts (Moldova)
You get to dance in train cabins and see the country and meet so many people who are doing Gods work (Romania)
You get to crazy dance and shout and sing in worship until the floor is slick with sweat, and cram 19 people into a jeep, and eat the spiciest curry on the face of the earth (India)
You get to see the most incredible views trekking throuhg the mountains, and you get to find family (Nepal)
You get to serve…to be the hands and feet of christ. You get to see healings and freedom and salvations.
You get to clean dishes and prep food, whitewash and whitewash again (in poopy pigpens), you get to play sports with youth, belaying them and cheering them on the obstacle coarse, you get to teach english, put on children’s programs, do skits, give testimonies and sermons, paint, scrape off paint, many manners of physical labor, you get to go to the slums and have a time of worship and prayer, you get to do house visits and pray for the families, you get to trek up a mountain to christmas carol and pray….and so much more.
Through this adventure of traveling and now being over 1/2 way done with the race, i’ve learned that its a process of learning, pushing, living through the awkward moments, the loneliness, the hard moments–and embracing them as part of the journey, trusting in thatThe Lord is with you the whole way and knowing He has good things planned.
And boy has He had good things planned for this month. Nepal and the people here have captured my heart in ways that I did not expect. We may have not had wifi or cell service, and I took a shower once a week, having to go to the Tibet border to do so. And the power and water went out at least once a day for a few hours…but this small town called Hindi became home to me. The people there were my family away from family this christmas season.
I have so many stories to tell that I don’t even know where to start. We painted and taught, and trekked and danced and prayed and danced some more.
I saw a woman near death the one night we went to pray for her, sitting up completely better the next morning when we went to visit her.
For the first time, I experienced praying for a girl who was manifesting a demon and casting it out.
I learned Nepali dance and made friends in the process. Friends that became so dear to my heart. Friends who sat on my bed with me looking through photographs; who took my to the “restaurant” and treated me to samosas and hot lemon drink; friends who did my hair before I left so that I could “get myself a nepali boy”.
And I found family there. Our hosts Jyoti and Indra and their two sons, Obed and Amos, and the orphan kids they care for instantly welcomed us. Amos and I particularly bonded. He was my little brother away from home and called me sis. We danced gangham style and the macarena, sang songs, played UNO, looked through pictures together, and had a little goodnight rhyme that we said to each other every night. We had a special bond that made saying goodbye so painful.
And so…The gift of this trip is the opportunity to do those things that may terrify me but remind me that I am strong and brave when Christ is with me along the way. That’s why I love the journey even though it may be hard. That’s why I’ll say yes again, and again and again.
Because I’ve been learning what happens when you say yes more often.
Yes to people even when all you want is to be alone; yes to adventure even when you’re tired; yes to love, even when you know that saying goodbye will hurt; yes to Jesus even when you’re not sure what He’s doing…yes to being His hands and feet.
‘Cause He’s always up to something good.
Cheers, all the way from Kathmandu, Nepal.
I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR full of many blessings and favor. May it be the best year yet.
I’m looking forward to seeing all that The Lord has in store for this year.
