God has an interesting way of teaching us things when we least expect it. These lessons are often the most important ones that we learn throughout our lives. I have wrestled with God a lot over the past few days, and I have been taught several things through this process. I believe telling a story is the best way we can show how God moves in our lives, so I am going to tell you mine.
We have been working with the Asha Nepal organization in Kathmandu over the past several days. Asha works with women and children who have been recently rescued from the sex trafficking industry. They house them and work to establish a source of income for them. Asha is a place full of character and love, but also a place that challenged me in my relationship with God.
It is difficult to go out into the world, especially outside of the borders of America and see the immense amount of suffering and poverty prevalent in so many areas. I had been wrestling with these issues since the beginning of the race, and continue to do so. However, while staying at Asha after a very long and emotionally tasking day, I broke down. I stood outside of my room, which I had been locked out of for several hours because of a misplaced key, essentially yelling at God. I was beyond frustrated, and at that time felt entitled to point out to God all the problems I had with him. I was upset feeling as if what I was doing was having little to no impact. However, God has a funny way of responding to our questions.
Two days later we decided to use our rest day to take a trip three hours north to go bungee jumping. While sitting at the office of the bungee jumping company waiting on the bus, we began to strike up a conversation with three people sitting across from us. Two of them were from England, and the other was from Italy.
Annie, Catherine, and Leo asked us many questions, and we eventually told them that we were missionaries in Nepal, and had been here for close to a month. It is always interesting seeing people reaction when they hear about what we are doing, but even though the three did not claim to be religious, they were very accepting. We spent the rest of the day with them and by the time we were leaving to go home it felt as if we had three new best friends. We all agreed as we were returning to our hostel that while we had not scheduled ministry for that day, we had taken part in it anyway (yes that does rhyme). Ashley, one of the girls on my team even spent the entire 3 hour bus ride home speaking with a girl from China who had questions about what we believed, and told us that she had felt God pursuing her for the past several months. It was incredible!
I tell you all this because I often feel as if it is tough for me to find God in all the chaos that can take place in our lives. However, when I choose to slow down and listen, I can hear him speaking all things into order. It is in this that I find answers to my questions, and peace in the chaos of my soul. Life anywhere is not easy, but if we choose to stop and listen to God he can guide us, and use us to bring peace to our lives, and the lives of others. And remember, God has a way of using you when you least expect it so be ready, and you might just step into something amazing.
Thanks for taking part in my journey, and like always feel free to leave a comment. I will keep you all posted as much as possible. We leave from Nepal and fly to Thailand in about 5 days.
I am still desperately in need of financial support to continue my journey on The World Race. If you feel led to donate you can do so by clicking the “
support me” link on the left side of the page. I need approximately 3,000 more dollars to reach my next support deadline on October 1st, any amount helps. Thank you for all the support and prayers. Sincerely,
Garrett
