Over the River and Through the Woods, To Grandmother?s House We Go?.Literally.

Kathmandu– We went and lead a church service at Rueben’s church, and also were able to make many house visits and pray over the widowed and the sick. I’m so thankful for these opportunities to see God work! We also went prayer walking at the monkey temple that Satan would not have any power over the people who go there and put their faith in idols.

Village #1– After being TERRIFIED from the winding mountain roads in public transportation with crazy drivers, we made it to eastern Nepal. We lead songs and gave a message and testimonies and basically just encouraged the small ministry there. We also were able to participate in a baptism ministry there where we helped baptize many new Christians. Also, Chelsea O’Leary was baptized and we were able to share in that joy with her. The old is washed away!

Village #2– After riding another several hours, we made it to a beautiful valley with mountains all around. “River” is the first thing we heard and we instantly grabbed out towels and went for a bath by the dam. The house we stayed at was up on stilts and felt like a treehouse. When they cooked our food in the “kitchen” it smoked us all out of the 3 rooms above where we were staying. Also, the squatty potty was a hole in the ground with sticks to stand on while you experience the effects of Nepali food. We held a church service and were able to pray over people who need healing. Our main goal for the month was to build a toilet for the village. The only other public indoor toilet was one that belonged to the Hindu temple next door, so it was a huge need. We were also told that it was our job to not only construct this, but to design it as well! Haha. Needless to say, they ended up helping us with both and after shoveling sand, loading big stones, mixing cement (over and over again), loading bricks, digging trenches, chopping down corn, and learning how to be a brick mason, we were able to get the foundation built and some of the posts for the walls. It was nice to feel successful in the work when we got done. God used our willingness to come work like that to really encourage the people that Christians do like to LOVE and SERVE.

Village #3– From the second village, we grabbed our packs and headed on our “2 hour hike” to Papa and Ama’s house. After STRENUOUS hiking for over 5 hours, we ended up making it to Rueben’s parent’s house. It was stunning how beautiful God made the scenery around their house. They all were SO hospitable and fed us well 😉 We lead church service again and our purpose for this village was to help with building a school. The children in the village have to walk 2 hours to school and cross this big river, and children die from it yearly.  The kids leave in the morning playing and running, and return crying because they are physically exhausted. They are in great need of a school building on their side of the river. So Lauren designed a plan for the school and all the villagers and our team went and moved stones from the riverbed and dug trenches and laid out the stakes. Also, our “shower” all week was in a natural spring that you had to hike to. It was interesting J The day before we left we were praying for no rain because we were going to cross the river to get home. That night it POURED allllll night. We were still able to leave but we had to cross 4 rivers in order to get to our lodging for the night. Our “1 ? hour hike” became a 4 hour one, but we made it safe and sound.