HELLO EVERYONE!!!!
I MADE IT!!! Not only did I survive the Himalayan mountains, I thrived!! My month looked seriously different than what I had originally anticipated, but as I quickly learned, trying to make plans with Nepali people is like trying to break glass with a marshmallow. No matter how hard you try, it’s not going to work. The Nepali people are a part of what we call a “family/social” culture; they are incapable of saying no, even when saying yes is not the truth. They are accommodating and polite to a fault… what an interesting fault to have…. Here are a few examples of what I mean.
“What is our ministry this month?”
Nepali response- “You will be hiking in the Himalayas for the whole month carrying all of your belongings including food, water, clothes and tents on your back preaching to mountain villages.”
Actual Events- We stayed in the city for the first week, then headed into the mountains for the remaining 15 days. We were able to sleep inside churches and the locals cooked us meals everyday.
“What are we doing tomorrow, when do we need to be ready in the morning?”
Nepali Response- “You will be going to the market 10 minutes away to get food and water for your stay here, be ready to leave at 8am.”
Actual Events- We left at 11am. We hiked for three hours without food or water to a river to look at a pretty view, then hiked back to the church….. without food or water.
“What are we doing today?”
Nepali Response- We are taking you to a tourist place called Lakeside in Pokhara for you to have some time off and enjoy the views.
Actual Events- At the bus station we asked if this bus was taking us to Lakeside…. “No, it takes us to the museum, no Lakeside.” …..oh, ok….. After getting off the bus we asked which way to the museum. “This is Lakeside.” ….good talk.
“What time should we be ready for church service tomorrow? Should we prepare a message to share?”
Nepali Response- “Church is at 10am and no need to prepare anything, don’t worry.”
Actual Events- Church started at 11:30am and Taylor was asked to give the sermon, she did great.
“What is the legal drinking age in Nepal?”
Nepali Response- “It is 30.”
Actual Events- Actual drinking age is 18, they just didn’t prefer us to drink on our off day but couldn’t tell us that information because that is considered rude; so they made up a different age.
“What is today looking like in terms of ministry?”
Nepali Response- “We will be hiking for 4 hours to a church and doing door to door ministry, stay the night, and then return tomorrow afternoon.”
Actual Events- We hiked for 8.5 hours to a school, arriving at 9pm. We didn’t do ministry, it was too late. We stayed the night in the school then hiked another 4 hours to a village where we shared a 10 min message, prayed over a church, then left. We hiked another 2 hours to a bus station and took a 2 hour bus ride back to our base church.
“How long is the bus ride back to Kathmandu? We need to know so people can pack/take proper medication for illness.”
Nepali Response- 4 hours.
Actual Events- Three busses a taxi and 12 hours later we arrived at our hotel in Kathmandu.
“Yay, we are taking communion at church today?!”
Nepali Response- “Yes, you know, bread and wine, we take communion today.”
Actual Events- Communion was served as a pita and Fanta Orange soda.
I will follow all of that by honestly saying that Nepali people as a whole are some of the kindest people I have ever met in my life. However, it was a rough month for me. I am the kind of person that feels deceived when the truth is not spoken. I feel betrayed and not respected. I think this is because of past relationships in my life in which I had to fight to get the truth. I’m in such a great place in my life now, and know in my heart that I deserve the truth. I deserve people in my life who will be honest with me and respect me. Learning this lesson along side the lessons from this month was so challenging because they are so opposite. Adapting to the culture your living in is so important to survival abroad. Understanding Nepal’s culture of “accommodating” was crucial for my emotional sanity. They were not deceiving me, they were not failing me, they were not tricking me, they were not lying to me. They were taking care of me in the way they were taught they should. It’s still very hard to wrap my head around this way of life, since it is not my own, but I have come a very long way. My patience has grown leaps and bounds this month with all of the changes and miscommunication. I learned that people take care of others the only way they know how, even when those ways don’t match up with the other persons traditions. Being able to accept love from someone in a different culture, when love doesn’t look exactly like what you thought it would, can only be accomplished through Jesus. It’s such human nature to dismiss another culture as rude, not honest, or incorrect; when in fact they are loving you the best way they know how. They have just as much Jesus in them as I do. I am not right, and they are not wrong. We are both doing our best to love each other well, and accept love in new ways.
I am so thankful for month 6. This month brought more laughs, cries, restoration, team building, triumphs and failures than any month prior. It was a wild ride, or more appropriately, a wild trek. Nepal was my favorite month so far.
Also….. I was baptized this month. It was a very personal and intimate ceremony in a river dividing two mountains in the Annapurna Mountain Range. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It was exactly what I pictured heaven to look like. It was there that I knew I wanted to die to sin and live in Christ. I surrendered then and there. I know now that I will never be perfect, but I can and did choose to be perfectly pure in the eyes of God. I was raised from the dead and a new life has begun.
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ – Romans 6
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
All of this and more in my NEPAL VIDEO below!! Enjoy!!
Miss and love you all. #NextUpIndia
