One of my teammates made a comment the other day about the World Race being our job for the next 8 months. We have raised the support, we have done the work, we are expected to go forth and share the gospel with the nations. There are times that I bust out laughing or just grin from ear to ear. Some days I crack myself up because I have the realization that I am in Kathmandu, Nepal and my “job” is to love children and let them know that they are beautiful in God’s eyes. What a job!!
During the school days Team Deep Roots wakes up around 6:00am and leaves the house by 6:35 or so for a 12 minute walk to Happy Home Nepal. The walk is beautiful and the air is crisp. When we get to the gate there are 32 smiling faces running around everywhere and yelling, “Good morning Aunty Hannah! Good morning Ben Uncle! Good morning…." and so on to everyone. From 7am-8am Ben and I are able to sing, tell stories and teach the Bible to the older children. One of the girls, Sushila, volunteers to pray and gives the sweetest prayer I’ve ever heard…to JESUS! One of the boys, Abhisek, writes a poem saying that Jesus is the Lord and asking him to love us! This was without any guidance from us. There’s a quick break for breakfast with the team, and an hour or so break to study the Word, workout on the roof with Shaun T. or take a nap while the kids do their chores. From 10:20am – 11:20am and 11:20am – 12:20pm we have two class periods then lunch. Stephanie and Ben have done a tremendous job of leading their own classrooms! After lunch is another hour or so of class, then some free time to play with the kids. About 4pm and we are worn out but happy for a good day’s work.
Sometimes if Ben, Stephanie or I go running in the afternoons we will go by the school because there are always children hanging out the windows and shouting greetings to us. This past week was full of holidays and festivals so there was lots of playing, building a new slide, watching movies and going to the park. Last Sunday we had a picnic at a location about an hour away. The bus ride strengthened my prayer life, but once we got there it was fun. The children loved it…Frisbee, mountain trails, football (soccer), good food and dancing. When we started there were 30+ kids…by the time we finished there were the kids, 1 horse, 2 goats, 5 stray dogs, 6 cows and 12-15 crows. I have no idea where the petting zoo came from, but one of the cows got a hold of a bowl of tomatoes and dinner was reduced a bit. This wasn’t your usual picnic, as the Nepali women brought along 2 gas stoves, jugs of water, bread and jam for sandwiches, eggs to boil, milk tea to make, gigantic pots and pans, veggies, chicken and loads and loads of rice.
As the days go by, I find myself loving the kids more and more. They have such sweet personalities and many of them have great potential to do well in school, sports, anything really. These children are just so easy to love. They desperately need to know the love of Christ and my team and I are doing our best to see that they do.
While my “job” is to go around the world and bring the hope of Christ, I know that it was your “job” to provide the support for me to be here. More and more I’m realizing the importance of my supporters and the impact you are making on the nations. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But our job is not done. Join me as I continue to pray for salvation for those at Happy Home. Whether teachers, students, workers or volunteers, they need to know the name of Jesus. Please pray that they do.
Here's a quick video showing some of the month so far. I look forward to two more great weeks!
(Sorry if the audio is messed up on the video…the internet is too slow to figure it out right now. My apologies!)
