All is normal for a day of church ministry, Michelle and I are sitting outside awkwardly watching the service from the window because we were over heating from our 2 mile up-hill walk there. This beautiful woman next to us, Pooja, introduces herself and tells us her story as she excitedly points out her husband, the drummer in the worship band, to us. She has been a believer for 10 years since her family moved to Nepal from India, she is 21, works as a beautician, and her dream is to study hotel management. Raaj her husband has been a believer for 5 years, they have been married for 3, he has been back in Nepal for 1 month as he was just in Sadi Arabia for 17 months working and was leaving in 3 days to go back for another 17 months. Pooja’s parents are Christians but, do not approve of the marriage and have not spoken to her since her wedding as they felt she was “marrying a poor man”. Raaj’s mother is on fire for the Lord and kept calling us angels sent to her for hope.
Once worship ended she introduced us to Raaj and then invited … actually insisted, that we go to their home for dinner because she is ‘the best cook in Nepal’! We weren’t sure if we would even be allowed to so we promised her we would ask but told her we couldn’t guarantee as we have 26 other people with us. To our surprise we were given permission to go with these complete strangers to their home by ourselves as long as we had a way back to where we were staying. Pooja jumped with excitement and let our squad leader know it was no problem to get us home and off we went. The entire experience was surreal; even the bus ride to their house was comical because the driver was blaring Pit Bull and Kelly Clarkson songs. From the bus stop we followed our new friend into the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains to their adorable little mint green house; where it finally occurred to me not a single person knows where we are and all hope was in the Lord’s hands.
Pooja showed us around the 3 bedroom home that Raaj, her brother-in-law, her mother-in-law (Kalpana), and herself all share. We sat in her room and talked as if we were all friends for years. She showed us her results from her last doctors visit explaining that the cysts on her ovaries may prevent her from getting pregnant but, she refuses to take the medicine as she knows God will heal her if its His will for them to have children; shared her jewelry with us (more like shoved bracelets over our fat American wrists); and was wanting us to try on saris and do our make up but, we didn’t have that kind of time. It truly was so cute how excited she was to have us over her house.
Crazy enough Michelle and I were slightly disappointed that we didn’t get to kill the chicken ourselves and really have the authentic experience of cooking a meal but, nonetheless we still had the opportunity to learn how to make chicken curry from scratch and chapati (Heaven in bread form basically)! While the curry cooked Raaj wanted to sing some worship songs and lovely Michelle threw me under the bus saying I could sing (I can not!), so I screeched my way through a few songs with them and it was such a cool God moment to see that no matter how many differences there were between us the most important thing is what bonded us, Jesus.
Then came the moment I realized I had to find a new level of trust; “Sister get on the back of my motor bike, this is how you will get home. Michelle will wait here I will come back for her.” Ummm… what? With no other options, I got on the bike and sent up a quick prayer, and off we went. The roads in Nepal are basically large rocks randomly scattered over dirt to create some form of “this is the path to safely go up/down this mountain”; when I mentioned to Raaj the level of experience someone probably needs to navigate driving here he nonchalantly responded, “oh no, I have bike only 15 days, new driver, it is fine.” Oh goodness, only if you could have seen my face in that moment, although my mothers will probably be worse when she reads this. The Lord is constantly pushing me out of controlling my situations to lean deeper into His arms to truly grasp who my protector is. Although, He never fails to give me a moment of humor and a good laugh; as we came to a drier patch in the road Raaj called back to me, “close your eyes sister and maybe your mouth lots of dust and small butterflies here”.
The night was one I will remember for ever and cherish from Nepal. I am so grateful we were given the opportunity and space to create a lasting memory with Pooja and Raaj. Please keep them in your prayers as Raaj is back in Sadi Arabia and for Pooja’s health.
We recorded some of our night, I hope you enjoy it:
