Monkeys & Buddha..

One of the things we do here is prayer walks throughout our village.

The main religion here is Buddhism, however, there is a lot of Hinduism mixed in.

Last week on our prayer walk we walked to the Buddhist temple in our village and just spent time praying over it. The darkness is so very real here. You can see it in the temples everywhere, restaurants, outside of homes, businesses, markets, they’re everywhere. You can also feel it, there’s a heaviness. Throughout this time I’ve been here God has continuously reminded me of the darkness, the lostness, their need for Him. It’s so very real.

Today was adventure day so we went to Monkey Mountain! This mountain is around 700 stairs to the top. Along the way there are lots of monkeys! I was super excited to be able to see them and the walk up was totally worth it! Through walking up these stairs I began to be reminded of how life is often like walking up steep steps, it’s hard, at times you want to just be done, your tired and in pain. When you get to the top and see the whole picture, see that it was worth it, it’s so so beautiful! Often going through trails is a lot like this but when we can see God through it it can be so so beautiful.

At the top of this mountain there’s a Buddhist temple as well as a lot of monkeys. As we walked into this temple area I began to just feel a heaviness pressing against me and just see a darkness. I began to feel God just telling me to pray. Pray for the temple to one day be destroyed because they’re praising and worshipping the One True God, for the people to see light, for their eyes to be opened, to see that their gods are nothing but statues. We spent a little while just walking around and seeing the area and then everyone headed back down the mountain and my team leader Oriolyne and I stayed back to walk around and pray for all of these things. As I began to walk around and pray for these people I continued to feel the heaviness against me and as I walked past one of the smaller temples in the area and saw them worshipping I began to feel my legs shaking. Through this I think it shows how very real the darkness is. 

So.. I want to ask something of y’all.. I want to ask you to pray specifically for a few things:
1. Pray for the temples to one day be destroyed because they are praising and worshiping the One True God.
2. Pray for the people to see light, to see truth, & for their eyes to be open.
3. Pray for my team and I as we’re living among this darkness for the next 2 1/2 months.

I love and miss everyone!!

This is where the gods are made. Each one is hand carved.

 

The beginning of our journey up the mountain.

 

Baby Monkeys!!

 

We were able to get so close to these monkeys!! 

 

My team at the top of the mountain!

 

The inside of the temple as they’re worshipping.