It was not the reaction I thought I would have when leaving the jungle of Nepal. I was fighting to hold back tears as we drove away and watched as tears streamed down our Nepalese families and as the children chased after us. I did not know that this would be my reaction when we first drove down to the jungle.
We were leaving a family. We were leaving home. I grew to love the jungle. I grew to love the people. I grew to love the ants that crawled all over my feet. I grew to love. I grew.
I struggled so much with coming down to the jungle at the beginning of the month because I wanted to be in the mountains of Nepal so much. I wanted to be where I thought was best for me, but quickly came to the realization that God wanted us to all serve down in Haripur. It was hard to see that I threw away time in the jungle, fighting with God and myself. I did not want to be in the heat. I did not want to be in malaria town. I did not want to be sweating all the time. I wanted sleep. I wanted comfort. I wanted to go home. I did not want to be afraid of the elephants, the people in the market, the snakes, or the bugs. I wanted to be comfortable and I wanted to be with family.
I was blessed with not only a family back home supporting me, but my World Race family and 2 Nepalese families. Our contact and his wife, sister-in-law and nephew were one family, alongside with our next door neighbors. They were so precious and sweet to our little team. A lot of us struggled with being homesick this month. God knew that our family was in Haripur. They all were the very definition of what serving in love looks like. Pastor and his family would make us some of the best food we have ever eaten, joke around with us, made sure we were comfortable, made sure we were not weak or tired and cared for us like a father. Our neighbors would come bandage up some of our teammates’ wounds, come dance with us, teach us songs and dances in Nepali, bring us gifts, cook us Nepalese food and love us. We were so blessed.
It took me almost until the time we left to see how much they loved us, unconditionally.
When we left, my heart ached. My heart still aches for how much I miss them, even after 2 days of leaving them. We were so blessed and taught so much with the time we had with them.
I learned that I can choose how to spend my time serving. I can either find joy in it, or I can fight it until I choose to be joyful in everything. I find that it may be better to be joyful all the time. Why not be joyful all the time? God is so good! All the time.
