I’ve been to a few countries and I’ve done a lot of things in the past few months. What I haven’t done is a good job of sharing the things that I’ve been doing while I’m away. To be honest, it’s a tedious task to document the ins and outs of ministry. It feels very surface level to me, but I do realize that I am gone for 11 months doing God’s work with some amazing organizations and ministries around the world. These ministries deserve to be highlighted and YOU, my generous, loving supporters, deserve to hear the updates. So, this is my “quick fix” blog to make up for all of the blogging that I haven’t done over the past few months. If you’d like to read about some of the deeper things that I’ve been experiencing and learning, you can find that in the blogs that I actually have written at www.kristinasmith.theworldrace.org.
Nepal (April)
I honestly don’t know where to begin and can’t say enough amazing things about my month in beautiful Nepal.
Royal Symphony partnered with Anchored by Freedom to do ministry in Urlabari with Churches Network (www.churchesnetwork.org) – headed by Reuben Rai. We spent the beginning of the month helping out in a remote village. We hiked for 3 hours and crossed through 13 rivers to get to this village, where we stayed with the couple who initially introduced the Gospel of Christ to people who’d never heard of Jesus about 20 years ago. With no electricity or running water, we slept in tents and took baths in the river (which was a 15 min walk down hill). The mountain was gorgeous and the community was welcoming. We spent our days doing whatever was asked of us and enjoyed living, if only for a week, a life of solitude and abandonment.
After our first week in the mountains, we completed our month of ministry in the city of Urlabari. Nepal stands out as a great ministry month for me because God opened doors for ministry outside of our team’s assignment of construction and fixing up a new orphanage building. Every day we would walk to the orphanage construction site and work on a new piece of the puzzle to prepare it for opening this summer. Every day, without fail, we would be greeted by ALL of the kids we came across. They looked out of the windows, ran down the street, and yelled out to us from every direction. Some of them would follow us all the way to the orphanage and either sit and watch, help with the work, or engage in fun and conversation with us. They were all excited to get to know us and curious about what we were doing, and I was excited to have easy and effortless access to a harvest full of kids who were ripe and ready to be witnessed to.
Here are some of the ways that the Lord used me this month:
1) I got the opportunity to serve and minister to other team members by creating a FURNACE, a prayer room designed for more intimate and purposeful “alone time” with God
2) Opportunity to share God’s love with the children in the community by organizing a field day for them. There were approximately 70 kids who showed up to a field day that was organized in less than 3 days and marketed by wired of mouth only! It was incredible!
3) Opportunity to speak freely in front of the entire student body of a local school simply because a few of us decided to walk one of my favorite groups of kids to school that morning
4) Opportunity to hand out Nepalese translated bibles to kids who wanted to know more about the bible stories that we spoke about.
Because of the connection I had to a specific family in the neighborhood (my cute little friends and future Christian leaders Sandesh, Puja, and Laximi) and because of the many ways that the Lord spoke and revealed Himself to me in Nepal, I still have an attachment to this country (more specifically the Churches Network ministry in Urlabari) that I hadn’t felt any other place on the race. I’m constantly seeking the Lord’s face when it comes to my future and what He wants me to do/where He wants me to go next – Nepal is definitely in the running, but I need more clarity and confirmation. Please pray for me as I navigate through these decisions and please pray for Nepal that the Lord would send the right people and resources needed to further His Kingdom.
While in Nepal and while spending time in the prayer room, I received breakthrough in my spirit through exercising total surrender and then seeing immediately the impact it has in my life. Witnessing this and witnessing God’s power and ability to move through us when we make it our mission and priority to simply be His hands and feet were my biggest take aways from my time in Nepal – “Here am I! Send me” – Isaiah 6:8
