So this month we are living and working at a home called Asha Nepal
Asha Nepal is a home for women and children who have been rescued from abuse as well as sex trafficking
There are maybe 15 women and 30 children, each with their own story
One woman was tortured for years
A 14-year-old girl just showed up..pregnant, raped in the jungle
Women were beaten
Children were abandoned
Some here even have HIV
What are we doing here this month?
Just
trying
to
love
the
way
we've
been
loved
by
God
Here's a story from a friend of mine here at Asha Nepal. I changed her name but the rest is right from what she told me.
"Rachel"
16-years old, orphan
Rachel was born and her mother left her alone. Her father left her mother and was married again (so she had a stepmother). When she was young her father died and she was raised by a Christian woman in the village, this is who told her about her parents. This Christian woman had two daughters of her own but took care of 13 children total. She was very very poor, but she loved God and tried to provide for all of the children. She made things out of wood and sold those things to have rice. Rachel helped her with the wood projects. One day these women saw Rachel and took her, they were women who worked at a “restaurant” (or at least that was what was advertised) when it actually was a brothel. As a young girl, Rachel watched as women from ages 14-20 sold themselves to men from 9am-11pm. Rachel was there and says, “these women were very bad and were doing very bad things” (she never admitted or denied doing prostitution herself, so I’m not sure). But one day she asked the Police for help, although she said the Police are bad too. The police took her to a rich couple who had her work in a factory with all boys. There were four levels of the factory making macaroni and a few other foods. The boys used to pull at her and “force her to do bad things”. She spoke of a man who would especially force her to do things, and I asked her how old he was and she said 50 years old. Rachel hated that place as well. The man who owned the business was a firm Hindu who forced her to work from 6am-11pm. He told Rachel he would not pay her, but that he would pay for her school, but then he said that she couldn’t go to school until she renounced Jesus and became Hindu. So she worked without any pay (or rest). One day she left and got in a taxi, she told the taxi driver her story and he was a good man she said. The man offered to try and get her a job in a restaurant but Rachel told him that she just wanted to go to a church. The taxi driver took her to a church and the church then got her connected with Asha Nepal. She came here in August 2013.
Her spiritual journey began at a very young age. She loved God and Jesus and being raised by the sweet Christian woman helped. She didn’t say the exact age, but she said that she accepted the Christian God because she opened a Bible and read a verse in Isaiah which said:
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compasison on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.."
–Isaiah 49:15-16
Rachel says that when she saw that in the Bible is when she really trusted God. She said before that time she was kind of Hindu (which is cultural), but when she was Hindu it was very different than the Christian God. She said the Christian God brought her peace and comfort. Up until now Rachel has kept a faith of her own this entire time. When she was baptized at around age 8 or 9, she received the Holy Spirit. First she saw herself receiving the Holy Spirit in a dream, and four days later it happened actually. She received the Spirit and received “my Spirit language with God”. Since the time she received the Holy Spirit (and tongues) is the moment “her trials for Jesus began”. She often had people telling her to leave Jesus but she said she never ever would do that. When she escaped most recently from the firm Hindu man, that night she had demons attack her in her dreams. She said, “the demons were mad that I left that man; because he wanted me to leave Jesus so bad.” Rachel told me dream after dream where she saw God, heaven, hell, demons, and Jesus in her dreams, she even told me she has dreamt of the apocalypse and Jesus returning. She has also seen herself healing people (and believes therefore that she can heal people, because of Jesus of course). Multiple times she has had dreams of situations and they have come to pass. Like having a dream of people burning in a fire, and the next morning in the news there was a plane crash and people were burned up in fire. She had a dream of speaking with foreigners and said that as we were talking today that “her dream was coming to pass”.
On top of her crazy life, amazing relationship with God, she also has had many physical problems. She has a bump on her head that has been growing since she was a child. She said that causes much pain. Then she has a pinched nerve in her back that pains nerves all the way down her left hip and leg. She once had a dream about that where a black snake wrapped in metal was causing pain in her leg, and so she also believes the pain could be spiritually related. While so much has come against her, Rachel has never thought once of leaving Jesus. Her heart and passion is to minister to other orphans and people who are hurting. She says, "I know how much I went through, and how it feels to be without a mother and father, and I can't even imagine going through all that I have gone through without Jesus. That is why I want all the orphans out there to know that Jesus loves them and He is always there for them."
That's just one of the many stories…
What I like about being here is that it's one big family. And we have freedom. We can take the kids to swim at the pool or hike up hills, we can help the women with washing dishes or cutting vegetables. Wherever our heart beats, we can follow it. And every second I am here, I am reminded that
[the greatest thing we can do in this life is love one another]
Prayer:
For the women and children at Asha, continued healing, protection, and blessing
For our teams, so that we can be filled with love in order to give it; also, for each of us as we prepare to go home soon…and all the planning and feelings that come with that
For the church in Nepal to grow (in a Hindu-dominated nation)
Thank you all for keeping up with me still. I cannot wait to see everyone in 2 months!
Love,
Kristy
