I’ve been realizing that although my blog posts have been giving a good bit of insight into my spiritual journey, they don’t really tell you all much about the day-to-day life of the Race.
So, this blog post will address that head on.
This blog post is about ministry here in Nepal; no deep, introspective questions being pondered here. Just life through the eyes of a 23-year-old on this grand adventure God has placed him on.
Our ministry in India was fairly constant: we basically did the same thing every night. Worship, testimonies, preaching, sharing meals. It was just in different homes and villages from night to night.
Nepal is a bit different, though. Our ministry here changes every day. Some days we may walk the streets of Kathmandu just praying for the city and its millions of inhabitants. On another day we may be seeking out one specific person we think the Spirit is leading us to share Jesus with.
This week we are starting to do work with women and children in the brothels and slums of Kathmandu Valley.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” —James 1:27
This month is known as “All-Squad Month.” This means that the entirety of W Squad—all 48 of us—are living in the same home and doing life together day in and day out. However, for ministry we are mostly still working in our teams. So, yesterday two teams went into brothels (or “dance bars” as they call them here) while the other five teams were split up and sent into two separate slums across the city.
For those of you who don’t know what I mean when I say “slum” just think of Hoovervilles. Except dirtier. And more crowded. Or, just use Google and do an image search for “Kathmandu slums.” The pictures don’t do it justice but at least it’ll give you a little bit of insight into what it’s like there.
As we walked into the slum, I could feel the complete change from the tourist-friendly Kathmandu that I’ve grown used to over the past two weeks. The pollution and smog that filled the air forced us all to use our headbands or extra t-shirts as makeshift masks to keep us from breathing in straight dust. I had to squint in an attempt to keep my contacts from falling victim to the dirt that seems to come from every direction here.
It is total desolation; and yet—it is vibrant life.
As soon as I stopped paying attention to the circumstances surrounding me, Jesus was able to cast my heart upon the opportunity for love that was surrounding me in that moment.
I began to stop caring so much about the inescapable health hazards and just focused on the idea that “Love is worth the risk; Jesus is worth the risk.”
I wanted to greet everyone I passed with a “namaste” and a smile; I wanted to pick up every dirty child; I wanted to show love to every elderly man and woman I came across.
Isn’t it funny what can happen when you kick yourself out and let Jesus in?
The best part about ministry yesterday was hidden in a corner a couple of rows of shacks off of the main road, though. As our ministry host led us through the mud and trash and dog feces, we came upon a family sitting outside their tiny shelter.
Turns out, the family was originally from India; the same part of India we had been in just three weeks before. And, although it was the bare minimum, we were able to communicate with them in their mother tongue. It may have just been a “Hi, how are you?” but you could tell that it brought joy to their hearts to have someone make them feel known in the midst of the muck of this foreign country.
And—strangely—I think this interaction made both us and them feel at home somehow.
It brought back all the joy that the people of India had impressed upon my heart and it made them feel not so alone out there in that slum.
It may seem silly but, in that moment, I was reminded of the lyrics of a Rihanna song: “we found love in a hopeless place.”It’s true though. I saw the love of God working right there, in the midst of the dirt and grime of a Kathmandu slum.
Although I haven’t fully processed what God was trying to show me in that divinely-planned encounter, I do know one thing:
God is here.
He is working in Nepal.
He is working in this squad.
He is working in me.
