2 Timothy 1:7 in the Bible says,
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
This month as we trekked around Nepal, I witnessed first hand this powerful and loving spirit God placed in me, His Holy Spirit. And in 1 Corinthians 2:12 it says, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us.” Wow! What an amazing verse! When we come to believe and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior He gives us the Holy Spirit, His presence, to dwell in us. And how important is His presence!!!
The title of this blog is why we pray in Jesus’ name. See there is POWER in His name and since He placed His presence in us, we too have authority and power in His name. And as I take you through my trek this month in Nepal, I hope you too can see the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit at work in and through us in Nepal!
HETAUDA Church – Make the most of every opportunity
Our trek started from Kathmandu and by bus we traveled 12 hours to a city called Hetauda. We were joined by Pastor Bipin and his friend Bitu, who also speaks English and helped as our translator.
Pastor Bipin, his son Bishal and me
This is Pastor Bipin’s church. In Nepal church services happen on Saturday, which is like their Sunday to us in the states (Sunday being their first day of the work week). Here my team and I served along side the church members at their service by teaching children’s church & giving a message to the congregation.
There is a school right next to the church and one sunny afternoon after school let out, a bunch of the students were hanging out next to the church. One of my teammates headed out with her guitar and was singing and dancing with the kids. Myself and some teammates joined her and also our friend from the church Prashamsha (which means Praise the Lord in Nepali), who speaks English. Prashamsha helped us through translating the story of the Bible, from Adam and Eve to Jesus with these kids, using skits to help explain God’s story. See many people in Nepal do not know much about Jesus Christ or the Bible; therefore our sharing with them had to be about the basic truths of the Bible. When we finished sharing we praised God for the opportunity to share the good news with so many kids.
It wasn’t until we’d already left to head to the next church that several of those kids who we shared with ended up attending church that following Saturday. Thank you Holy Spirit for using the message we shared to move these kids to want more of you!
Our team and the members of the Hetauda Church
Rampur Church – The Power of His name
From Hetauda we headed to Rampur in which Rampur Church is located. Here Pastor Jeet and his congregation welcomed us.
It was at this church that I witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit in overcoming demons. Yes that’s right, I prayed for a woman who was demon possessed right in front of my eyes….
We were ending our women’s Bible study with ladies from the church and asked if anyone needed prayer. The entire Nepali women’s group gathered in the center and our women circled around them to pray. There were two women in front of me to which I moved closer to put my hands on their shoulders. As soon as I placed my hand on the woman’s shoulders to my right she immediately started to convulse, yell, and fling her head back and forth. I watched as my team surrounding us began moving closer in praying in Jesus’ name for this woman. Nepali members of the church including Pastor Bipin came over and laid hands on her, praying in Nepali. I began to pray too in Jesus’ name that this demon would came out of her as he has no place in her life or in the church. See Christ defeated death and evil once and for all on the cross through the resurrection, He has the final authority and power over all evil, including this demon. After about 4-5 minutes the woman’s body relaxed, she started to cry and confess that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord.
WOW! Never before I have seen anything like this….I was a bit scared and unsure at first of what was happening, however, realizing that with Jesus we have nothing to fear, I stepped up to join in the battle for her.
What a great reminder that only in Jesus’ powerful name can we do all things! (Philippians 2:9-11)
Taylor preaching at Rampur Church with Bitu translating
Padke Bhanghyang Church – God loves even those far up in the mountains!
We left Rampur Church amped up to see what God had in store for us next….our next church took us about 8 hours to hike to. What a view we had!
This village rests upon the top of a mountain surrounded by other mountains. Truly a beautiful site! The church is being constructed and now meets in a house. The church members had benches and Nepali food prepared for us when we arrived. But not only were the church members around to greet us, almost the entire town it seemed came to see us. After we ate we worshipped God with one Nepali song and a few in English. One of our teammates stood up and shared about Jesus’ love for them and the power He has in our lives to transform us and free us from sin. As I listened I looked around and marveled at the opportunity God had given us….here we’d trekked to a village in which not many outsiders have had the opportunity to visit nor would. Yet despite its remoteness and size, God has not forgotten or overlooked them but sent us miles over the mountains to go share the good news with them; to encourage the believers in the village, and to pray for village members that God would reveal Himself more to them through His word and healings.
Many villages members received healing whether it was physical or spiritual through our prayers and time there.
Bag Bazar Church – God can move mountains!
The last leg of our trek took us to Pokhara and to the Bag Bazar church. We used our short time here to encourage the church members through prayer and fellowship with them. The Lord also allowed us to witness the beautiful of the Himalayas – the Annapurna mountain range….WOW! That the fog would clear for us to get such a clear view of His creation….truly breathtaking.
I thank God SO MUCH for the amazing month He gave us here in Nepal. I could write so much more about the kindness and love of the Nepali people….the way God is pursuing them and using willing Nepali to GO and share the good news with them. May we too GO and share the good news with those God places in our lives anywhere we are!! He CAN move mountains in and through us!
Continue to pray for the Holy Spirit to reach more and more lives for Christ here. Through men and women like Pastor Bipin, his wife Sunita, and Bitu lives are being reached with Jesus’ love and power!!
Lauren
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2 Corinthians 5:15
P.S. EVEREST! I was able to take a flight to go see it…let’s just saw I’m coming back to trek to it some day!!!!
