During my time in Nepal, my team and I lived in a city called Pokhara. Pokhara is a city that is about six hours away from the country’s capital: Kathmandu. As you enter into Pokhara you’re met with views of beautiful Phewa lake that has colorfully painted row boats lined up awaiting their daily passengers. You also see the peaks and foothills of the Himalayas sprinkled with glimpses of paragliders soaring like confetti above the bustling tourist town that is full of shops where you can stock up on boots and jackets for trekking or 100% cashmere or yak wool scarves to take home as a souveinier, plus lots of quirky little restaurants and coffee shops to indulge in traditional Nepali food (i.e. MOMO’s.)
It was an amazing place to call home for a month as there is so much to see and do and so many people to meet. Anyone from local Nepali shop owners that have lived there all their life to foreign travelers hoping to find the deeper meaning to life by participating in yoga retreats, visiting buddhist temples and reciting mantras that ‘bring good karma’, or trekking into the wild and beautiful himalayas.
I had the pleasure of meeting quite a few people that have made Nepal especially hard to say goodbye to. Since they mean so much to me and make up a majority of my memories from my time in Nepal, I wanted to introduce them to you.
* For their privacy I’ll be keeping their names anonymous, but I believe its their stories that matter and deserve to be shared.
BJ: My teammate and I met BJ one evening when we had finished ministry and went into his convenience store to grab a coke before heading home. When he was checking us out, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to ask him about his faith. He shared a bit about his Hindu faith and then asked us to share about our faith. We then ended up setting up a time the next day to meet for tea and talk more about our respective faiths. Over green tea and pizza the next afternoon, we told BJ about how Jesus had radically changed our lives and that he could do the same for him. He shared with us that his family is Hindu and he only practices it because he believed that if he was a good enough Hindu then that would give his late father a chance to enter Heaven. Please pray that BJ would be able to understand Jesus’ sacrifice and gift of life to us through his completed work on the cross and our entry to heaven through him and him only and not by his works here on earth.
Bin: Bin is a shop owner along the downtown strip in Pokhara. His shop caught our eye with t-shirts that hung outside with scripture on it. Inside, artwork that was a variation of a Buddhist art form called Thangka hung on the walls. Buddhist Tangka art is created to be used as idols for worship for Buddhist believers. I recommend googling this art form to understand its intricate aesthetic. Bin used to be buddhist and learned how to create this type of art many years ago. When he became a Christian he felt convicted that he was creating art that was dishonorable to God. He then decided to continue using the gifts God had given him to create art, but instead it woulf be made to bring glory to God. His paintings that resemble Buddhist Tangka by design now had symbols of Christianity, scripture and scenes from the bible intermixed. We spent a lot of time with Bin, stopping by to chat whenever we were downtown. We had the privilege of hearing and video recording his testimony of how he came to the Christian faith from Buddhism. Stay tuned for me to be sharing that video soon! Please pray that Bin would continue to be a light to the community of Pokhara and that God would prosper his dreams to plant a church in his home village and to sell his artwork internationally.
P&A: My teammate and I met P when we were having quiet time at coffee shop downtown. Our bible’s were out on the table and after P came in and sat down, he too took out a bible to read. He struck up conversation with us and we were taken back by his American accent. We learned that P and his wife, A, and their two kids, who were originally from Boston, MA had been living in Nepal for almost 18 months after feeling the Lord call them to minister to the people of this country. They own a guesthouse and pour into their local community. We hung out with them at their guesthouse many times and attended church with them. They became quick friends and we always left our time with them feeling refreshed and poured into. Please pray that P and his family would continue to adjust well to life in Nepal and that God would use them to bring even more brothers and sisters of Nepal to Christ.
Y&S: My teammate and I met Y and S on our first morning in Pokhara. We went to grab breakfast and coffee and went into the restaurant right near our guesthouse. Y and his wife, S, owned the restaurant, a guesthouse and a laundry service. We visited them often and always waved hello to them whenever we passed by. On valentines day, we grabbed a late dinner at their restaraunt. Over vegetable chow mein, we talked about our faith, shared our testimonies and prayed with them. Y claimed to know Jesus but hadn’t committed his life to Jesus and S proclaimed the Hindu faith. S said she was interested in learning more about Christianity but couldn’t read, and Y wanted to learn more himself, but never owned a bible. The day we left, we dropped by to see Y and S and gave them a New Testament bible in Nepali so he could read it with his wife. We highlighted our favorite verses and explained to them why each was our favoritie. Y was so excited to have a bible of his own and couldn’t wait to start reading it. Please pray that Y would grow in his wisdom as he reads the word of God and that he would choose to commit his life to him as a result and that his wife’s heart would be softened to do the same.
M&R and their family: We met M one evening when my teammate and I were standing in a field near the lake watching the sunset, listening to worship music and praising God. She walked up near us carrying a pot full of dirty dishes and kneeled down next to a creek in preparation to wash the dishes. Without hesitation, my teammate and I walked over to ask if we could hep her. She had very broken english and we had very little Nepali words memorized, but we understood that she worked for a nearby hotel as a dish washer and came out to the creek twice a day to wash dishes to make a living to support her family. After the dishes were clean, she invited us over to her house to have coffee. We sat and drank coffee with her and her family. She then invited us over the next evening for a fish dinner. Her husand, R, was a fisherman and would be going out the next morning to fish and she wanted us to taste a traditional Nepali meal. After the fish dinner, we shared to more meals with M and her family, one prepared by her and another prepared by us at our guesthouse. She made currieid chicken with dal bhat (cooked white rice) and we made fried chicken with mashed potatoes. During our time together, we used google translate to discuss the differences in Nepal and America and she loved seeing pictures of our homes in America. On our list visit, my teammate, our translator, and myself shared coffee witih M and R and we shared the full gospel with them. They were Hindu, but they listened with intention and curiosity as we shared about Jesus and his sacrifice for us. Please pray that God would continue to put people in their path to share God’s love with them.
S: S was our translator for the month who quickly became our friend. She is so loving and has a deep desire to see the women and girls working in the dance bar industry freed from their bondage to that lifestyle and to know the love of Jesus in their hearts. With the closing of the ministry she worked for and we worked with, please pray that God would open a door to an opportunity for her to continue using the gifts God has given her to build his kingdom.
P&L: P&L were our hosts for the month and ran the ministry we worked with. They were full of joy and so hospitable to us. They had been praying for almost three months for teams to come and help our their ministry and then during the month we were there God showed up big and provided three other mission teams through an organization called Youth with a Mission or (YWAM). They have a huge heart for people and seeing them come to know God’s love for them. They feel led to minister to people in Tibet and among other reasons, their ministry in Pokhara will be coming to a close in the next few months. Please pray that God would provide for their every need during this transition.
God planned some incredible divine appointments in Nepal, and these are only a handful of them. Following where the Spirit leads can bear so much fruit and I’m so grateful to have experienced that during my time in Nepal.
