“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the L0rd J*sus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35
We are called to take care of the children, orphans and the elderly. We got to travel to what we thought would be the jungles of Nepal. It wound up being the country side of Nepa and no jungle. But that’s ok! During the week while in the “Jungle”/country, I met 3 very special people that I will never forget.Let me introduce them to you!
Meet Ixamaya.
She’s 88 years old, Hindu, and hard of hearing but in spite of not being able to converse with me, she showed me more love in 20 minutes than all of the other people that I had the privilege of meeting. Once she realized I was sitting next to her, she grabbed onto my arm, kept squeezing it and wouldn’t let go. I tried talking to her but through translation, I learned she couldn’t hear that well. Even though we couldn’t speak the same language and she couldn’t hear me, I really believe that she felt loved in that moment. I certainly did! She had the biggest smile across her face and it made me realize just being there for her, without saying any words, had such an enormous impact on her life and mine. She had such a gentle spirit, I feel like she’s the village grandma who children can always go to for love!I certainly felt loved!
Meet Neru
She’s a spunky, energetic 8 year old little girl that I had the privilege of meeting while visiting a house in the village. I fell in love with her! She attached herself to me for 2 days! She spoke to me like I could understand Nepali, which I could only understand/speak very few words but it was so much fun getting to know her and her story. Her father died a few years ago so her mother has been taking care of Neru and her other sister since. Her mother is a very strong, Chr!st!an woman who is very passionate about bring people to Chr!st. I loved braiding Neru’s short hair, playing hopscotch and worsh!pp!ing together! Please pr@y for Neru’s family, for continued strength and the yearning to know more about G0d.
Meet Saraya!
On our first day of m!nistry in the jungle, on the way back, I met Saraya! She’s 17, super smart and super ambitious! She also speaks English very well! We started talking while walking home and then she had to go to class so we decided to meet again to continue our conversation. When that finally happened, we had such a great conversation! My squad mate Jenna and I got to really speak into Saraya and share the G0spel with her! She comes from a Hindu background but her family isn’t practicing so in a way, that was a b1essing! She was curious about J*sus but didn’t really know who He was or why He came to earth so we told her! We talked so long we lost track of time and she was actually late for her class. I don’t know if we actually made an impact on her life but I’m pr@ying G0d grabs a hold of her heart and shows her who He really is and that He loves her! We couldn’t stress that enough. I might never know what becomes of her but all I can do is pr@y and trust that G0d has this situation under control.
My time in Nepal was way different than what I was expecting but it was better than I could have imagined. I’m super excited to see what Vietnam has in store and how G0d will use me to gl0rify H!s k!ngdom! Thank you all for your continued support and pr@yers! It means so much to see how many people support me!
Oh yeah! And there were baby goats constantly running around! They were so cute!
