We just finished our first month in Nepal, as well as the first month of the year. The men and women were separated from the end of debrief in the beginning of January to the beginning of February. Each World Race route has a time like this, which the men call “Manistry”. All the guys from the co-ed teams joined together, led by our male squad leaders, Mark and Jace, while the girls joined together at another location. We reformed our original teams at the beginning of this month.
This time was chance for us to grow closer to the men of our squad and grow closer to God in different ways than we can on a co-ed team. We started off the month by discussing the importance of discipline and taking initiative, so we disciplined ourselves by getting up at 6am most days and having a Bible study or discussion before breakfast. We also worked out as a group most of the days. It was great to be able to spend time with the men from other teams, have fun together, and build each other up as men of God. Being with the guys helped me grow in many ways, including being more bold and stepping up, and growing in the desire to know the Lord’s heart through Bible reading and prayer rather than reading solely for knowledge or discipline.
Our first few days were varied; we went to an old women’s home to clean out a storage room and spend time with the women, prayer walked around a Bhuddist Stupa, hiked above the valley to pray, and served food to children in a slum.
Then we went to the jungle foothills along the southern border for ten days. We were able to visit many families and evangelize to them, some of whom had never heard the Gospel. We also encouraged current Christians and mentored the local church leaders. We prayed for a lot of people, even getting to see some healings. One woman had been paralyzed on her left side eight months ago due to a fall (her blood sugar had skyrocketed from diabetes, causing her to blackout and fall). She was unable to stand or walk, and she spent most of her time laying on the porch in blankets. Her family had had to take care of her the whole time. She knew Christ, but she was losing faith and getting disappointed that she wasn’t getting healed; there had been no progress in the past eight months. We prayed for her multiple days and gave encouragements. When we came back the second time, we learned that the pain was gone and her sleep was better. We prayed again for her feeling and muscle operation to be restored. Before the prayers, her left hand was curled up, and she couldn’t move her fingers. Afterward, she was able to open her fingers a little and move her arm! It wasn’t her getting up and walking, but it was progress. We continued each time after that to pray for full restoration and removal of diabetes, which had caused this in the first place. Jace was able to get a list of physical therapy exercises for her to increase strength (part of having faith is taking action that shows you believe God is working!). She said she was incredibly encouraged and believed that Jesus was healing her. She also said that in her spirit she felt like she could walk, which shows that she was hopeful and staying positive. Our host visits every few months, so we hopefully we will find out how she is doing!
After the trip to the southern border, we went trekking in the foothills outside Pokhara, a touristy city near Annapurna and Machupuchchhre, two spectacular Himalayan peaks. We spent two nights on the trail and one night in the city at the end. The first night was in a tiny lodge, and we were the only people there. The next day, we got up to see sunrise hit the Annapurna range, and then we hiked through the forming mist and fog along the ridge for a while. We descended probably a thousand stone steps down the slope to our next destination, a small village perched in the trees. It was called a “homestay” because we actually stayed with a local family, eating local food and spending time with them. Before our dinner though, we went to several homes and shared the Gospel. I led one man to Christ, some of us were able to encourage people that had been led to Christ last time a group went there, and we learned that Christianity seemed to be sprouting in the valley. We heard that there was some contempt about people becoming Christians, but the families we talked to said the news of Jesus sounded good and was very encouraging. We know that God is starting a work in this valley, and we know that he always completes a work that he starts; I believe that this whole valley is about to experience Christ! There is currently no church, so pray that one gets established soon.
