Ministry in Nepal. One of the coolest and most unique ministries I’ve experienced so far on the race!
Our ministry here is completely centered around the heart of the Lord and seeking what He has for us in every day. Ministry changes as our host and everyone on our squad seeks the Lord’s voice. One day we were supposed to go do slum outreach, but instead our host heard the Lord say we should do a “supernatural treasure hunt” with the treasure being the people of this community and in this city. We spent an entire day meeting and praying over people, building relationships, and worshiping in coffee shops.
Our first day of ministry we went on a hike up to a temple where people come daily to pray blessings over their children. We spent time worshipping on the way up and wrote prophetic words for the city on rocks and built an altar on top of the mountain. Our weeks since have consisted of slum ministry, prayer walks to temples, and seeking to bring the light of Jesus into every situation and everywhere we go.
Every Wednesday we spend the day recruiting kids from all over the city to come play soccer and eat dinner with us. One group will help cook rice and chicken for all the kids while the rest of us divide up to walk. Around five, the field will flood with smiling faces. After soccer, we’ll sit in a huge circle and serve endless helpings of rice.
Two weeks ago, all of the girls on our squad began women’s ministry in dance bars and cabin restaurants. Working with these women opened my eyes in crazy ways, broke my heart, and widened my view of the world. I struggle to decide how to accurately discuss their situation and explain the things that they go through every day. Things that are beyond what I can imagine and beyond what any human being deserves.
In high school, I dedicated almost every assignment I was given in writing and English classes to researching and discussing human trafficking. The hardest thing for me writing and researching all these papers was the fact that there was nothing I could do. I could sit and read stories, make outlines and turn in A+ research papers, but that wasn’t changing the fact that these women were still going through the things I read about. And now, being here… it’s an unexplainable feeling. Realizing that this isn’t just a concept or something that happens very far away from your home. This is something that is happening right now to a person just like you and somewhere very close to you. They are a phone call away, three houses down, and sitting next to you in coffee shops. One of the things I’ve learned through this ministry though is that there is only so much I or anyone else can do for these women. We can build relationships, we can offer a way out, we can pray with them and for them, but ultimately it is the Lord who can deliver and save them.
Last week, my team visited a slum every morning to play with some of the kids there! Typically there were 3-6 kids in the little classroom where we would play duck duck goose and soccer, sing songs, preform Bible skits and color. Just spending time and pouring into those kids was so much fun. In the afternoons, we would visit another slum to do a similar outreach, but this time even more kids would come… usually 10-20! This week we began working at a women’s center teaching English classes and doing work to remodel the building and make it beautiful for the women who come there. Some of my teammates have been working on the most gorgeous murals in the classrooms.
Leaving Nepal in a couple weeks will be a challenge, no goodbye is ever easy. I have been so blessed by this family and this ministry we have been able to be a part of for the past two months. I have grown and learned more than I ever could have imagined.
If you find a spare second today or just as it comes to your mind, here are some ways I would love if you could pray for my team!
Pray for our final two weeks of ministry here and that we will be fully present and finish strong!
Pray for the health of the three teams living in our house. Everyone has been so sick.
Pray for safe travel in two weeks to Nicaragua. We have a couple layovers in the states (yay!) but our bodies will be experiencing close to a 12 hour time change. Pray that we will stay healthy and travel will go as smooth as possible!
Pray for our ministry and our host family and that God will bless them and the work they are doing and will continue to do long after we leave.
Pray for the village churches we have visited and for their communities, pastors and congregations to be blessed!
