Psalm 37: 3-6
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do this; He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Well just like that, this month is over and all I can say is that it has been a really interesting month. When we landed in Kathmandu our ministry host picked us up from the airport and on the way out we saw monkey climbing all over the building and walking in the airport. I have to say I am excited to be driving back to Kathmandu tomorrow for our 4 day debrief. Hoping I see more monkeys walking around and elephants! We were told a few days before arriving that we would be going on a trek through the Himalayan mountains for a few days.
The trek was literally the hardest thing I have ever done physically. There are so many times I wanted to just stop and cry but there was no way back (okay, maybe I did cry this one time). I got myself up here and I had to get myself down because buses and Jeeps do not come to where we had hiked. We had no choice but to keep going. I am sure at different points each one of us had our own mental breakdown but we all pushed through. We hiked about 6-10 hrs a day. We all made it up and down the mountain, alive. During this time Jesus taught me how to rely on him as my source and allow other to help me if I needed it. I am so thankful to have grown closer to my team and see just how much we are for each other no matter how hard things are.
Did I mention it’s monsoon season here? Well it is, and we spent every day soaked as we trekked for hours. Rain jackets don’t work, folks! Only plastic. Let’s talk about these leeches for a minute, once they latch on they don’t come off easy and you don’t stop bleeding. Every time you walked through water you had to look in between your toes and typically, there one was…sucking away. You can’t simply pull them off, you have to scrape them off. It is truly disgusting and we all might have a little PTSD from it. I would be remiss if I forget to tell you about the smell of mildew and disgusting clothes that we wore 4 days straight. Nothing dries here because it’s so damp all the time.
ALL THE TIME.
Some of the funniest moments and hardest moments of this month come from that trip. For instance at one point we were in the middle of a horse stampede and were stuck behind one horse and then it just started pooping in my friends face, pretty hilarious. Also the leeches falling from the trees and landing on another teammate’s neck (ew). I am pretty sure we all stepped in cow feces at some point on this trek. You get to the point where you are so tired and you just don’t care anymore to figure out if what you’re about to step on is a rock or poop.
On our last day of the trek we were coming down the mountain and of course the rain started to pick up. Our host tells us we have to go down the side of the mountain, I don’t mean a road way down, I mean literally down the side. The water was running down streams pretty fast and mud was everywhere. It was the only way down, so, onward. After multiple falls that were hilarious we finally made it off the mountain to our hostel where I had my first shower in 7 days! Listen, the struggle is real when leeches are everywhere and your body is in so much pain and you don’t have clean clothes anyway or a shower.
So the goal of our trek was to meet the pastors that were in remote villages and pray and encourage them. Along the way we met people who had never heard about Jesus. Our ministry host would share the gospel with them on this hike. I remember one day that we were hiking up a mountain (basically 90% of the time…) and it was pouring down rain and leeches were trying to attach to all of us and this older man was going the same way (much faster than us). Sam (our host) started talking to him about Jesus and he was very receptive and they had a good 15 minute conversation.
After a long journey we finally made it to our ministry site. Since we have been holding bible studies each Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Our musically talented teammates have been teaching piano and guitar lessons for an hour a day. The guys are doing a great job at this and the people learning are so quick to pick it up. On Saturdays we have church and children’s ministry down the road from our house. It has been so much fun meeting the believers of this community and seeing how they lay down their lives to spread the gospel. A couple months ago 8 people were arrested for sharing the gospel. Lets pray for the people of Nepal that they would hear the gospel and that the ones who do would let go of their traditional practices of Buddhism.
Thanks family for all your support and prayers. I can’t believe I’m heading to India in just a week.
