This past week we spent our time in a small village in the mountains of Nepal. Our ministry consisted of door to door evangelism and house visits to believers. One day we split into two teams and walked along the streets asking the Lord to guide our feet where He wanted us to go. We came across this old Bhuddist man sitting in front of his house. We paused and decided that only 2 or 3 of us should talk to him to avoid overwhelming him. My squad mates, Hannah and Liz, and myself volunteered to sit with the man. He welcomed us in and through our translator, Seema, we began to make conversation; asking him about his family, house, job, etc. We found out he was a farmer which was an instant bonding moment for Liz considering she works on a vegetable farm back in the States. Liz put herself out there and made a really cool connection about Jesus and how he’s a farmer that plants a “different kind of seed”.
As she was explaining this, the man said something in Nepali and Seema told us that he said that he couldn’t understand what we were saying to him. She went on to explain that she thought he spoke a different dialect of Nepali she didn’t know. We decided to keep pressing in; Seema started speaking very slowly and loudly. We then found out the reason he couldn’t understand us wasn’t because he spoke a different language, it was because he couldn’t hear us. His hearing was so bad he was basically deaf. We asked him if we could pray for his ears, he said yes. We started praying for the Lord to take away any deafness residing in the mans ears so he could hear His word better. Once we stopped we asked how his ears were and he said a little better. We were so excited for this man we had to pray a second time. Once we finished we asked again and he said his hearing was better. He could hear us. God healed this man of his deafness right before us.
How amazing is our God? Needless to say we were in utter shock and awe. The man also said that when we prayed for him he felt good inside. I explained to him that we believed God healed his ears and that good feeling he felt was Jesus around him. Even though it would’ve been cool, he did not commit his life to Christ right there. And that’s okay. We planted a major seed that day. He said that if he wasn’t dead by the Nepali New Year in 4 months he would go to church. So now all we have to do is pray that God will continue to reveal Himself in the mans life and hope that he lives till April.
“31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk,and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.
33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!”(which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.””
Mark 7:31-37
This blog post is the first of a three part series I will be posting about my time in the village. I will be sharing more stories of what the Lord accomplished in a mere 8 days. Stay tuned for part two “The Sick Shall Be Healed”.
Peace out Brussels Sprouts,
Maddy 🙂
