This is a story of about how, my life got twist turned upside down, and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, to tell you how the Lord provided a home out of thin air.
On our last ministry outing in Nepal our ministry host told us to walk/bus to the top of a mountain, find a man of peace, and ask to stay at his house. Unlike Will Smith in the Prince of Bel Air, my team and I had no idea where we were going or where we would be able to stay the night. To say that I was not thrilled about the idea would be an understatement. I had injured myself in a very embarrassing accident (a story for another time) and it was slightly painful to walk, let alone traverse up the side of a mountain. I waffled back and forth on whether not I should go, but finally decided that the Lord wanted me up that mountain.
We started out journey on one of the most crowded buses that I’ve been on to date. If you’ve ever traveled in a foreign country you know that’s saying a lot. We got off our bus and then started walking up the mountain with motos, cars, and buses zooming past us. We walked until we got to a small restaurant on the side of the road and decided to take a break for lunch. While we were sitting there, I had been praying for a kind soul with a truck who would be willing to take us up part of the mountain. As we finished our lunch we started walking once again.
Each team had taken a native with them as a translator and our guide was named Bipin. He is one of the raddest men that I have ever met. He is on fire for the Lord and he walks in constant faith that the Lord will provide for him. It is the kind of faith that I aspire to have one day. Bipin knew that I was having trouble walking and he decided to flag down some strangers with an empty truck. He started speaking with them and then turned around to us with a massive smile on his face.
They were willing to take us up to the top of the mountain free of charge.
We hopped in the back of the truck and started riding up the mountain. We got to the top of the mountain and we were able to bless the driver with some of the money we were carrying with us. As the truck drove off I couldn’t help but thank the Lord for sending us a truck to take us up the mountain. Now that we were at the top, our faith had to take over. We were in an unfamiliar mountain town without a place to stay the night. We sat and prayed and had a couple conversations with people, but I was still left feeling like we were floating with no direction.
Then Bipin took off. When he moves, you know that he is moving with the spirit and he took us in the direction of some fruit stands in an outdoor market. As a group of ten Americans, we could hardly move around without being noticed. A man looked at us and yelled, “JESUS!”
Understandably, we were a little taken aback.
We said hello and he then greeted us with the word Jamesi, which is the Christian equivalent to Namaste. We asked if he was a Christian and he told us he was a pastor. Bipin stepped in and asked where his house was and after hearing the location said, “Take us to your house.”
Even more shockingly, the man’s response was, “Okay, follow me!”
We walked to his house and we got to fellowship with his family for hours. We talked with them about their home, their church, and their lives. He gave some of us rides on his motorcycle and we sang worship songs together. They gave us apples and bananas and they made us tea. During the entire exchange I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the family and the providence of the Lord. The man asked us if we had a place to stay the night and we told him what we were doing. They kindly offered us there home and one of my teammates went to look at the inside of the house. The family told us that it was small, but they were willing to let us use the space that they had. There generosity and the spirit of hospitality they operated in was amazing.
Later on a man from there church showed up. He was a physical therapist and it turns out he had a large home. He started talking to us and we told him our story. He talked it over with our pastor friend and they decided our band of ten should stay with the physical therapist and his family.
Again the Lord proved that he would provide.
We walked to his house, dropped our bags off, and then he took us to dinner. We ate a delicious Nepali meal and after we finished, the family covered the cost for all of our food. We had an impromptu dance party to finish out the evening and the went back to his house to have a bible study with his family before we went to sleep to get some much needed rest.
Over and over again on the race I get to see how the Lord provides for his kids. On a mountain in Nepal, or in the safety of my home back in the states, the father’s heart for me is always to provide above and beyond my expectations. That is his heart for everyone, we just rarely give him the chance to prove it. Give the Lord a shot and I promise, he will come through in amazing and incredible ways.
You might even end up staying with a really rich uncle in his mansion.
