BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED! That's the five letter 'B' word I was referring to when it came to this month. Except one aspect of this month….man have I got a story for you!
Our team leader walked into the room and said the two most liberating words that I had heard in a long time, "She's gone!" A weight lifted off my chest and I was able to breath again. Our sixteen-year-old friend Ruth was finally safe. Our reason for coming to the great country of Nepal had been completed.
This month in Nepal began with high hopes. With excitement. With expectations. But if you have read any other World Race blogs you probably know that this journey does not hold well to expectations. When we came to our ministry we had been told we would be working with women and children brought out from the cruel hold of human trafficking. This was only partially true. Many of the people that were living in the house had been abandoned by there families due to AIDS. Others lived there because they had no other place to go.
As soon as we arrived immediately our worst fears came true….we would have a lot of downtime on our hands. You see, my team just came from the most amazing ministry in India where our time was spent loving on abandoned special needs orphans, painting, and cleaning. We were busy all the time and we were making a difference.
It didn't feel this way in Nepal. In fact, it felt very opposite. During the day we would play cards with the kids, sometimes play soccer or basketball with them and then had a Bible Time at 5pm. That was literally all we did. It was monotonous. It was boring. It was hard to leave such an amazing and worthwhile ministry full of children whom we had come to love with all of our hearts to come to this. About halfway into the month after being about bored to tears, something happened. A young girl, a child, bravely came to us and began to expose the reality of the situation she was in.
First she told us her story of how she grew up:
Ruth's father had died when she was young and her mother abandoned her to her uncles care. At a very young age, Ruth was sold to be a house slave several times and she was abused continually. She had incurred serious health issues due to the hard labor and abuse she had suffered. These health issues included a pinched sciatic nerve, fluid in her brain, and many more issues that plagued her. These health issues sometimes caused her to be bed ridden after long days of working in the fields with the ministry we were with. She had come to this safe house after running away and confiding in a local pastor she had befriended.
After she told us her story she began to share the desperate situation she was in. The day before, we had all been working very hard in the wheat fields and Ruth had been one of the only Nepali people who had actually worked with us. You could tell that she was in pain most of the day because she took many short breaks, but all in all she worked as hard as she could.
The next day we didn't see Ruth until the afternoon and she came to me very upset asking me if she could speak with one of my teammates, Kristen. That's when the darkness began to be exposed. Ruth told us that she had woken up in severe pain. The women and boys of the house had come in and had hit her and said very mean things to her because she couldn't get up. After she was still not able to get up they had informed her that she had to leave the house. She had been exiled to the streets where the danger of being kidnapped, trafficked, raped, or even killed were a likely possibility.
She didn't know what to do. So, in true World Race fashion…once our team heard about what was going on, we all (my team and one of our squad leaders, Jeff) began the process of finding Ruth a safe place to live……
AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Quick financial update: I am 82% funded!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for all that have supported me! I'm so excited as i get closer and closer to being fully funded! I need a little less than $3,000 by December to be able to stay the complete 11 months! God is moving and I love being his hands and feet in these places he has called me to! Thank you to all of you who have already invested in and have made this mission possible. AlI of you who feel led to give click on the SUPPORT ME TAB on the left side of my blog screen! All donations are tax deductible. Thank you and much love from Nepal!!!!!
