We flew from South Africa to Kathmandu Nepal, with layovers in Kenya, Dubai, and Bahrain. I was so excited to be able to say I was in Dubai, even if only for an eight hour layover. Two days of flights got us to the very cold and beautiful Nepal. We were picked up at the airport by our main contact Bhuvan and driven to a church in Kathmandu to stay for two nights. We had our first Nepalese church service there and we were blessed by having communion with them. On Sunday morning we loaded up into a jeep and took an eight hour drive south to our new home in Sarlahi. The drive south was one of the most beautiful drives we've had so far on the race. We drove up and down mountains with villages and breathtaking views. Nepal is definitely the most beautiful country I've been in thus far. The people of Nepal are so welcoming and loving. We are very blessed in our ministry this month serving with Bhuvan's father-in-law whom we call Uncle. We don't know his real name. That's one thing that's easy here, I don't have to try to pronounce names that are super hard. I can call everyone Sister, Brother, Aunty or Uncle. Our ministry has been so varied and wonderful.
We've gone to three different villages to do evangelism. On our first day of village evangelism we saw the most delightful thing, GOATS IN COATS!
In one village we were stopped by a carpenter and invited to have water buffalo milk tea. So we sat and had tea in the mans work shop and then we were allowed to pray for him and his home. He wasn't a believer, but he showed us love and hospitality on that cold day. We also prayed over a deaf man that day. I'm not sure if he was healed or not. But either way I know he felt God's love. Sometimes I wonder about healings and why they seem to be so easy and natural for some believers and sometime don't seem to happen at all for others. I have never been used by God to heal someone yet. But I know that those prayers are being heard and answered. So I won't stop praying even if I never see the healing I believe it will come.
We've been teaching in the school next door this past week. The kids here are so smart and just want us to be there with them all day. We do songs, bible stories, lessons, and games. We aren't allowed to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in words, but we pour it over them in actions. Our time with them is the sweetest part of my day.
Some very cool people in America donated a bunch of money so Bhuvan could buy blankets for us to pass out to the people, most of them only had one thin blanket. Some people have died this year due to the cold. So two of our guys from team Ignition brought the blankets down to us on a 13 hour bus ride. The next day we were able to hand out to blankets to the people and the smiles on their faces when they received one was so precious!
This month our team is able to have group prayer every morning. We start our day in prayer and worship. It is such a fantastic way to start our day together. I'm so happy that we've been blessed with that time this month. It's especially good that we start our days in prayer and worship this month because Nepal has a spiritual darkness that has been coming against our team. We have gotten easily offended by little things and short tempered with each. But the great thing about community living on the Race is that you face it head on and work it out. We've become aware of how we are being attacked and are facing it head on with each other. We focus our eyes on Christ and encourage each other in love.
