We have made it to Nepal! Nepal is home to the Himalayan mountains, which is the highest mountain range in the world with 14 peaks that are over 8000m tall including Mt. Everest. We flew into Kathmandu on the 8th and spent the 5 days of debrief in the Thamel area. I fell in love with it from the airplane. Kathmandu is absolutely full of life. There are trekkers everywhere from all over the world eager to explore God’s creation. Within just the first few days we met people from Germany, South Africa, and Australia. The collision of cultures has given Kathmandu it’s own diverse scene. It’s one full of adventure, opportunities for all types of people, and has just a sense of harmony that makes you all feel as one.
So for those of you who don’t know, debrief is a time to recharge. All 55 of us stayed in a hotel for 5 days and did what we needed to do to prepare for this next month’s ministry. Our coaches and mentors had the opportunity to join us for a few days to encourage, love, and be there for us with whatever we needed. We have been so blessed by our leadership team to be able to take this time so we are at our best for ministry.
For our 2nd month of ministry we will be staying in the Kathmandu area working in the city, local villages, and some mountain ministries (still not sure what this is, update to come). So exciting! Here is a fun fact, Nepal has the fastest growing Christian community in the world. That’s right, not just the continent but the world. Globalchristianity.org conducted a study on the growth of Christianity and it showed only 500 Christians in 1961. By 2001 it was up to 102,000 and jumped to 375,000 by 2011. How incredible is that? Unfortunately, Hinduism is still the majority religion with a lead of 81% versus 2% Christianity but God’s light is everywhere. Luke 1:79 “to shine light on those living in darkness and in the shadow of the death, to guide our feet into the path of peace”. So our goal this month is to just help spread the light in the darkness. To show the Nepalese people the love of Christ and to help continue this growth.
I have such hope and trust in God for this country. He will move mountains here and we get the privilege to be His vessels this month. Mark 11:23 “Truly I tell you if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea’, and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”
