Howdy!
After the trek, we spent over a week in what I refer to as the sticks of Nepal, in a village called Chitwan. We stayed on the floor of a church and our days all looked pretty much the same. After breakfast we would help the pastor with construction as they are building both an orphanage and a home for old ladies. After lunch, we would walk about an hour to fellowship where we would sing songs (mostly in Nepali), pray, give testimonies and words of encouragement for the people we would gather with. Following, some days we would play with kids then we would have dinner and end with another fellowship either in the church or someones home.
In this village, that was truly unlike anything I had ever experienced, there is a movement happening in the church against both a hindu government and society. These people that we worked, worshiped, and lived with have a faith that I cannot put into words. They must depend on God for everything, food, money, safety, converting others, and every move they make. The people spend hours a day simply in prayer as an act of their complete utter dependence and out of joy from talking to their Father.
The pastors wife is someone that I wish everyone could meet. She is wise, bold, strong, disciplined and brings peace with her wherever she goes. This woman wakes up at three every morning to pray for hours, is a prayer warrior and submits to the Father at every turn. As a woman, she commands respect from those around her simply by the way she acts and carries herself. Since she began praying, the church has expanded form one to five locations and she continues to fight for ways to show others the Gospel. Alongside her are the old ladies who they are building the house for. These ladies were outcasted from their families for believing in Jesus. Can you imagine kicking anyone out on the side of the road much less your mother or grandmother? They knew what would happen and despite being abandoned they continue to pray, laugh, rejoice in who God is and what He has done.
While this village may be small, their faith is anything but. Through this, I realized how all of the opportunities, advantages, and aspects of our lives that we are privileged to have are good things but come at the cost of our complete dependence on God. What if we had to pray continuously for funds because we didn’t know where the money would come from? What if we had to pray for our next meal because we don’t know how we would eat? What if we had to pray for safety, because everyone around us, (including the government) shames us? What a faith we would have, what a faith we should have. These things God has blessed us with have turned into crutches. These things we should give fully to the Lord have turned them into safety nets to keep some control over our own lives. By our standards, the people there have almost nothing. But by their standards, we don’t have the one thing, the only thing, the life altering thing. While we are now in back in Kathmandu and are getting ready for our next adventure, I am changed by the last. As we left, we talked about the pastors daughter, Esther, and how we hope she turns out like her mother. Honestly, I hope I turn out like her, so that people feel both the strength and the grace of the Father wherever I go because at the foot of the cross is where my complete dependence rests.
