Nepal is the country that I was the most excited to visit on the race. This was my third time coming here, and each time I’ve visited God has showed me a different part of the country and has used me to do different types of ministry. This month my team and I were working with an organization that focuses on rescuing women and children at risk.
Before we even set foot in Nepal, we knew that this month would be special. Our host, Brian, asked us questions about our interests and our natural abilities and used our responses to set up ministry opportunities that would align with our strengths. He has such a heart for the ministry he does and wanted to use us in the best way he could for the Kingdom, while also asking us to do things that we would genuinely enjoy.
This month was spent doing a variety of different things. We spent time teaching kids in the slums, painting and fixing up their women’s center (used to teach women who have been rescued from trafficking different skills they can use to support themselves, such as cooking, tailoring, etc.), tutoring, leading devotions, going to cabin restaurants where women are trafficked, intercessory prayer over the country, and transcribing the stories of women who have been rescued.
I honestly loved each type of ministry we did. We were able to see many different aspects of the organization and got to spend a lot of time with Brian, his family, and the leadership team responsible for heading up ministry. However, my favorite thing we did was intercessory prayer.
My team went to a village near Pokhara for four days. We stayed with Dilip’s family, one of the men who works for the organization. During our time here we went hiking and went on prayer walks around the village. Nepal is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever seen. It is made up of mountains and lush greenery, and I can feel God’s love coursing through his creation everywhere I look.
One of our hikes brought us to a cave. This cave had a water source buried deep inside that was dedicated as a shrine to a Hindu god. People had come a few days prior to celebrate a festival and pray over this shrine. To reach the water source we had to climb up steep parts of the cave that were muddy, slippery, and extremely dark, but when we got to the source we could immediately feel the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Dilip was helping to guide us, and he spoke words of truth over the shrine. He told us about how people came there to worship a false god, but that we know who the true god is. He spoke about how Jesus is the living water and about how this running water symbolized Christ. The stream of water was very tiny and moved as a light trickle down the rocks, but this small movement was strong enough to break down rocks over time and create new crevices in the foundation where it could continually run and leave a permanent mark – a perfect metaphor for the power of Christ.
We prayed over the water source and declared the ground holy land in the name of Jesus, because we know that no matter what gods people try to worship there, the space has always belonged to Christ. We turned off our headlamps and worshiped God in the dark, letting our voices echo off the cave walls. The power and presence of God was sitting in the cave with us at that moment.
When we emerged from the cave, we made our way over to a spot on the top of the mountain that overlooked the valley and the surrounding mountains. We spent time here worshipping and praying over the people who dwell in the valley and the country of Nepal. People often take for granted the power of prayer, but there was something so moving about covering the land, the city, and the people who live in Nepal with a blanket of prayer and love.
In that moment it hit me that God truly has created Nepal to be a unique place where he can clearly reside in the midst of his creation. His beauty can be seen everywhere, and he must have a special fondness for the people he created to live here. He has given everyone the gift of himself, but he has also given the Nepali people a beautiful picture of who he is through the mountains he has surrounded them with.
One thing I’ve noticed during my time here is the love that the Nepali people have within themselves. With every person I’ve met I’ve been able to see Christ within them through their eyes and their smiles, even if they don’t believe in him. It’s difficult to explain, but I’ve seen how Christ can somehow dwell in the people he loves even when they are unaware of who he is. His love and faithfulness to us knows no bounds, even when we create boundaries for him.
Once again, God has expanded the way I see him and his kingdom. God is in Nepal now and he has always been here before the beginning of time. He continues to shatter my expectations, reminds me of the importance of following him in faith, and shows me that he has all of his people lovingly held in the palm of his hand. He has a grand plan for the Nepali people and will continue to burst through the shrines and temples here long after we are gone.
