Nepal is breathtaking!
From the moment we stepped out of the airport, we have been surrounded by beautiful landscapes and mountains. If I thought I could do it justice, I’d try to put it into words for you, but I doubt I could.
However, if I have learned anything on the Race, it’s that great beauty comes with heartbreak. If fact, I have used the phrase “heartbreakingly beautiful” more times than I ever would have thought in the past seven months and Nepal is no different on that front.
We have been here just a few days and all of them have held something different. Some new experience, some great beauty and some heartbreaking moments. I wanted to take a moment to share a few of them with you.
Wednesday, we went to a leper colony outside of Kathmandu. After a quick bus ride and a glorious hike down a mountain, we reached a little plot of land where the community we sought stood. A hundred and fifty people ranging in ages from 3 days up lived here. Only a smaller percentage were Christians, so our contact wanted us to talk to everyone we could and share the Jesus we knew with them. The first gentleman my group talked to had lost hope. He told us he was just waiting to die. I remember being at a complete loss for words. He wasn’t interested in hearing what we had to say so we prayed for him and moved on.
The next person we spoke to was another older gentleman. His hair was salt and peppered. His face was a maze of wrinkles and weathered skin. And you could tell he was uncomfortable just by looking at him because his legs were twisted the wrong way. His hip was dislocated and had been for five years because he lacked the funds for medical treatment. We spent some time chatting with him and found out he wanted to know more about Jesus. Our conversation eventually became a prayer and a lot of smiles when the man said he wanted to let Jesus in!!
Thursday, my team and team Barefoot (who we are with for the month) headed out into the slums of Kathmandu. If the smell didn’t inform you that we weren’t in the classiest of places, then I’m sure the swarms of flies we walked through would have. We reached the area where the kids played pretty quickly and the landfill that surrounded us was overwhelming. It came as no surprise that the kids ran from us at first, but then slowly, one bold kid came as shook our hands. After that, we were flooded with kids that wanted to play and sing and laugh. Anytime we weren’t playing or singing with them, they would crawl up us so that they could simply be held.
We played for a few hours in the morning, had lunch and then went out to look for people to pray for. My team found a school instead. A game of chase the kids and tickle them quickly became a game of get tackled by kids and tickled to death yourself. In the end, we barely talked to anyone (who understood us) but the day was a success because we knew we’d made a few kids laugh for a while.
I don’t doubt that Nepal will continue along this vein. We leave Kathmandu tomorrow to head into a smaller area to do ministry for a few days. Please pray for us as we continue to reach out to the people of Nepal.
Until next time!!
