Blog 6 -- 2nd Day in Kathmandu at Church-Planters' Conference and Children's Home

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, "The kingdom of God is near you." The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your Name." "... do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." Luke 10:1-3, 9, 17, 20, 23-24

Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Sc

riptures. He told them, "

This is what is written: The Chris

t will suffer a

nd rise from the dead on the third day, and

repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preac

hed in His name t

o all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Y

ou are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you ha

ve been clothed with power from on

high."

Luke 24:45-49

The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed. Acts 5:12-16

Those who had been scatte

red

pr

eached the word w

herever they went. Philip

went dow

n to a city in Samaria and

pr

oclaim

ed the Christ there. When the crowds he

ard P

hilip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close

attention to what he said. With shrieks,

evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were he

aled.

So there was great joy in that city. Acts 8:4-8

In Lystra th

ere sat a man crippled i

n his fe

et,

who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him

, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At

that, the man jumped up a

nd

began to walk. Acts 14:8-1

0

"It feels like we are

living in the book of Acts," was Gil's insightful quote after our first day in Nepal. Gil had the p

rivilege of interviewing 15 of the church-planters during our two days with them, and it

was fun to watch his excitement about their stories. In fact, he was so

moved by their stories that he felt he must speak to them at the conference the next day. He wanted them to know how much t

heir sacrifice and labor for the Lord had encouraged him, even though we were the ones coming to Nepal to encourage them. I dar

e say Gil's faith will never be t

he same again. I can hardly wait to re

ad all those stories when he gets them typed and put together. I will be sure to share some with you!

What I can share, however, is that what God is doing among the believers in Nepal loo

ks very much like the early church in the book of Acts. When you first hear about people being healed and demons being cast out, you think, "Yea right. That sounds like something embellished to gain converts and im

press people." Either that, or you think that must

be a rare experience that happened

to a few people.

But when you encounter one person after another,

after anothe

r, after another who all share the same kind of miraculo

us stories--and then you begin meeting these people who were healed or had a demon cast out of them--your eyes become wide-o

pen to the fact that this is the reality of the new Ch

ristian church

in

Nepal. It was so incredible to be right in the middle of it! I will share some specific stories in upcoming blogs.

So on our second day in Kathmandu, Michael did more teaching with the church-planters, Gi

l

spoke words of encoura

ge

ment

to them, and Sasha

and I

went

to the Children's Home to paint. Mark was

so g

racious to

le

t the ladies (i

ncluding Bhakti) do the work while he looked on to encourage, take photos, and inspec

t our quality.

Hmmm. Well, he

did mix the paint for us (which wa

s thick as molasses and ne

eded water added to it), and finally picked up a brush to help later that afternoon.

I wore my 72 shirt that day, knowing that I would probably g

et paint on whatever I wore (and I knew I could get a

nother

one back home), and boy did Nepal ever leave its mark on

our 72! My shirt has to be the most authentic 72 shirt of them

all now!

In case you don't know, our LifeBridge 72 shirts are bas

ed on

the Luke 1

0 passage quoted at the beginning of th

is blog (when Jesus sent

out the 72), and we wear them when we are out serving and loving in Jesus' name

. Mine now has the true m

arks of service and love...and Asian Paints. :)

Around noon, we loaded up in the taxi and went to get Michael and Gil for lunch. I was so thankful that a lunch had been prepared for us at Lazarus' church so I didn't have to go to a restaurant covered in paint from the top of my head to the tips of my toes! Lazarus sure did get a surprise when he saw u

s covered

in paint. We enj

oyed yet another meal of rice and lentils with chicken (dahl bhat; dahl--lentils, rice--bhat; this is the third me

al of it now--every lunch and dinner so far). I forgot

to mention that we went back to that great little internet cafe for breakfast and to talk on the internet with family, so at least we had Americ

an fare for breakfast both mornings.

After lunch, Michael went with us to the Children's Home

while Gil stayed to interview more pastors. As I mentioned in my last blog, little Bikash totally warmed up to Michael. Michael picked him up when we first arrived at the home, and Bikash melted into his shoulder and stayed that way for about an hour. Then Sasha held him the same way for a while, then it was my turn. Bikash now likes white-faced foreigners. :) In fact, the poor little guy cried every time we set him down. It broke our hearts to leave him later that day!

While painting at the Children's Home, I got into a conversation with Bhakti about some

health issues of hers. She showed me a rather large, dark scar on her leg from a bus accident years ago, and then explained how fortunate she is to be alive and still have that leg. Imagine the traffic of a large inner-city, but withmost people actually walking in the streets or riding bicycles amongst all those vehicles (along with some cows and goats), no emissions regulations, no posted speed limit, no lines to designate lanes (there are no lanes--you just drive straight at each other until the last minute, then somehow pass around each other, kind of like "chicken"), and the rule that you must honk your horn so people know you are coming up behind them, and you will have a pretty good picture of the typical road scene in Kathmandu.

Bhakti explained to me that when a bus hits a person walking in the streets, the driver will quickly throw it into reverse and back over the person because it is less expensive to pay for a funeral than for medical bills. Can you imagine? When she was hit many years ago, God graciously provided someone to get her out of the way quickly so that her life was spared. The doctor didn't give her much hope for her leg, though, saying he would have to amputate.

She was so ill from the effects of the accident, because it also injured her abdomen. Yet she shared the story of how God came to her in a dream while she was sleeping. She saw God massaging her leg. The next day, when the doctor examined her leg, he gave her the good news that it would heal and not need to be amputated! She still has that scar and some abdominal pains every now and then, but she is a healthy woman caring for nineteen children every day! Glory to God!

Besides painting, Sasha and I also had fun placing some goodies on the children's beds. One of the beautiful older girls

named Sangita took us around and helped us with this task. We hung out with the kids in the study room, too, which was fun that day because they were done with their exams. They were all in such high spirits! Michael got to interact with them as well, and he took that precious video of them singing to him (in the last blog). Mostly, though, he held sweet little Bikash.

Sasha's pixie sticks were always a hit!

We didn't want to leave, but we knew we had to get back and get ready for the closing worship service with the church-planters. So we sadly said good-bye (we would have to do this so many times in the coming days while traveling around Nepal, and it was the hardest thing we had to do). Our driver whisked us (as much as you can whisk down bumpy dirt roads around cows and goats) back to the hotel, where we changed clothes--Sasha and I trying as much as possible to get all of the paint off our arms and feet and out of our hair. We had all of five minutes to do this!

Then we headed back to be with the church-planters for a beautiful time of worship (video clip) and fellowship. I absolutely love the way they worship and pray! They sing with passion for the One who has saved them, whether they know the song or not. When they pray, they all pray simultaneously for a while. Then everyone will gradually stop until it is almost silent. At the end, one designated person will pray to close the prayer. These are no short prayers either, and they are beautiful! I absolutely loved doing this every time we had prayer. It is not intimidating, like praying out loud as we do, because everyone is praying at the same time. So no one knows what anyone else is saying. You can just pour your heart out to God while everyone else does the same! There is something so incredible about hearing all of those voices joined in prayer together.

Michael gave a great closing message to all the pastors gathered. It was hard to believe our time with them was coming to a close after only two days! These were some pretty amazing men.

Holy Communion was a very beautiful experience that night. Michael consecrated the elements as usual, then he and Lazarus handed out the bread and juice (Christians in Nepal do not drink alcohol at all) to every single person. We all held our elements in our hands until everyone had theirs, then we "ate and drank" at the same time, all 50+ of us. What a picture of the unity of believers!

When it came time for the benediction, all the men got out of their chairs and knelt down on the ground with heads bowed as in prayer, so our team followed suit. Then Michael spoke the benediction over them. Wow. Such a powerful way to receive those precious words from God.

Lazarus and his wife presented each person on our team with some gifts. You will see in the photo at the beginning of this post that we were adorned with beautiful garlands made from flowers. This seems to be a common practice in Nepal for special guests. The men received topis (the traditional Nepali hat many of the men wear), a Gurkha knife (the official military knife of Nepal), a Nepali drum (yea!--the one thing Michael wanted to get while we were there!) and a Nepali flag. The ladies received a Nepali flag and a photo album covered in beautiful Nepali cloth--perfect for all the photos we would be taking.

After the service we shared a meal and a great time of fellowship up on the roof. In addition to another delicious meal of dahl baht (four meals in a row now, excluding breakfasts), we were treated to fried chicken--Nepali KFC, as Lazarus joked (not really--those hard-working women on the roof fried that delicious chicken for us). Lazarus and his associate pastor (who is from Korea, I believe) explained to us that a KFC recently opened in Kathmandu. It is their first ever, and one of his kids waited in line for four hours to get a piece of fried chicken the day it opened!

Someone also told us they have a Pizza Hut, and of course we found Coca Cola and Pepsi products all over the country, even in the remotest places. As Joel Vestel mentions in his book Dangerous Faith, Coca Cola has managed to infiltrate every place on the face of the earth (he has been to many of the remotest, too). Yet there are still people groups and countries in which people have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. How messed up is that?

It tells me that we as the Church need to rise up and do a more outstanding job of spreading the Word of the Living Water than a mere soda company does with marketing a product that will just make them thirsty again. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14) We need to get busy offering this Living Water to the millions of people whose souls are still thirsting for the only One who can fill and satisfy them! See Isaiah 55 for more on that.

As we closed our time with the pastors, we handed out the bags of toiletry items LifeBridge folks had purchased for them (thank you to each of you who took those bags and filled them--it really blessed these men). Then we said our good-byes and our "Jay Mahsee"s (men speak this greeting/farewell, and then shake each other's hands, but they only speak the greeting to women...no touching of hands or hugging, which was hard to get used to but we knew we needed to follow custom).

So Sasha and I hugged every woman and child we had the chance to because we are huggers by nature. :) Sasha especially hit it off with the woman in charge of cooking the meal. I thought that woman was going to kiss her all over her face! I think Sasha hit it off with pretty much everybody on our trip. She is definitely a good person to be with if you want to get to know everyone. We loved that about her!

We went back to our hotel, met for a debriefing to share powerful stories from the day and read more notes of encouragement from our church family, and make plans for our departure early the next morning for Pokhara. We had much rearranging to do in our luggage because we needed to only take a small suitcase and backpack with us to Pokhara and then to the remote villages. So we all stayed up for a while trying to rearrange and cut back to the bare necessities, hoping we would have enough clothes and supplies to get us through the next six days. I have never packed so light and simple!

I was so proud of the work for the Kingdom that Michael did on this first leg of the trip. I know he already felt as if he had been "poured out like a drink offering," to quote Paul's words, and he deserved to feel so. If he had done nothing else for the remainder of the trip but the teaching of those 40 church-planters who are taking the message of Jesus Christ into new territory for the Gospel, that would have been beyond sufficient. I have no doubt these words were spoken from God's heart to Michael's: "Well done, good and faithful servant." (Matt. 25:21)

Blog 5 -- Church-Planters' Conference and Children's Home (Part 2)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

With all that has been going on in our lives since returning from Nepal, I haven't had the time to finish unpacking from our trip yet. So Saturday I was putting away the things in my backpack that I carried around for those two weeks in Nepal, and I started to get so sad.

I want to go back! I miss all the people. I miss the power of God I felt among those believers as we worshipped together in different languages. I miss the power of God I felt working through me as I sought to bring His love to the Nepali people. I miss Nepal!

If my husband would come home today and say, "Honey, I think God is calling us to live among the people of Nepal." I would say, "O.k.," and start packing. That's how much I loved it. Now, before you get worried that we are moving to Nepal, don't. Michael hasn't said anything of the sort, and I don't expect him to do so. I'm just saying...that's how much I loved it.

When I stopped to get a sandwich the other day, there was an Indian-looking family in the restaurant. I'm learning, though, that many of these people are actually from Nepal. I smiled and said, "Excuse me," as I walked by, then got outside and thought, "I should have said, 'Namastay!'" (which is the Nepali greeting--their version of "hi"). Boy do I regret missed opportunities like that. Next time I'll be ready.

I promised to share with you the rest of our first full day in Nepal, so here's the rest of the story....

After lunch, Udaya Bhatta spoke to the church-planters about the ServLife Children's Home in Kathmandu which he and his wife Bhakti have been runnning since 2003. Then Mark Storm shared with them about ServLife's Hope Fund--micro-business loans for the poor--and how it can be an outreach tool for them in their villages.

Finally came the moment for which Sasha and I had been waiting: we got to go to the Children's Home! Mark took Om Maya, Asha, Sasha and myself to the Children's Home while Michael and Gil stayed to teach and interview the church-planters. We were so ready to meet those children! They were very shy at first. The school-age children were in the middle of studying for exams, so we met them as they came in from school or came down from the study room. Shortly after we arrived, however, most of them were there to greet us.

Udaya and his wife Bhakti introduced each child to us, telling us if they were a full-orphan or half-orphan, a little of the story of how they came to the home, where they were from and if they had a sibling at the home. Then the child would greet us ("Jay mahsee!"), tell us their name and which class they read in (i.e which grade). It was so precious!

One little guy named Bikash, who was three years old, had only been with them for 15 days (he is front-and-center in this photo). He was wide-eyed and very nervous about these white-faced foreigners--something he had never seen before. He just sat and stared at us, not sure what to do. The next day he really warmed up to us, especially to Michael.

After introducing themselves, the children stood up and sang "Welcome to the Family." Our hearts totally melted at this. They sang it again the next day for Michael--here's the precious video he took of them. "Welcome to the Family"

Since the kids were taking exams the next day, they had to head back up to their study room and hit the books (that's the room in which the video was taken of them singing). So we visited with Udaya and Bhakti some more, and Udaya gave us a tour of the home. It was agreed that what was most needed of us while here was to paint the family room for them, so that became our plan for the next day. Can't wait to show you those photos in my next blog. :)

Next we headed back to get Michael and Gil, then we were off to meet Abraham's parents and family for Asha's 1-year-old birthday party! That was such a fun evening! The electricity was out (as it frequently is in Nepal), so we were by candlelight and couldn't really see faces very well. But we were warmly greeted by Abraham's brother-in-law to his home and by all the family gathered to celebrate with us. Moments like these are what made this so much more than just a mission trip. This is when we felt like we were part of a family on the other side of the world. We were so blessed to experience real life and family like this!

We enjoyed a delicious Nepali dinner of rice and lentils with chicken (same as we had for lunch). Then we sang to Asha (as she slept) and blew out her candles on her cake for her. This was the first time the Tamang's relatives in Nepal had met Asha, and they were so excited to be part of her birthday celebration. Abraham's family is just as lively as he is (we now see where he gets his hilarious sense of humor), and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with various family members. Their pastor even showed up while we were there!

About half-way through the evening, the lights suddenly came on. Hooray's and applause filled the house, and we could finally see all their faces. There must have been nearly 30 people in that home! Abraham's brother-in-law also uses his home as an orphanage for 8 orphans, so we met those precious children, too. I had fun taking videos of Abraham's parents telling him "hi" and sending their greetings to Alpha and Omega (Abraham and Om Maya's other two daughters). Sasha was about ready to take his sweet mom home with her, the two of them hit it off so well (even though they couldn't understand a word the other was saying)!

Sasha, Abraham's mom and dad, one of Abraham's uncles

Gil and Michael

Blog 4 -- Day 1: Church Planter's Conference and Children's Home (Part 1)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may bethoroughly equipped for every good work.

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke an encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 4:2)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010-- first full day in Nepal!

It is hard to know how to even begin to describe all of this to you. Words cannot explain the overwhelming emotion that

hit me as I watched Michael speak to those 40 church-planters on the other side of the world. I see pictures in magazines, read stories in books and watch videos and photos on websites of this kind of mission work, but to actually witness it in person was rather surreal. I don't mind saying I was one proud wife to watch my husband encouraging and equipping these men who are taking the Gospel all over their pagan country! I really had to work to hold back the tears of joy in front of all those people!

Let me back up to the beginning of the day, though. For me it began with my quiet time with the Lord at 5 am, then I began to get ready at 6 am...and quickly discovered I could NOT bring myself to take a freezing cold shower (hot water is a luxury in Nepal). Oh well--day 3 of not washing my hair.

We got dressed and had breakfast at a great little internet cafe called Higher Grounds (begun by American missionaries several years ago, and mostly frequented by ex-patriots). We all had delicious American-style breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, eggs and sausage, etc.)...with coffee! That was funny because Gil, Michael and I had weaned ourselves off of coffee the week before we left since we didn't think we would have many opportunities to drink it in Nepal. Wouldn't you know we ended up having it every single day. God has a great sense of humor! We also found out how easy it is to call people on the internet and actually spoke with family that morning. What a small, globally-connected world we live in these days!

Lazarus met us that morning for breakfast so that Michael could ask him some questions to get a better feel for where these pastors are in their level of education and knowledge of the Scriptures, and what they most needed to hear (hoping, of course, that the five sessions he had already prepared would be appropriate...and of course they were). Is was so great to meet Lazarus after all these months of

preparing to partner with him on our trip. What a ministry and testimony he has! I can hardly wait to share with you how his grandfather came to faith as one of the very first Christians in Nepal, and subsequently how Lazarus ended up in the ministry after trying so hard to avoid it.

After breakfast we headed to the Church-Planter's Conference. It was on the top floor of a four-story building where Lazarus' church meets for worship, study and fellowship. The building is owned by Christians...and it was very different to walk up so many flights of stairs with no railing and no WALL on the inside of the stairs. These were very rough, hand-laid concrete stairs, and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw children running up and down them later on. I would have panicked that my kids might fall from one flight to the other, but these children are obviously very used to these kinds of stairs. The rest of the building was occupied by some Christian businesses and a few family residences. Very different from what we're used to in America. We could have literally walked right into one of these residences, everyone is so open and trusting. The reason for this, though, is that there is very little crime here--which is pretty amazing for a city that reminded me a lot of New York City with its hustle and bustle.

Shortly after we arrived, the pastors began coming in and finding their seats. I was getting so excited! All we had been looking forward to was about to begin! The conference had actually begun the day before, while we were still traveling.

Lazarus and Joel Vestal had been their speakers that day, but now it was pretty much all Michael from here on out. Lazarus welcomed us and brought Michael up to introduce our team

(by the way, Om Maya and Asha stayed with some family the previous night since little Asha was so sick, so they were not around for the beginning of the day). Michael had each of us come forward and share a few words of greeting and explain what each of us do in our church back home. As in many countries, the people of Nepal take off their shoes when entering someone's home. Well, here we kept them on in the building; but we were to remove them before stepping up to the altar area to speak. I got some fun photos of Michael up there in his socks. :)

Here is the video clip of Michael first speaking to the church-planters. Greetings from America

That was so amazing to witness! I want to share with you also the introduction to one of Michael's sessions. As I wrote in my journal, I felt like I was watching Paul in action. To see Michael teaching these pastors, many of whom were fairly new converts within the past few years, was absolutely amazing to me. Knowing that these men would then take what they learned and the encouragement they received to go shepherd their flocks and plant new churches throughout this Hindu-dominated country was an overwhelming thought to me.

Michael teaching the church-planters -- theme: 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (please forgive me...I'm not much of a videographer!)

Then we had a delicious ("mito" in Nepali) lunch with Lazarus. The pastors went

up on the roof to eat together while we went into a special room with Lazarus and the meal served for us as the guests of honor. We later went up on the roof to see what was up there, and it was fun to look out over the city from up high. We watched as women cooked and washed laundry top of their roofs, observed the traffic and people--and animals--moving about the streets, and got a great aerial view of Kathmandu.

Oh...and during lunch-break, Sasha and I also got our introduction to our first true Nepali toilet. Here goes the adventure!

I will share about our time at the Children's Home and Asha's 1st birthday party with her family in Nepal in my next blog.