Nepal Team Update #1

As our first week draws to a close I feel like we are just starting to hit our stride. Yet at the same time it hardly seems like a week has gone by since leaving training camp.

The students are always so thrashed from the long travels days that the first couple of days we are trying to get our legs under us. Training camp itself is not hard, however, it is the long days and the heat this year made it seem long. Then ironically we get here, in the rainy season and very hot weather.

On our next day here in Kathmandu, we visited the monkey temple as usual.  It is a buddhist temple, and besides getting to see monkey’s (which let’s be honest is just cool), the whole thing just feels quite empty. One bright spot is a woman and her husband who sell paintings up at the top.  They are believers and have a successful business in a difficult place.  The students love to visit with her and buy some paintings (spoiler alert – you may be getting one when they get home).  On the next day, we visited the hindu temple called Pashupatinath which is on the very polluted Pashupati River.  It is a temple to shiva, the god of destruction, and was a thought provoking location for our students.

On Saturday, we went to visit a local church in which we did the youth service.  The student’s immediately noticed the difference between that and the past 2 days.  The church is so alive and we could really feel the light.  In the youth service, our students performed their skill groups, which consists of Drama, Dance and Puppets.  The youth group loved watching and cheering on our students. We all had a blast. We intentionally show them the Buddhist and Hindu temple so they can see the this world, as well as what the local believers experience in their day to day lives.  Pray for the Believers of Nepal!

This past Monday, we did ministry at a Men’s Rehab clinic.  For a couple of years now we have been doing a baseball clinic and this year Jake was a big help in running this.  He really helped teach the men the basic skills of baseball. After that we played a quick game of soccer, in which Ben and Lydia almost carried us to victory. After all the games were done, we went inside and Lydia shared her testimony.  We then shared with the men. After wrapping up, we asked if anyone wanted to come forward. One gentleman came up (we will call him Sammy), he told me he was not ready yet, but he had questions.  He proceeded for the next 30 minutes to ask some well thought out questions... one’s that I am sure many in the room had as well.  In the end he stated, that he still loved things in this world too much, but he is still trying to find out the truth.  Please pray for him as he is so close. Pray also for the other men in the room who heard the conversation. Continue to pray for our team as we continue doing ministry each day… pray for more opportunities to share with the Nepali people.

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