Nepal Update 1 - Jumping in Full Bore

Can I say it? Man, I love this team! I have had many good teams in the past and I can’t really say which one was the overall best. These teams come together with students from all over the place, not only geographically, but personally, in maturity, levels of walks with Christ, desire for the things of Christ, desire to jump in and work, situational awareness, energy, self-centeredness, and the list can go on.   In reality they are microcosms of the church and they are the future of the church.

That is why I love working with them. I love helping to bring them before the Lord so He can take them where He is trying to get each of them to as individuals and as a team. No matter where that place is or how wearing it can be…  to come alongside them, it’s worth it.

One thing I have learned in many years of youth ministry is it really doesn’t matter what stage they are at, each stage and person is a joy to work with. Because the places they are now are just a shadow of where God can take them down the road and you never know who will be a success in their spiritual walk and who will struggle. You don’t know which one is which - you think you know but only God does. So you pour into all of them.

But this team has shown an ability to be a bunch of go getters. They have jumped full bore into ministry and been proactive in it. Our first day of ministry was at the leper colony here in Kathmandu. Pastor Uma Prasad Tiwari has been discipling people for 30 years and he has an amazing ministry that we are blessed to work with each year. About half the people in the colony are believers and we also get a chance to share the gospel with those in the surrounding village. This is a place where our puppet teams have a chance to do a lot of ministry with the many children there. After their puppet performance, Clara V. and Eliana P. knocked it out of the park as they were very engaged with the children who were mesmerized by the fuzzy creatures at the end of their arms. 

Our men on the team did a boy band performance that drew many from outside the compound and many of our girls were encouraging people to come in. The girls on our dance team really nailed their performance. Macy M., who has an amazing heart for people, and Acaycia L., who is excellent with children, danced and engaged with children the whole afternoon. We also were able to give an open gospel presentation here. We encouraged people to contact Uma afterwards as we want to point the people we are ministering to the local church.

Our next chance to minister was at The Mothers Home which is a home for poor and homeless older women. The woman who started the ministry there is Dil Shova Shrestha has been doing this ministry for 25 years and since that time always has a full house. While there we sang songs for the women and hung out with them. Nate B. who is an uber-talented musician led us in song. The women and a few children that are staying there did songs for us and Dil Shova herself at 75 yrs old did a Nepali dance to one of them.

The members of the team are getting chances to engage with locals for the purpose of the gospel, and doing a great job of it,  but they are also getting the opportunities to see what genuine missions is like and being exposed to a world that is not always accepting of that. Similar to the one they will be walking in the rest of their lives, and we are using the experience of this summer to prepare them for that.

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