We have arrived safely back from Nepal, Praise God!! Thank you for all your prayers! Myself, Kim B and Amanda W. really felt them!
We arrived in Kathmandu on Feb. 27th and Pastor Chandra and his family met us at the Airport. ( P. Chandra himself had just arrived from S. Africa so it was a very warm welcome for all of us!)
We slept at the Bible School the first night and the next day headed out to the mountains with 11 Bible school students.
It was a 5hr ride in a packed Van to the beginning of our expedition. Thank you Lord for the gift to sleep just about anywhere!
That night we slept in a little Church by the river and the next morning, bright and early we headed out.
We waded through the fast moving mountain river at least 10 times, ( not including a quick swim time!) and scaled a beautifuly tiered mountain before reaching our first village.
That night, like many to come, we preached to pretty much the whole village in the community school yard! The Bible school students started off with some music to draw people in. It began to rain that night so we crammed everyone into an un-lit school room and presented the Gospel message! That night 30 people came to the front of the classroom to recieve the Lord!
We ate our rice that night by candle light and then went to bed wearing our Jackets, sweaters, pants ect! It was freezing in the mountains so we did whatever we could to stay warm!
The next ten days were quite similar. We would have our morning Tea, pack our bags and either hike over a few mountains on goat-paths or walk and wade through a river valley to get to the next village.
On average we would hike 2-4hrs a day over some encredibly difficult terrain! The views though from the top of these mountains were just encredible!
During the day we would prepare for the evening service, get cleaned up with any available water (many of the Villages had none!) and sometimes we would go door to door inviting people to the meeting.
We saw 2 men with bad backs get healed, were able to pray for many babies with fevers and prayed over a few witch doctors.
Many of the villages that we went to grew marijauna as way to support themselves. We saw fields and fields of it everywhere. Many of the christians also grew it to make money. It is ilegel in Nepal to grow Marijauna but in the remote mountains nothing is done to prohibit it.
So many of these 'Japang' villages that we preached in were Maoists. We saw many children suffering malnutrition, and many of them were just barely surviving on what they grew on the mountains.
After over a week of preaching to over 12 villages we walked back to the Highway along the river valley and headed to Kathmandu.
In Kathmandu we were able to relax, do some shopping, eat some western food and wrap up everything for the TV show.
The last night before leaving I had the honor of speaking at the Bible school graduation! I spoke on vision because without a long term vision we are just wandering aimlessly in life.
I am teaching at the Bible school for 2 weeks so please be praying that God would give me the tongue of the learned and I would be able to communicate Church History in a practical, effective way!
Bless you all in everyway!
JR
