Wow, it’s been an incredible time so far here in Kathmandu! Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve been up to here.
This past Friday we hiked a nearby foothill located south of Kathmandu to a the Shree Santaneshwor Mahadev Temple. This Hindu temple offers a great view of all of Kathmandu, and it’s also where women travel to receive the blessing of fertility. We spent our time there praying over Kathmandu as a whole, that God’s hand would continue to move powerfully in the lives of all who live here. We also prayed over the temple and over those who travel there to offer sacrifices in exchange for fertility – we prayed that their eyes would be open to see Jesus as the only way, truth, and life.
Friday evening we were invited to dinner, fellowship, and prayer at our ministry host, Brian’s house. They invited some other members of the ministry over as well, along with their families. We shared an authentic Nepalese house-cooked meal, and worshiped together. Bowen and Griffon shared part of their testimony with everyone, and Thomas shared a message on Job from the Bible. It was a great night of fellowship!
One big difference between the US and Nepal is that Christian church services are held on Saturdays, instead of Sundays. So on Saturday we visited a local Nepali Christian church in the morning and got to experience one of their main services. Their worship set included some songs in Nepali, but most of them were in English, which was nice. The message was delivered in both Nepali and English – the pastor speaks both languages, so he would say a sentence in English first, and then immediately repeat it in Nepali. It was a great opportunity to see how fellow brothers and sisters of our faith worship our Lord and Savior here in the Nepalese culture. The message was on the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. After the service they invited all the first-time guests to share a quick time together learning more about their congregation over soda and cookies.
Later that afternoon we traveled up to Thamel, which is the tourist part of the city, located just north of Kathmandu. We got to do a little souvenir shopping in the main market area and just walk around and enjoy some different scenery.
Sunday was our official rest day of the week, so we went rock climbing. Being an all-male group, it just made sense, and everyone was excited to try it out. Since we only had about half a day (we slept in), we went to a quasi indoor rock climbing facility. We enjoyed a great time encouraging each other as we attempted our way to reach the top of the wall. Afterwards we grabbed dinner at a really unique Kathmandu-favorite restaurant, named OR2K.
Monday we began our ministry in the slums. This was an eye-opening time to see the raw parts of Kathmandu. We got up early and left our house at 7am sharp to set out for a specific part of the slums. We stopped and some of us got some Masala tea. If you’ve never tried Masala tea, you’re missing out. It’s delicious. We then arrived at a small shelter where we held our ministry with the children in the nearby parts of that slum neighborhood. We shared with them the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, taught them the first five letters of the English alphabet, as well as their sign language equivalent. At the end we played a game of four corners with them, which they knew pretty well already, and just hung out with them. They responded so positively to physical touch, and if you picked them up and held them their facial expression told us we had made their day. Their faces would light up, and they would smile from ear to ear. Our time with them was only roughly an hour and a half. Afterwards we went back to our house and napped, since most of us were still tired from our early morning. For lunch we went to a local restaurant along with the Passport team that just arrived in Kathmandu. Passport is another trip that Adventures in Missions offers, but for 18-22 year olds. They are staying in the same house as us, which has four floors. Following our joint lunch with the Passport group, we rested some more and then left for a daily time of prayer. Every day this week we will be spending an intentional hour alone with the Lord from 3-4pm, built-in to our schedule. This is a time of praying over our ministry, and asking God to move in and through us. It’s a time of listening to what the Lord is speaking to us, and developing a deeper intimacy with the Lord. After that hour of prayer, we headed to our afternoon slum ministry, except in a different part of the slums, with a different group of children. We shared the same message and English lesson as the children from the morning, and played some games with them, as well.
Today (Tuesday) was roughly identical as Monday’s schedule. We visited the same children in the slums as Monday, and shared the story of how Jesus healed so many people during his time here on Earth. We acted out being healed of blindness, sickness, and being lame. We engage the children by asking questions about the story to help solidify the message, and pass out small candies to encourage interaction and answering questions, as well as good behavior. However, today for lunch we were treated to homemade chicken biryani, which is a traditional Indian dish that’s very popular in this region. Lazarus, who is a ministry partner and has been helping translate for us, cooked it in the house we’re staying at. It was a huge blessing, and tasted incredible! So much was made that we ate the leftovers for dinner earlier tonight. We have experienced so much favor from our ministry contacts who have taken strongly to our group. Both Lazarus, Sameer (who is Brian’s son), and Dilip (pronounced like Philip, but with a ‘D’) have been such a joy to talk to, interact with, and learn from during our time here in Nepal. They’ve translated for us, shown us around, and have shared so much about the Nepalese culture with us. We are blessed tremendously by them.
So there’s a little glimpse of what our time so far here in Kathmandu has looked like! Thanks for reading. Please continue to pray for us, that we are continually effective in spreading Kingdom here, and abundantly sharing the love of Christ to the Nepalese people.
