Nepal Update.

Where to begin, I think I have experienced every emotion on the spectrum over the last few days. Everything form joy while playing with my little cousins to great empathy from seeing the living conditions of a widow with four kids who lives in a road side ditch. My heart has been touched while worshiping with churches in mountain villages and I have been encouraged by stories of God working in the local churches.
My first experience in Nepal was meeting my Aunt and Uncle in Katmandu with no idea as to what my schedule would be; a question that would soon be answered by my uncle when he said, “hello James ready to go again.” They then took me to the regional airport where we went through ‘security’ (they didn’t even find my uncles knife that was on his belt) and bout my ticket to Nepalganj. Four hours later, which was only supposed to be 2 hours later, I was in the air heading to the west.
When I got off the plain I was met my by cousin Tim and my cousin in law David, they told me that the road from Nepalganj to Surkhet was closed and we would have to take a Rickshaw to meet the van that was supposedly waiting four us. At first this was a nice change of pace from flying but after 2 hours on that hard wooden seat riding through the pitch dark with no lights in sight I was ready to get off that cursed bike. As these thoughts were going through my head I saw head lights come up over the hill ahead of us and I hoped it was the van, hopes that were quickly dashed when the van sped by us. This happened a few times until the last van passed us and then slammed on it breaks as the drive realized we were his cargo. Finally by 10:30 at night we arrived and my Cousin's house in a western region of Nepal. I shoved some food down and then went right to bed as we would be leaving early in the morning to go to a mountains village for three days.
The next day after a one and a half hour jeep ride and a three hour hike we arrived in the village. We would spend the next three days there having evening services and a 5 hour teaching time on the second day. It was amazing to fellowship with Christians who I couldn’t even speak with and yet we had such a great time getting to know each other. The evening of the first night we all sat in a circle and worshiped by the warm glow of candles, even though I didn’t understand the words being sung I felt God in that place stronger then I have felt Him for a while. We sang songs and shared our stories, the mother of the house where we were staying shared the story of how she became a Christian.

“She is the Mother of 9 Children, eight daughters and one son, her husband was a drunk and she was sick for many years. She always had a sore throat that felt like someone was choking here and sometimes she could not swallow and wouldn’t eat for days on end. She tried everything to get better, traditional medicine and doctors, witch doctors and there remedies but nothing would work. Finally she herd that there was a church in a village 3 hours away and that if she went there people would pray and she would be healed. So see walked by herself over the mountains for 3 hours to this church and the people there prayed and she was healed immediately. She became a Christian and went back to her village but she was the only Christina in her village. She asked the pastor of the church what she should do and he told her just to pray. That was three years ago and now her entire family are Christians, her husband has stopped drinking and there is a church of 40 people in the village.”


This was just one of the many testimonies we herd during our stay in that village, many of them had similar stories of healing. The people there were such a blessing to me, there kind spirits and hospitality were truly amazing.

The day after returning from the village the roads across the entire Terri (lower more populated half of Nepal) were closed do to civil unrest. So we spent the next few days around the house playing with the kids and preparing bamboo for a hut we were making for a widow in town who lives in a ditch with three children. It turned out that the road wouldn’t open until the day after we carried bundles of 30 foot sections of bamboo two KM‘s to the building sight (funny how things work). We finished the hut for the family and they now have something that resembles a home more then a pile of twigs.
So now I am waiting at my cousin's house for the 18th when I will fly to a village in northern Nepal to start a solar panel and stove project. The Roads are still closed however and the stoves we are planning on taking to to village are on the other side of Katmandu so we are praying that they will be able to get here before we have to leave.

Well that about catches you all up on what I’ve been up to, there is so much more to say but I am on cell phone internet which is even slower then dial up. I hope you all are well and I look forward to sharing more stories with you soon.