your village friend

Hello to all my favorite prayer warriors.. I tell you what I know that you have been waring in the heavenlies with your prayers for me, and I really really appreciate it! There has defionatly never been a dull moment here. I don’t even know where to begin writing to you about our experiences here on “little house on the prarie” I tell you I have to hold back alot of times because they have these beautiful yellow mustard green fields and i want to run through them often with the tune of little house no the prarie going through my head (hari… this is a tv show we watched in america!)
As I said, I don’t know where to begin. Today marks week 2 day two of one of the most unforgettable experience of my life. I have so many snapshots in my heart that I wish I could share with you. First of all the faithfulness of God.. I am feeling much much better.. glory… although I must admit I will really apprecitae it when I go back to kathmandu and can sit on a toilet.. squatty outhouse holes work your leg muscles! Kathmandu will probablly seem to be like new york city by the time we get back;-)
500 cups of chia (milk tea that they serve us at everyhouse), 6 cups of warm buffolo milk straight from a bison, 1 cup of curd (spoiled milk), 1 glass of fire tea (that’s what it literally tasted like, drinking fire because there were pepper grounds in it) 6 fields of rice and lentils (we eat dhol bhot 2 meals a day– that’s all you eat out here….. defionatly eating to live instead of living to eat), 1 watching a chicken be killed and then eating it for dinner, and then my favorite was watching the pet pig (he was such a cute little white pig) that I always talked to on the way to the outhouse– the pet pig was killed, we watched them skin and deorgan (i don’t know if that is the correct word or not) and then we ate that for dinner that night, and lots of buffolo meat which tends to stick in your teeth, not remembering what is like to not be STARED At, being the american movie stars because we are only like the second american’s to ever visit this village, lots and lots of smiles and laughter and trying to communicate in a language that is not your own… no running water (yes we are grossie now hari!) and a rat friend that we have truly come to love named rattington (he is quite the entertainer)… and we have seen JESUS. The BIble really does come alive here as you are walking among the cows, chickens, goats and pigs and seeing an ox cart drive by. Somedays I feel I can taste a little of what Jesus felt like when he needed to draw away from the crowds.. it’s overwhelming to have people follow you, stare at you at times. I must admit this has been quite stretching for me and at times I wanted to just smear some dirt on my face so I looked nepalee (but then there is the blonde hair and blue eyed problem).. but in the midst of all this I have seen JESUS!
Some of the highlights for me have been:
1) The family that we are staying with. I have come to love them like family. We have had some precious moments at night when they all pile in our room and we laugh and sing and we teach them christian songs and from the bible.. please pray this whole family will be saved
2) when we watched the jesus film in nepalee with all of the youth of the village
3) when we have gone to church in the next village and all of the youth come with us
4) when the kids love it when I spent an hour tossing back and forth a fruit from a tree as a ball
5) when we taught the kids how to play cards
6)prayer walking.. this has become the highlight of leah and I’s days.. we do it everyday.. (it’s the only time we have to ourselves also.. so it truly is quite a treat to hve Jesus walk and talk with us). We have prayed for this village and we are going to believe God to work. In fact, when we first got to the village, the Hindu scriptures were read aloud over a loud speaker everyday all day long. We prayed and prayed for this to stop. We didn’t want Satan holding the village hostage with his lies. And guess what. Since that day we prayed, no hindu scriptures have been read! MAHIMA!
There have been many things that have broken my heart here. People worship cows because they think that they are a god, oh that they would no the GOD that created those cows. I have seen poverty like you cannot explain. There are three little boys that stay at the house we live in that were basically abandoned by their parents.. I pray for them to know the FATHER of the fatherless. People have never heard the name of Jesus here, yet someday everyone of their knees will bow. We have passed out many tracts and Bibles, and prayed over this ground, so please pray that somehow God will use our feeble efforts to have their knees bow before it is to late.
I have realized even more how much I have to be thankful for, even for little things such as the freedom of privacy. And more then anything I have realized that I needed to come to the end of myself. It’s funny because I came to the village thinking in pride that I would have no struggles.. I was made for this.. I could do anything. I love how God humbled me. In fact, it has been a real struggle for me. I have struggled with the inability to communicate, the feeling like you are under a microscope at all times, or the american toy that they want to play with, and with many other things. I am glad though. Because God is showing me in my weakness HE is strong. A “m” is not a hero or a superservant.. we are simply those who said yes to God when he called. I needed to be reminded that I am a weak vessel.. and that HE Is the living water. so it has been stretching and breaking.. not because I don’t have running water or electricity or other things.. but because of the being stared at and not being able to communiate.. but I am grateful.. because I pray that I will return never the same.. but changed a bit more into his glory.
please keep praying for us. We will be here until Thursday at 3 when we plan to take the overnight bus ride back to kathmandu. Pray that God will use us in our last few days and for us as we return to kathamandu.
i love you guys soooo much. sorry this is so long, I had a lot to share.