Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Wow.. This has been an incredible Easter here in Nepal. I feel like I am bursting inside with things to share.. with sweet things the Lord is doing and showing me.. with the joy found in easter admist the sorrow found in Good Friday! We SERVE a RESURRECTED GOD.. did you realize that. Are you living like that? MAHIMA! (ok.. whew.. glory i just started a sermon i think!)
Where to start? I think I will start with thanking you for your prayers for Casey and I’s trip to the mountains. God was soo good to us. I cannot tell you how that little one night getaway seemed like a month vacation for me, and how God stunned me with the display of his handiwork! Casey and I got there and I must say I was really disappointed because you could not see a thing. I was frustrated I must admit with God.. like.. umm.. God don’t you realize that Casey came all the way to nepal and she has been sitting on our couch for three days because she hurt her ankle..and well God couldn’t you at least show her something pretty! ok… so not the most spiritual thoughts huh! So I was disappointed.. but we were sittng outside and let me say God displayed his glory as the most beautiful thunderstorm I have ever seen rolled through right in front of us. (so close in fact I am pretty sure that I have never repented of that many sins so quickly in my life ) I had my expectations.. God has his higher ways. Then the next morning we got up to the most gorgeous sunrise with the himilayan mountains displayed in ALL of God’s glory right before our eyes. It was stunning. I had my expectations– God had his HIGHER ways! And God spoke to me in my quiet time.. he said.. you know Jenn so many times you get disappointed when you have your own expectations. But if you would just get all of your HOPE all of your expectations from me you will never be disappointed because EVERY good and perfect gift comes down from me.. .Isian 26:3 -4 trust in me at all times for I am an everlasting rock!! Also another thing God has been teaching me lately. I have been studying Believing God by Beth Moore. One of her questions I just can’t get out of my mind… it was question 18, It said I _______________ pray generic prayers because I am afraid to be disappointed by God… a) rarely b)sometimes c) most of the time d) all of the time… I can’t get this little question 18 out of my mind. Am I praying generic prayers because I am not believing God… hmmm……

ok.. so about easter! Wow. I am soo excited about the story of Easter this year. You know why. It is easy to forget the power when I am living in the Bible belt of TN sadly. But here the contrast of the power of the Easter story has impacted my heart more then ever! I see people in bondage to worshipping hindu idols and hoping they will listen to them all day every day everywhere..literally. In fact on Friday we could not leave our house because of the Hindu holiday Holi where people just throw colored water ballons at each other and red dye all day worshipping Hindu gods. I was so struck on Friday night as we watched the Passion of the Christ in Nepalee at our church and all the unsaved neighbors came to watch the glory and the freedom found in good friday and easter sunday. The gods that my dear friends are praying to will never answer back, will never pay their life as random for the worshipper, will never raise again.. will never offer life to the lifeless, hope to the hopeless, joy for the joyless. Jesus came for abundant life! We had an incredible time watching the passion and then all the christians in our chuch stayed and we had an awesome prayer meeting. In the middle of the prayer meeting the lights went out (it was time for our 5 horus in the evening with no power) and I could just feel the power of God as we sang praises to him in the dark. The disciples probablly didn’t want to sing praises to God in the darkness of Good Friday– but oh the joy on Easter Sunday!

ok I have to interrupt the seriousness of this post and say I love how crazy my life is. I just had to stop typing my blog because I heard the rooster crowing and cawing (or whatever sound they make) alot outside. We just got these to make eggs for us and I was afraid the dog would eat them.. hehhe.. so I had to interrupt this blog to go chase literally the rooster ( I can’t say i’ve done this before) then while I am in hysterical peals of laughter I caught the thing and had to put it back in it’s little basket. It was soo funny. Imagine me trying to catch a big old rooster… and then hold it.. i thought about just cutting it’s neck off right then and making chicken soup!

ok.. back to the serious post if you have recovered from that mental picture. So the Good friday service was incredible. Then today (we meet for church on Saturday’s in nepal) it was so awesome because before the service they baptized 17 people before the service. This is a huge deal in nepal. Baptism means they are really proclaiming they are saved.. and this is huge in a hindu country. It means most of them will be rejected by their family and friends… in ways that you and I could not even imagine. But oh the smiles on those faces. 2 of the boys baptized were boys from our orphanage. 1 was a husband of a lady in my bible study whom we had been praying for her husbands salvation since Bible study started.. another was the joyful face of a man who had only been a Christian for 3 weeks. These people took the BIG leap.. they chose today to seperate themselves from those in a country who worship literally billions of gods… idols….. dead things.. and they chose to proclaim the day before easter they believed in the risen lord. Glory. Then we had an incredible service. Church was packed and we had a baby dedication, a sermon, and the Lord’s supper. I was just in tears as I realized the weight of the glory of the gospel. I realized it so much more here.. admist the brokeness of a nation in bondage to trying to please millions of gods.

Then after church we hid easter eggs for the oprhans here at our house.. it was soo much to watch and to take part in. Now it is a beautiful evening (thank goodness the winter has thawed and we no longer to waddle around with 6 laywers of clothes on). We are going to have a bonfire (our team) because we still had some marshmellows left (thanks soo much casey) and my team leader went out to get hotdogs.. (nepalee style. scary i must say) so we are going to have us an easter bonfire.. and then tommorow we have another church service, so please pray many non beleivers come (especially pray my language teacher sumon is supposed to come!)

Revel in the glory of the risen christ. I could see it on the faces of the church members I worshipped with today– i could feel it as we sang Jesus is Lord in nepalee… Why look for the living among the dead they angel said. Why do we sometimes act as if we are serving a dead God instead of the living..

ok.. preaching sediyo (finished)
maya garchu ( love you)