It has been a long, intense, stressful, and yet very rewarding month of ministry. I kicked off y summer with Royal servants by spending 3 weeks at training camp: one week as just the students of Kairos Discipleship School, one week with the rest of the d-group leaders, and one week with all the students. Training camp was very challenging. The living quarters were tight, the pace was bordering on frantic, the mornings were early, the free time was almost non-existent, and the weather was hot. They run the camp at such a high level of intensity on purpose. I did not enjoy the experience much, but it was very effective. It was a speed incubator for relationships and community building and it got us prepared for doing ministry in any situation. It also taught us a lot about gratitude and being content. Then after what seemed to be an eternity, we were off to Nepal.
The three travel days were fairly grueling, but we arrived to Kathmandu in good spirits and moved into our hotel. We are staying in Thamel which is one of the most “colorful” parts of Kathmandu. I am involved in 3 main kinds of ministry during this trip. The first is with my d-group. I have three high school students in my small group that I am discipling and we meet daily and do other things together throughout the week.
My D-group: Matthew, Jason, Will, Andrew
This is my d-group out to dinner at one of the Nepali restaurants we frequent, which is known to us as “The naan place.” Our initial food adventure, naan is basically just bread with different meats or veggies baked inside. It is delicious!
Another type of ministry we do is called intentional shopping. Several times a week we go out in groups into Thamel and get to know the shop owners and street vendors. The main way that effective evangelism and discipleship happens is through relationships, and so we are trying to build lasting friendships with the people here. One relationship in particular that I have made is with a woman named Devakee. She has a laundry shop and also sells bottled water and hand made hats. She is incredibly friendly with us and we now go to her shop just to have tea and talk with her. I just got back from there about 15 minutes ago as I write this.
The third type of ministry is our street ministry. We have gone to about 5 villages in the 9 days we have been here. Our day in the village incorporates many things. First, we go prayer walk around the village. We ask God to bless our ministry in specific ways as we walk around the village and get our bearings. As we are doing this we definitely stir up interest as the people see 30 white people walking around town. Then we go out and invite people to see our performance. We are loud and energetic and try to generate as much interest as possible. So far the crowds have been around 150 people gathered in the town square as we do our dances, dramas, and puppet songs. As soon as we are done, we disperse into the crowd and commence sharing the good news that God loves them, has a plan for their life, and has gone to great lengths to restore their relationship with Him. This is the main time when the language barrier becomes apparent. Despite this obstacle, I have already had multiple extended conversations with interested people who have never understood the message of Jesus Christ. Another huge challenge is the blend of religions already in Nepal. Most of the people here are Hindu, which is a very relativistic religion. They all believe that there are different names for God and that the way they do religion is just fine. This means that many of them get through the entire gospel, agreeing the entire way, and then declare that they now believe in Jesus too. Most of the Nepali people are proud of their new religious freedom (since 2006) but it is very difficult for them to grasp the concept that one way could be right while others are wrong.
Please pray that:
- I will be able to effectively communicate the gospel despite language barriers.
- People will be able to understand the concept that Christianity is not one of many equivalent religions
- Devakee will have a good and lasting conversations with some of the people on our team and will be open to Jesus Christ.
That is all I have time to write now. Soon I will tell you all about some of the other interesting adventures I have had in Nepal. The ever growing list includes the Monkey temple, an orphanage, a safe home for sex-trafficked girls, and a leper colony.