Day six

Day 6

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me?

13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Well, what can we say. Today we became missionaries.

This morning we were woken up at 6am by brother Andrew jumping on our beds. We needed to be bus ready by 7 am for our trip to Tharping. Unfortunately our plans changed and we found ourselves Traveling 3 hours drive outside Kathmandu to visit a village where pastor Raju has a new church.

The trip was just wonderful and it was very interesting to see the Nepal countryside. We travelled in a bus that reminded me of the bus from MASH.

Our bus couldn't make it up to the church fellowship and so we had to get out and walk. We were told that it was about 3 kilometers, but they failed to tell us that the walk was almost straight up a mountainside. After about 50 meters our Nepalese friends stopped and had a big discussion about whether Brie was going to be able to make it. She insisted that she could and with the amazing help of Andrew and others she did. It was a very very difficult walk eventually Andrew put Brie on his back and piggy backed her. Others fell by the wayside too. There were many who said "I can't do this" and Chelsea actually vomited from the sheer physical exhaustion of the walk. We had to stop quite a few times to rest but eventually we made it to the top.

At the top we were welcomed into a home for home fellowship and once again we worshipped with the Nepali people. We don't understand anything that is being said but we know that God is truly there in their worship. After worship we sang a song and Andrew shared a message to the people telling them that we all love the same God and in God's eyes we are all brothers and sisters.

Then we were proudly served a traditional Nepali lunch. This would have been an massive effort for these mountain people to feed and serve 17 extra people. To say that eating the lunch was a challenge for us is an understatement. But in our training for this trip we were taught about how much of an insult it is to our hosts if we don't eat what is served to us. We have also been drilled on not drinking the water and being really careful what we eat ie no fruit that is unpeeled etc.

So here we were in this new church fellowship trying not to insult our hosts but trying to show some self preservation for our health. We were served chai tea first which was made from boiled water so we knew that would be fine and it tasted amazing. (remembering too that there were no American toilets on this mountainside so none of the girls wanted to drink too much). Then we were served rice with curried chicken and a watery soup too. It was really tasty but having seen many many unrefrigerated raw chickens on the side of the road for the past few days sort of made us struggle a little. We thought we had done really well until our hosts bought us out cups full of buffalo yoghurt. Andrew turned green at the chunks in the drink and upon tasting we realized it tasted like the rotten milk in our chaplains fridge at school. It smelled like it too. So then our next plan was how do we dispose of what's in our cups without insulting our hosts. They were so proud to be feeding us and we were so scared to drink the drink.

Someone came up with a plan to give our drinks to the kids who had been patiently sitting watching us eat our lunch and so Matt gave his drink first, but our host thought he missed out and so gave him another one. Poor Matt.

After that we then scooted down the mountainside - a lot easier than our climb up - but still a little scary. We found our bus and hopped on hoping to get some sleep on the way home. Instead after about half an hour we then stopped and visited another home fellowship/church and it was in a building up a set of ladder like stairs. It felt like we were in the upper room in Bible times. Again our host shared God's word with the group that were gathered there. They provided us with bottles of soft drink each which was very refreshing and we were happy to drink thinking that we were getting close to getting home to the hostel and the toilets. Rule number 1 in Nepal Never ever assume that you are doing things as per the schedule.

We then were on the bus for another 2 hours when we then picked up Pastor Raju. Then we got caught in heaps of traffic and then we stopped and picked up the teachers from the school. By this stage we were busting to go to the toilet. Remember we had been out since 7 am and it was now 6 pm. Unfortunately by this stage Matthew had a terrible headache and he had been trying to sleep but he awoke feeling very unwell. Fortunately bec was watching and had a sick bag at the ready. Poor Matthew threw up all his lunch.

We were unable to go back to the hostel so finally at about 7 pm we got to the bakery cafe and were able to use the bathroom. Yay!!!!!!! Then it was onto the pizza place for dinner with the staff from the school. A great time was had by all at the dinner (except poor Matthew) and friendships with the staff are now cemented. Email addresses have been exchanged and hopefully many years of corresponding and encouraging will take place.

Home finally at 8.30 and there are now many tired team members who are all trying to have showers to clean off some of the blood sweat and tears shed today.

We were very blessed to have shared in the ministry today on top of a mountain deep in the countryside of Nepal.

Who knows where God will send us tomorrow.

Please continue to pray for our whole team they are very tired.

Love

Jenni


PS. At this stage we've changed our plans again and we will be doing some touristy things ie monkey temple and shopping in thammel. We will go back to the school on Friday where I'm sure there will be lots of tears when saying goodbye.