Anyway, about the trek. This wasn't just a nice little hike through the mountains, this was TREK through the Himalayas with the purpose of telling people about Jesus who had never even heard his name before. The Holy Spirit completely rocked my world this week, and I'm going to do my very best to describe what happened to you lovely blog reading people :).
Cast of Characters
Joel DeBortoli: Amazing man, long term missionary in Nepal. The Debortoli family is the reason why I'm here; they go to our church from home when they're there. Joel is the base leader for Iris Nepal, who's staff we went on this trek with. Oh, and he's 6'8". So when this man speaks, people listen!
Marshal and Lily: Missionaries who have been here for 15 years. These clearly are not their real names, but they're called to some places where missionaries are not welcome so we have to be careful :). Talking with them this week was one of the reasons I learned so much, they are SO full of wisdom and knowledge. I hope I get to know them better while I'm here!
Ganga, Nelson, Denish, and Babu: Nepali men who work for Iris. Our trip would have been a disaster without them. Not only were they our best translators but their passion for their fellow Nepali people was inspiring.
Ryan and Katie: a young missionary couple living in Kathmandu but primarily focused on a water project in Dadhuwa. Fun fact: Confirmation of their being called to Nepal came when they saw Monster's Inc: "WELCOME to the HIMALAYAS!!"
Kyle and Annie: another young missionary couple working with Iris. Annie saved Kirsten and I many times after we both ran out of TP!
YWAM Team: An awesome group of 9 people around our age who are serving here at the same time as us. We're so glad they're here!!
Jordan DeBortoli: 14-year-old son of Joel. Cool kid. He's tall too.
Kirsten and Lyssa: Complete newbs to the scene. Eager to learn and also shocked at what we saw, our lives were rocked.
Setting
Northwest Nepal, in the Himalayas! We visited three towns: Puma, Dadhuwa, and Bangrebesi. All three were so unique, even though they were only a day's trek away from each other. Puma and Dadhuwa sat on the peaks of their respective mountians. We had to climb down one mountain and up another whenever we switched towns :).
Act 1: Puma
When we first got on the bus to head out into the countryside, we had no idea what to expect. We knew the general plan: to pray for people, to show them the Jesus film, and generally just see what happened. The bus ride was beautiful, Nepal is one of the most beautiful countries I've ever seen! When the smog is light the Himalayas just loom over the country, and they are SO BIG! It's incredible.
Our bus ride took about 7 hours, and then we had a three hour trek up the side of a mountain. Puma was at the very top, and the mountain looked like one giant cliff face. It was actually pretty scary at some points, with our heavy packs on our backs and the steep cliffs below it wouldn't take much to send us toppling over! But we all made it up alive. I won't say that we didn't loose a few drops of sweat though!
Once we reached Puma, we were completely amazed by the beauty. We were welcomed by the community with open arms, even though they already had a tour group coming the woman who ran the guest house made us tea and dinner and even performed a traditional folk dance for us! The food was delicious: Dalbot and Veg Currey. Dalbot is rice with a kind of lentil soup poured over, it's very delicious. And the tea is black tea with a LOT of sugar in it, just the way I like it :).
The next morning we were once again awed by the beauty of the Himalayas around us. We had breakfast, Roatee, which is fried dough. And it's, yet again, delicious. And of course we had the tea again :). After a long and wonderful time of worhip, we split up into teams to go to different parts of the village to pray for people and just serve them in any way possible. Some teams did some gardening, some prayed for peace over the village, and my team found many sick people to pray for.
When I say pray for them, I mean we would lay our hands on them and ask the Holy Spirit to take away whatever is wrong in their body. We prayed for women with high blood pressure, back pain, body pain, teeth pain, and a deaf man. And they were all healed! The deaf man could hear, the woman could dance again, and all because Jesus decided to show his love for them by healing their bodies.
I know that it's true too because we would ask them how they felt, and if they were still in pain they would tell us. So we would pray again, sometimes a couple times, and then they would be better! It was always so incredible and shocking, especially when we could see the differences in obvious ways like a man who had been deaf hearing what we were saying! Wow. Our God is so amazing!!!
By the night time the village had heard of what God was doing through us, so before dinner we had a major time of praying and healing. And I don't think I saw a single person who asked for prayer not get healed during that time! Absolutely incredible.
After another meal of Dalbot and Veg Currey we showed the Jesus film, and everyone who had been healed by Jesus was eager to learn about this amazing God. After the movie more healings happened, more lives were changed. It was SO cool.
Act 2: Dadhuwa
Next morning we woke up before sunrise to do our major trekking day to the next village. The plan was to go across one mountain, down that, and then up another. It was supposed to only be about 6 miles, but the terrain was so steep it took us 13 hours! Kirsten and I absolutely loved it though. We both already love hiking so much, it was such an honor to be hiking in order to tell people about Jesus! The sunrise was a great start to the day as well.
Once we finally arrived a couple hours after dark, all 22 of us collapsed outside on mats that were provided for us. The people of Dadhuwa were so amazing, they had no idea we were coming but they were so hospitable!
The next morning Kirsten was pretty sick, so we stayed in our little English classroom where we had stayed the night before. Thankfully the bookshelf was lined with Nancy Drew mysteries, so I read "The Secret of Shadow Ranch" out loud while we waited out the sickness :).
That afternoon we went out in groups again to pray for people again, and I saw even more miraculous healings done. I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing miracles like that! We also had a long time to pray over the area where were going to show the Jesus film, and I just had an amazing experience with that. It was by a huge tree that we could see from across the mountain when we were on our way to Dadhuwa. The sun was just about to set, a storm seemed to be rolling in, and I could just tell that God was going to do something BIG there that night.
And boy did he :). So many people came for healing, and two men even came to Christ! Which doubled the church in Dadhuwa. What's great about this town is that Ryan and Katie are working on a water project, so there's a lot of opportunity for discipleship.
Act 3: Bangrebesi
I really don't know if I'm spelling the name of that village right, but that's how it sounds.
Anyway, we got to sleep in a little longer on that day because the trek wasn't going to take as long as it had two days before. It was almost all down hill (which I actually don't like, I prefer uphill) and there was a pretty big river at the bottom of the hill. Which Kirsten and I jumped in fully clothed to wash our hair and as much skin as we could have showing.
Would I say that this was the biggest (non spiritual) highlight of the trip? Umm, yes. Definitely. Even though I was wearing all my clothes and I knew that my cleanliness was only an illusion, I have never EVER felt as refreshed as I did while in that river! The water was so warm and clear, and against the hot air outside I was just in heaven.
Sidenote: you're probably thinking that I'm crazy for jumping in a river in the Himalayas in October. But this is actually the warm season in Nepal, and I spent most of my time this trek sweating.
Okay anyway, when we got to Bangrebesi we found out there was a man eating tiger that roamed around in the jungle! Which I found very exciting.
Once we got to the guest house we soon realized that we would be spending a lot of time with the biggest spiders any of us had ever seen. Was I terrified? Yes. Definitely. Especially since I was sleeping on the floor! But God was good and I actually never saw any big ones in the room I was staying, yay!
We showed the Jesus film both nights we were here, and we ate a LOT of good food because the in-laws of one of the Nepali men lived there. We got to eat some rice pudding, a giant mountain of roatee, more dalbot and veg currey, man it was good. And some really yummy garbanzo beans and potatoes made with delicious sauces!!
The second night of showing the Jesus film was awesome, three young people came to Christ which was AWESOME! Especially since this place was the most aggressively against Christianity out of all three that we went to. I'm worried about the young boys being persecuted, but I'll just keep praying for them to stay strong and for Christ to strengthen them. Please join me in that prayer!!
Act 4: Returning Home
We left at sunrise again the next morning, in order to catch a bus in a city 2 hours away. When we arrived in the bus city (I don't remember what it's called) we had to wait a long time for the bus though, because it had gotten stuck in mud about 20 minutes away. I soon realized how once we were driving on that road!
It was definitely the scariest bus ride of my life. At times I was convinced we were going to tip over the edge, at one point I even yelled "High Side!" out of instinct from my river guiding experience. Everyone laughed when I said it, but I was completely serious! I wanted everyone to go to the top of the bus so the whole thing didn't come crashing down on me!
One fun part was literally driving down stream a river. And then of course once we were on paved road again I was able to relax and sleep. And have the most delicious bananas of my life!
So that was my experience of trekking in Nepal. I'm so in awe of our God right now, it's just amazing to think that he heals the sick and gives people so much joy, and that's only so we'll know him better! It'll take me a while to process everything that I saw this past week, but that's okay. I have a lifetime of learning ahead of me, and I'm sure this week was just one tiny glimpse of the power of God. Hallelujah!!
I'm awestruck! i'm super jealous yet super happy for you that you got to experience those healings this week. I love reading this!
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