A great devo from my brother Mark this morning. Psalm 100 1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
When we began this morning’s devotional session we all were on the edge emotionally. It has been an amazing trip and though we long to get home, we know saying goodbye will be hard.
We have seen and been a part of so many wonderful things this trip and have all grown so very much closer to the Dhakbari team as well as the believers in Nessing and Gatlang and even Haku.
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and it’s end eternal life” – Romans 6:23
Fruit is the natural byproduct of sown seeds. Before when our hearts served Satan, when we were unsaved and lost in our sins, that fruit that we were cultivating was death and destruction. But now, the seeds sown from the Father, Jesus Christ the son, and the Holy Spirit living and cultivating inside our hearts, minds and souls bring eternal life.
It’s only once a year that we come to Nepal, once a year to wipe crusted dirt and boogers off a child’s face, wash the gnarly bugs out of some beautiful kid’s hair (some of the bugs anyway), extract pounds of muddy, bloody, waxy buildup from huge ear canals, remind them again to boil their water so that they don’t get sick when drinking or using it, give them vitamins, antibiotics, eye drops and chugs pills.
Just once a year.
To us the cost of this trip is somewhere between 2-3 thousand dollars, 140,000 – 210,000 thousand rupees, loss of sleep, loss of comfort, loss of our own health, and running water. To those whom we come to serve it means so much more. We not only bring medicine, we bring a sense of oneness, community, a cast-less society and above all – love. It’s been interesting seeing the fruit grow over the past 2 years (4 trips), I’ve been on. We seem to only plant once a year, water once a year, and caretake once a year. But the power of God’s gardening far outshadows any efforts we may muster out of our human hands.
Rest assured that this trip isn’t made by human efforts, it is, as we have undeniably witnessed, God ordained, orchestrated and carried out. Don’t be fooled by Satan, the love of God is spreading in a small dot on the Northern central tip of Nepal and we are vessels from which God has sown seeds, we are the watering pots from which he has watered, we are the sickle with which he has used to reap His harvest. We have come because we are obedient to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ and He will continue to use us as long we yield to His spirit and obey his law of love.
After devotionals we set out on our day. Today was a day of somewhat rest. We walked down to the church and then we were off to lunch in Thamel. The gang, mostly Allison and Syndi, were jonesing for pizza so we went to our favorite Kathmandu pizzeria, Fire and Ice.
It’s always great hearing Raju’s stories. He’s always so excited and looking to laugh at everything. He did give us a deeper look at one of our Nepali brothers, Santosh.
About 5 years ago Santosh was hoodwinked and lied to by his family’s then “Christian” pastor and told about a job opportunity in Southern India where Santosh would be supposedly making money to be sent back to his single mom and brother and sister. At this time Santosh was 14.
In southern India, Santosh endured harsh working conditions and physical beatings. After inquiring if his money was being sent to his family, he was shocked to find out that the people he worked for actually bought him for 20,000 rupees, which in today’s exchange rate equals to about $285 US.
Santosh was indeed a slave. That night he escaped and ran away. He walked for a week straight through india. It took him a month to get back home. Again, he was 14 years old.
Needless to say the experience soured his taste for Christianity. The family turned away from God because of what the pastor had done. A short while later a family going to Dhakbari church introduced the pastors to Santosh and His family. After a while of trust building, the family again turn their hearts toward Jesus Christ.
Santosh is our cook on all of our Nessing trips, making huge meals for 20 people in sometimes the black of night. But he’s more than that, he’s our little brother, or bai. Over the past few years we have seen him grow from a shy somewhat reclusive boy to a hilarious joke cracking young man. He has finished high school and cooking school with the help of Dhakbari and a few gracious souls from our team. He is now working in a legitimate catering business making money for his family. He’s a really hard worker. After about a year he says he’s praying about going to Chef’s school and maybe opening up his own restaurant after that. He has invited me and Mike and Dalen to eat for free forever. Right Santosh!!! Haha.
After fire and ice we were off for a little shopping in Thamel, Kathmandu’s tourist shopping area that resembles a permanent flea market.
After a bit of souvenir bargaining with Nepal’s toughest negotiator, Tara, we went back to Goshen for a little rest while Tim went with pastor Raju and Uddav to the hospital with Prem, the pastor of Gatlang church. Prem’s been sick for about 6 months. They went in to do some tests.
At about 5:45 we raced to Dhakbari to have our final farewell dinner. We talked, we laughed, we had Daal Bhat for the last time. We were presented with our last Khada of the trip.
We were on the edge of tears the whole night. The Daal Bhat was fantastic. We took tons of photos and Ryan and I were given special gifts from Rabin, our newest little brother who always wants to “sing song about joke”.
After our last night with our Nepali family we were all exhausted physically and emotionally. We walked back to Goshen in near silence.
It’s been a wonderful time. We will miss you all.
Pheti Vetaula
