Hello hello! We are currently on our way to India for a quick flight to New Delhi. I want to give a quick recap of the last few weeks of our time in Nepal. Knowing me it won’t be as quick as I think it will be haha. These past few weeks have been so sweet, so encouraging and I’ve seen Gods written through all of it. As you read I pray that you see Gods hand through my writing and stories! There are so many stories and not all of them will be shared but I hope it gives you an idea of what’s been going on. I also pray that it brings encouragement to your heart to hear these stories about these people who know Jesus and who are learning about Jesus!!

After our time with Gresom, in Themal we met our new host Deepok and his team of 3 people. Raj, who was our translator and sweet friend. Mr. B, who was our cook, prayer warrior and always filled with joy. Pastor Bim, who was our trekking guide and pastor of a church that we got to visit in Chitwan, which I will talk about here in a bit. His testimony is crazy!! He is from the first village we trekked to, Gumda. He was one of the first Christian’s there who didn’t denounce his faith, had everything stripped from him or burnt, and he was cast out of town. Instead of letting that stop him he went back to his village, and preached the gospel to those who persecuted him. Today id say about half the town love Jesus and pack the church every Sunday because of a couple people’s faithfulness and Gods grace! His confidence and boldness to share the gospel was blessed by God and really encouraged my whole team! We saw the fruit of a seed planted 20 years ago!

We were able to stay in Gumda for 5 days in the upper attic of the church! The community welcomed us so well with flowers, dancing and food. We had a traditional welcome one of the first nights there and we felt so spoiled and special. During our time there we came alongside local believers to pray, encourage and be welcomed over for housevisits. I want to sit on housevisits really quickly. In my previous blog I talked about the sweet hospitality and kindness of Nepalese and it’s so true. We went over to so many houses to pray over the sick, encourage the dishearted, share with the new believers and even help out with chores. Each family welcomed us with a smile, a hungry heart and a sweet snack with tea. Everytime I asked myself the question, why don’t we do house visits in America? Why don’t we welcome believers into our house for a meal, prayer or conversation? Jesus and his disciples did that. My heart for hospitality has only grown since being in Nepal and I’m excited to do more of it when I get home for a bit.

Mountains!! I can’t get over them and I don’t think I ever will. They are beautiful and every morning we walked out of our attic we would see them for a second and then they would be gone by noon, but so beautiful! On such a perfect day we went for a two hour trek to the neighboring village, Lasibot. The mountains were so clear and so beautiful. We walked to this village to encourage believers who would walk two hours to the church we were staying at. Walking made me think of the times I have complained about going to church which is only a 15 minute drive away. Or all the times I’ve been lazy and not wanted to get out of bed. It was a sweet walk of repentance, Thanksgiving, and prayer with the Lord. These people are so willing to do anything to get to church and a community of likeminded believers.

On our walk the Lord was so kind and answered a small prayer I had been praying. He’s always so kind in answering small prayers I have. I had been praying for fruit or just something fresh to eat. We hadn’t had much of that. On our walk Kayla came up to me with a strawberry after that the locals with us would point out places to pick strawberries or golden raspberries. I felt so loved and so blessed. When we got into town we got some plums from a tree. By the end of the day I’d probably eaten 10 small plums and a couple handfuls of both strawberries and raspberries. I’m so thankful for fruit!

The next town from Gumda was laprak. About a 7 hour hike up, down and through the hills of Nepal! What a crazy day that was. So many stairs. About 265 flights in total. Crazy!! When we got to the cute little town we were staying at we all felt cooked and tired. Of course God had to meet up with fields and fields of strawberries and local women who welcomed us with handfuls. When I say fields it was like grass. I truly want that in my future yard! And Gods just so sweet! We were served a delish meal of homemade momos and I went to sleep, curled up in a big comforter, looking out the window in our little room at the stars! Ah what a dream! Such a sweet place! Pastor Bim knew the owners of this cute little home stay. He’s been visiting them and their family for years. The woman who runs it didn’t know who Jesus was and we were able to share the gospel with her. The Holy Spirit touched her heart and even though we didn’t see salvation we know that Gods touching her.

We then set out on another hike, 5 hours this time to Barpak. Instead of going up stairs we thankfully went down stairs. Man I don’t know who put all those stairs into the side of the mountain. Reminded me of the incline in Colorado. Anyway Barpak is the epicenter of the earthquake that happened in 2015. This earthquake was actually a big reason why people came to know Jesus. There are two churches in town and we stayed at one of them. After resting a bit Alicia and I decided to go on a walk. We unexpectedly met someone who loved Jesus and welcomed us into his home. It was such a sweet thing because we were able to pray and encourage him and his family. I love little God moments like that!

The next morning we took a long bus ride down the mountain. From the cooler weather of Barpak to Chitwan where we were welcomed by the heat. We weren’t just welcomed to the heat but by local believers and to pastor bims church. It was so sweet to be apart of multiple different church services, more house visits and sharing testimonies. Me and my smaller team were able to share the gospel at several houses and we even witnessed deliverance from demon possession. God is moving and he’s working in so many crazy ways! Again I just love house visits. I love hearing testimonies of people, I love sharing the gospel, I love seeing the Holy Spirit move!

We fit a fun day in at chitwan and went on an elephant safari with our little elephant friend. That was fun.

It was also my birthday in chitwan! 23! My day was filled with a house visit where we were served Nepali breakfast. Frida then took me out for matcha. Then got lunch with the squad. A couple of us got caught in the rain riding in a tuck tuck. I even got a surprise cake from Mr. B! Then we went for an evening house visit and that’s where we saw someone be delivered from demon possession. Wild birthday but so so sweet!

We then made it back to Kathmandu, our home base, for a week. After a couple of days sickness hit all of us. All 14 of us were sick and 4 were in the hospital. It took us a couple days to start to feel better. We pushed our travels back and now we are all feeling better than we were. Thankfully all set for travel day today!

We are going into India excited and ready for the last month of the race. That’s crazy! I’m excited to share more of what we do and who we come alongside and serve.

Thank you for reading! God is moving in Nepal! Hat an honor to be apart of all of it. To see God move and work. To see lives changes through just the name of Jesus. To see sickness healed through faith. To see God glorified here down on earth! Nepal I will miss you! India here we come!

Thank you for your prayers

In Christ with so much love!

Sydney