My Time in the Mountains of Nepal

My time in Nepal was divided into three parts. Firstly, our squad was split into two groups with two teams going together to the same location. My group/team was the first to go to the mountains of Nepal. We then spent some time in a city and finally, we ended our time together as a squad trekking the mountains.

 The Mountains

*Disclaimer this is what I thought the whole race would look like.

We rode in the back of a truck for two hours going to the hilltops of Nepal. It was bumpy and dusty. We arrived at the church where we would stay. This was our base for the next seven days. It was where some of us slept, where we ate all our meals and was our meeting place.

While I stayed in the church at night, some individuals opted to tent during this time to have more alone time.  It was also cooler in the tents at night and there were no bugs. Three other girls stayed in the church with me. Very quickly this was my least favourite place to sleep. The church was in the resistance of a family who had young children and chickens.

With chickens, you usually have a rooster and right outside our window, the rooster would crow at 2:30 am, 3:00 am, and into the morning. The first morning it felt like the rooster crowed every fifteen minutes till 5 am then I gave up sleeping.

They had access to electricity but it was limited.  Therefore, when it became dark most people went to bed. When the sun came up everyone got up. At 5 am the young children were crying. It was generally very loud, in what we would call, the wee hours of the morning.

I really loved this way of living when individuals slept when the sun went down. The fact that we stay up so late in the night is not generally what my body wants. I can see this even in Canada. After it gets dark outside, I no longer want to leave the house, and in Canada, that can be 5 pm. However, though I wanted to sleep when the sun went down our group decided to worship after supper. So waking up when the sun came up was a lot harder.

We would dose ourselves with bug spray before we went to bed because there were mosquitoes at night. We would also take showers before bed to cool off, however, then we would lather ourselves in bug spray which felt contradictory to what we just did.

That leads to the shower situation. We were told
there were no showers but a river to bathe in. I could wrap my head around this idea as I have washed my hair in a lake before. However, once arriving at what was described to me as a river was actually a stream. We bathed ourselves in a stream. It really wasn’t that bad and was quite refreshing after a long day in the sun. Nevertheless, we did look like gorillas as we scooped the water onto different parts of our bodies, bending over so the water had less distance to travel.

There was a squatty potty (I realize now that’s not actually the name for them but what my squad calls them) for us to use. If you don’t know what this is, it is a plastic hole in the ground with rivets on the sides to place your feet on. Sometimes we had carpenter bees in ours. They also made a poo tent where they dug a hole in the ground and placed a sitting-down toilet on top. Outside the squatty potty, there was also a barrel for washing and a bar of soup to clean our hands.

All our meals were provided for us and we ate
together in the church. After every meal, there were tubs filled with water and we would wash and rinse our dishes.

Washing our clothes. Again this was done in the “river” aka stream. This was better than the
buckets they provided for us at training camp. However, one problem that occurred was the drying situation. The clothes dried so fast in the sun during the afternoon because it was so hot! However, when the wind would pick up and your clothes were dry they would fall off the line into the red dirt. They no longer looked clean even though they were “technically” cleaned.

Even though this might sound really bad it was actually a wonderful time. I enjoyed my time on the mountain, however, I was ready to go back once we came to the end of the week.

Ministry

The goal of our time in the mountains was to reach the unreached. The reason these people were unreached was because people couldn’t get to them by vehicle, you had to go by foot. And this wasn’t a nice walk in the park but climbing uphill, hiking up to the tops of mountains. Now I might be a tad dramatic but it was hard!! These Nepali people are intense when it comes to where they live! The mountains we were hiking weren’t even called mountains they were hills!

Anyways the evening we arrived in the mountains, aka the hills, we started our ministry with a house visit. This was a bit awkward as we didn’t know what they expected. We entered the house with our headlamps because it was after dark and we started talking. That was the point that I had the revelation about why we were there. I came to understand these people didn’t know the Bible. We read a parable and talked about it. One of my teammates shared her testimony and we finished the night with Mountain Dew, which I don’t think any of us wanted.

Mountain Dew has caffeine in it and if you know me, you know I don’t even drink black tea after noon. I chugged mine and prayed it wouldn’t affect my sleep. It had also become awkward again as we had said all we wanted to say. The pastor pawned off his Mountain Dew to the kids around and eventually, we left that house. Mountain Dew would be a theme up in the mountains. I’m not sure if that is because it’s MOUNTAIN Dew and we were in the mountains or it was just easily accessible.

While you are visiting other countries you have to be more conscientious of how you behave because different cultures perceive things differently. This is usually a hot topic when it to food because all people have to eat. Sometimes you are also interacting with honour/shame cultures and you don’t want to unintentionally shame anyone. Therefore, you take what is offered to you. However, how much do you have to take? We noticed in the Nepali culture lots were offered but we couldn’t take a lot. We would stuff our stomachs full as we didn’t want to be rude but sometimes it came to a point where we asked how much more could we take? Others could take more than some but with warm Mountain Dew, it was the least that you wanted.

After you would finish your drink or even after you just took a sip you were offered more. Eventually, we figured out that it was rude for them not to offer but it wasn’t rude to refuse so I felt more confident refusing during the end. I remember this one house visit that offered us Coke in the evening and I just straight up said no. I was offered two or three more times because people noticed I didn’t have a drink but I told them I could not have the caffeine this late in the day. They seemed to accept it well.

Our ministry work was in the mornings and the evenings. We went from 9 to 4 pm making it back for lunch at 1. During our time away we would hike to various houses either encouraging fellow Christians or introducing them to the gospel for the first time. At first, we didn’t understand the expectations our leaders had for us, but as time went on we understood we were supposed to be led by the Spirit, and ‘Oh’ how the Spirit led!

My team got into the grove of asking questions and sharing the gospel. We shared testimonies as we talked about how God had worked in our lives. We prayed and anointed others as many were frightened or being oppressed by demonic forces. We talked about the authority and freedom we have in Christ. How we don’t need to be afraid as Christ has already won the battle. My goal was to equip these people to fight the good fight, to continue to strive and seek after God even when those demonic forces pushed up against them.

I was encouraged as I sought to encourage others. My faith was built as I claimed the authority in Christ Jesus. Preaching what I believed so willingly and openly. Waiting for the places I could share what God has taught me and put on my heart.

My prayer life grew so much here. My faith was built as we were asked to pray for healing after every house visit and church service. At first, I was very uncomfortable with this as we couldn’t communicate with those we were praying for.
Yet as I was asked to do more I became more confident in the words I spoke.

There is an authority in Christ. He has given us the power and He wants us to be healed. Walking in that authority, praying in tongues, and surrendering our will to the Lord is empowering. I want people to ask for healing now. I want to pray for you as it not only builds your faith; it strengthens mine.

Another thing my group encountered was the narrative that we were the ones who brought the healing, which is not the cause. All the glory goes to the Lord. I can do nothing on my own. My prayer is just as good as yours, pray! Don’t think there is a hierarchy and I am closer to God than anyone else, for that is simply not true. We have equality in Christ.

This wraps up what I did in the mountains of Nepal. The praying continued in the city. I really enjoyed Nepal and our ministry. I was so encouraged and I hope they were encouraged by us.