Nepal #4

Hello!

Here's an update from yesterday and today. I'm including some pictures from my phone, my camera pictures take a long time to load onto the blog.

Well, the Church is alive in Kathmandu! Yesterday morning, I attended Ganeshwor Church, which is the oldest church in the city. They have three services on Saturday mornings. It was great to be apart of the worship of the One true God with another people group. It always gives a small glimpse into heaven...

Next weekend, their church will be walking in a procession for Palm Sunday. They will walk the road around Kathmandu welcoming the King. It is pretty cool and a bold stance for these believers who are in the minority, and aren't accepted by family if they have abandoned the family's Hindu faith. (BTW, Christianity doesn't even hardly make a showing in the percentage rankings of religions here in Nepal, most are Hindu, then Buddhist, then Muslim. Roman Catholic makes up around 1%).

We then visited a children's home especially for boys who have been rescued off the streets, or boys who were about to end up on the streets. This is a tough ministry as you know, if you've read my previous post which talked about street children. The boys were precious, precious. The oldest boy in the home was 14 and the care he has over the younger boys was evident. He has a beautiful smile...

We didn't stay as long as I would have liked, both of my teammates weren't feeling well and wanted to make it a short stop. Nevertheless, the boys and the home father whom we met, made their own special impressions.

Today - off to Pokhara!

My teammate who has been sick made the decision to go home so she did not fly with us today to Pokhara. Sarah is getting stronger and has been able to eat a few times, which I am so grateful for.

We flew to Pokhara this morning, this was my first time on a tiny propellor plane, but I loved it. I finally got a HOT shower here in Pokhara - praise the Lord for what we take foregranted.

We are staying in the tourist area of Pokhara, but it has a definite different feel than the tourist area of Kathmandu. The natives are a bit more laid back and there are many tourists. Most tourists come to Nepal to go Trekking and most treks start out from Pokhara.

We are lakeside and will be eating breakfast over the lake tomorrow morning.

We visited my most favorite children's home yet today. The kids were so happy and comfortable and welcoming and the parents are also full of joy.

This is one of the families that will be moving to the larger community space once the organization has finished building it up. (If you want to know more about what that is - view this video http://youtu.be/MGY5iJgZLZw )

Tomorrow we will see the larger community land and the two homes that are already built there.

p.s. this little kid has my heart :)

Tonight we had dinner with the film crew who will be shooting on the land and going with us to the border after Pokhara.

The only negative happening today is that we were going to bike ride to the children's home and I started out fine but quickly ran out of air and had to stop because I couldn't breathe.

The other girls were ahead of me and I had already lost them.

DUST+HEAT+SMOG+SMALL NASAL PASSAGES+HIGH ALTITUDE - yikes.

Eventually, I made it back fine and was able to get some water. The other girls ended up running out of steam themselves and had to turn around as well.

The streets here are so dusty - sometimes you can crunch the dirt in your teeth. Plus the exhaust is so strong. I was just eating the dirt and smog as I road and then even more because I was literally gasping for air.

Afterwards my chest was incredibly tight. I have had a weeze in my chest ever since and an ugly cough/laugh.

So my prayer request is for that to be removed from my chest! We are also supposed to go hiking, so please pray that the weather becomes clear and that I can breathe!

But more so, pray that Jesus will reveal Himself to the people here...

to the locals and the tourists.

To the hard men and the oppressed women.

The Hindu, the Buddhist, the Atheist...

To the people who came here to trek, to get high, or to sleep with prostitutes...all the people we would rather not be bothered with or even think about.

They are all here tonight.

They are all in your city too.

It's always night somewhere in the world, just as it is always "night" in someone's life who is around you...

So, shine your (His) light...

May God enlarge your vision, not just temporarily but permanently, for people and the Kingdom around the world.

Jaimasihi,

Anna