Thursday, May 29, 2008

Story of Love (Maya)

One day someone noticed a helpless, unloved and filthy little girl sitting alone on the dirt road. He reached out and took her hand, leading her to his home where he cleaned, fed and properly clothed her. He loved the little girl so much that he decided to let her stay and adopted her as his own daughter. She not only had a new home and good food, but she also had all the rights and privileges as his heir and soon forgot her past life on the unforgiving streets. Can anyone guess who that Someone was? Yes, God. And the little girl is Israel, the church, His Beloved. This is the story of love:

It was an early Thursday afternoon when I was sitting in the courtyard with nothing to do, and frankly felt like doing nothing. 1:00 rolled around and a bunch of people were heading out to a house fellowship. It's the one I normally also attend, but didn't feel like going on this particular day. Finally after lots of urging from a few different people, I went. We bussed there on those crazy Nepali metal pieces of junk, had a good devotion time with a group of about 15 others from the church, were given lovely Nepali tea at the end, and then headed out to catch our bus home.

This particular day was also the day before their Nepali 'holi'- day, which is a day where everyone (mostly kids and teens) fills up water balloons with water and red dye and throw them at passersby. But on this day (before the actual 'holi'-day), they merely prepared you for the bombardment coming the next day and only threw water balloons at you. So, we just finished fellowship and exited out the back. All together there were Karina, Hari, a gal from one of the villages and me (Alana). We had the choice of either taking the bus back or walking through the twisted paths and past countless houses of potential battle zones. Karina and I expressed that we were not afraid of getting hit by (or rather dodging) balloons. So, Hari finally gave in and started leading us back. We came to a fork in the road and Hari said, "Ok, we can choose to go the long way with less balloons or the shorter way with many homes." The vote was still undecided after a couple minutes of standing there. So I said, "Let's ask God," and I spun in a circle and pointed to a path, so we went down it.

We passed through many zones of activity always on the alert for a balloon attack. Soon we came to another fork in the road. This time Karina chose the one that promised less of a threat to us and which led down a quiet alleyway.

We didn't walk for very long, before coming to a small little shop on the side of the path. Wandering along by the side of the dirt road not too far from the shop was a tiny baby puppy. The sight of it made me stop dead in my tracks. She was wandering frantically around looking for something to eat and she was no bigger than both of my hands put together. I turned to Hari and said, "Can I take her? We can't leave her here to die like all the other stray puppies in Kathmandu!" Hari looked at me and said, "Really? Are you sure?" Of course I was sure! How could anyone leave such a helpless yet adorable puppy all alone to fend for itself on the street! So Hari asked the woman in the shop if we could take it. Since the streets contain not only homeless boys but also dogs, she said it didn't belong to her. So we took the puppy home.

There we washed and cleaned her up, as she was dirty and full of lice and ticks. I had to feed her milk with an eye dropper. Then Anup, Pastor Shyem's son-in-law, proposed the name 'Maya' - the Nepali word for love. So that's how she got her name. And that's how we got our dog.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Back to the Basics

Hi again, everyone! Sorry for the delay in postings. If it's not power outages, or not paying the Internet bill, then it's a virus or Trojan horse. What next? Well, we have just under 3 weeks left and we're scrambling to get everything done here before we leave. But one thing I (Bonnie) wanted to share awhile ago was the visit from Alexander Venter and his son from South Africa. Alexander was mentored many years ago by John Wimber and came to spend some time with the church here. It was so encouraging! We have had many visitors and teams staying/passing through (including us), met many interesting people from Hawaii, Hong Kong (Jackie Pullinger team) and other places. But there was something very heart-warming about Alexander, and also his friend Brian Gardner from Australia who calls Alexander his spiritual father. Was it that some of John Wimber's spirit rests on these men? Or could it be that they opened up their hotel rooms for the 6 of us to have our first warm showers here in Nepal? Yahoo!

But seriously, Alexander shared the Word in the Saturday morning service and also taught at the Saturday afternoon Bible School. The messages he shared were so simple and 'back to the basics', and our hearts were drawn back to the elementary yet powerful principles that we all learned from John Wimber - worship first as the highest priority, then the Word, fellowship, and ministry to the sick, lost and the poor, then training/equipping and sending out. Then he reminded us of something most churches have forgotten: WE do not build the church, it is Jesus who builds His church. We merely seek His Kingdom, seek Him first, then reach out and do the works of and advance His Kingdom. He will build the church because it belongs to Him. If we are concerned with building a church, it will probably end up belonging to us and then we get concerned about how it functions, how many people come, how much offering, etc., etc. I came away so impacted and re-energized and excited! Isn't it something how God always brings you back to the most important thing - the ONE THING - Jesus and His Kingdom. Then he also reminded us that we have authority to do the same things Jesus did - heal the sick, drive out demons, go into all the world and preach the Good News, making disciples of all the nations of the world (including Nepal!).

We were blessed to be able to have dinner a couple of times with these 3 men (Alexander, his son Zander and friend Brian) and we were all really touched by their warmth. We all felt loved; Sheri felt they were 'kindred spirits' (i.e. crazy like us are the words she used). Vanessa & Alana especially found Brian a very warm person. Yet they also shared struggles in their pasts where God had to heal them. Maybe that was partly it: they became so real, not just theological or ministry-oriented. They were real men with real challenges past and present. And they weren't afraid to be real, though Alexander and Zander were both 6'6" tall! Talk about imposing! Ken also had the privilege of travelling to Gorkha, Pastor Raju's home village, with them and baptising both his parents. He says he is still being impacted and is 'delightfully wrecked' by the passion for Jesus they imparted. Theirs is a visit we shall never forget and we thank God for allowing us to meet them and be reminded of what it really means to be in the Kingdom of God.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Gorkha - Part Two





On Saturday (their Sabbath) we attended the Gorkha district Vineyard church, led by Paul, a local believer who has a passionate heart for his people. The church building itself was a small nine-foot by nine-foot converted animal barn. Thirty three people crammed into this room (I was glad to hear of the plans for a new church). With a tin roof and a sunny 40-degree temperature outside, I was relieved to hear of baptisms down at the river immediately after the service. Of the nine believers to be baptised this day, two of them were Raju's parents. Raju told Alexander Venter and me that we had to baptise his father as a Nepali son could not (according to custom) baptise his father. I had no complaints as the river was a cool welcome after a mile hike down the mountain in humid temperatures.

Later that evening we had a meeting scheduled in Paul's village. As we gathered, the meeting began with the villagers thanking us for coming. They danced and sang songs of welcome. We reciprocated our thanks and told them of the honour it was for us to be in their village. I spoke that evening giving my testimony and geared it to Jesus being the hope and salvation of all mankind. The villagers listened intently to the message and later 15 of them responded to come forward for prayer for specific prophetic words that Alexander felt the Lord had given for them. Most were touched by the Holy Spirit. I was surprised later to find that, out of the 50 or so villagers that came, at least two-thirds were Hindu. As this was our last meeting in Gorkha, I didn't find out from Brother Paul whether any had responded to the message. God knows their hearts and whether or not they truly heard the word. But now the door to the Kingdom is near. All they have to do is open it. (Posted by Ken.)

P.S. Nathan – your questions are answered in the blogs below. Yours too, Keith.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Gorkha - Part One.















Two weeks ago, I departed on a ministry trip with Pastor Raju to his home village of Neshwor. It's in the more 'tropical' area of west Nepal. Three other brothers from other international vineyards accompanied us: Alexander Venter and his son Zander, both from Johannesburg, South Africa; and Brian Gardner from Melbourne, Australia. As we travelled the mountain roads, we wondered if we would arrive safely. Halfway there, we came upon 2 accidents, both involving transport trucks that had been totalled. The accidents had us praying for our safety. These accidents weren't even the worst. 5 km before our arrival, we stopped at a roadside cafe. We found out that the road ahead was closed. A transport had struck and killed a pedestrian. We were told that we had to walk the rest of the way up the mountain road to Neshwor. In mid-day heat in the mountains, this didn't excite us.

Raju came to our rescue by finding a ride in an old land rover. The driver told us we were to descend to the old river road. On arrival in the valley, he followed a somewhat weather-beaten path that soon ended in the river. But he didn't stop at the river's edge. He crawled slowly into the river following what I hoped was a continuation of the road. The current was strong and, at mid-point, it pushed at the side of the land rover. The vehicle seemed to heave downstream. During the crossing, I caught myself alternating between 2 thoughts: "This is such a rush" and "We're going to die." Having water gush up through a rust hole in the floor boards did not help the situation. We had to endure these crossings 3 more times. Within 2 hours, we arrived at a small village at the base of the mountain. I asked Raju if this were it. He said, "No, we must climb 1 mile up the mountain." It proved a difficult climb with a combination of humid heat, steep rocky grade and a 45-pound pack. Within an hour we arrived at a somewhat level area, sweat soaked, overheated, but feeling victorious over the accomplished trek. Fifteen minutes later we found ourselves being warmly greeted by Raju's parents (his father was the village leader) and Raju's brother Rebat. An evening meal was served along with chia (tea). Shortly after we were shown to our open air sleeping accommodations and fell into a somewhat restful sleep, (I won't mention the nightly mosquito attacks).

Our days were consumed with ministry to villagers who stopped by to say hello to Raju's parents but were surprised to see western Christians staying there. Most of the villagers are Hindu. So we were surprised when they asked us for prayer for healing. Some sad stories came from these ministry times. Many of the village women who's husband's were away in the British Gorkha, Nepal, or India armies shared of husbands who remarried or who didn't return home when their time was completed. This often led to poverty for these families. Sad as this was the divorced Christian women were always more content and offered a ray of hope to those Hindu women whose husbands didn't return. (Posted by Ken.)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Honeymoon's Over

Well, if it was 'Up' in Koth Gaun, it's 'Down' in Kathmandu Valley. We've been here just about 3 months now and the last few days have been the hardest - minus the bouts of sickness we've experienced. It's not that anything has really changed - except that we found out our visas had expired last month and now it's become an added stress, big fine and inconvenience for everybody, everything from pulling the girls out of work early and Pastor Raju back from meeting an arriving team at the airport. But it's more like finally admitting what's been building up for awhile and finding out that all 6 of us have been feeling the same thing: discouragement. What? But God has been doing amazing things; we've seen wonderful works. Yes, He has and yes we have. It started with our 'faux pas' - taking the boys out to a Mexican restaurant with the Hong Kong Jackie Pullinger team. What was wrong with that? you say. No rice, no curry, no chow mein. Big 'no-no'. We found out later that some boys didn't even eat. Talk about feeling bad. In fact, one boy was quite angry. It came on the heels of the visa episode. That's when we all opened up and shared what we've been experiencing. Like we're pouring out our lives here, teaching Bible studies with the boys, taking them out for treats/meals, all 4 girls teaching at schools, painting murals, doing music & worship, etc., etc. (sorry if it sounds like a litany of accomplishments). But it's so hard to give out constantly with no returns. It's just not Nepali culture to express appreciation. I guess we Westerners are seen as being the source of all their needs. Even the schools just ask for more and more, even though none of the girls are experienced teachers. And how can we expect formerly abused, unloved street boys not to criticize but say 'thank-you'? And of course, we are seen as the source of funds because we do have so much more than anyone else.

But tonight we all learned something. First of all, we hadn't prayed as a family for quite awhile (I mean, community prayer-and-fasting days don't count). Then finally after we opened up and shared honestly with each other what we all felt, it led to a family prayer time. Some of us cried and asked the Lord for some kind of encouragement, some lifting up of our spirits. That led to some keen insights and words of wisdom from (who, Mom or Dad?) - No, from the girls themselves. And that led to the girls playing and singing worship music. And you know what? My own little weak discouraged family were the very ones to lift each other up. It didn't need to come from outside, from our own poor, beaten-down, struggling Nepali brothers and sisters.

So why at this time, in the middle of the 'highs' of youth missions trip to Gatlang, Ken's trek to Gorkha (Pastor Raju's village - he'll share about that next), John Wimber's associate Alexander Venter bringing a very encouraging and strengthening teaching on Saturday, these troubles should come and hit all of us, maybe we will understand. Maybe God has already accomplished something good out of it (and He has). We only have one month more. We don't want to just 'get through' it; we want God to do everything He can through us. But we need His strength. We almost ran out of our own steam. Ha! It turns out we have to practice what we preach. Thank-you all for listening. Thank-you even more for praying for us. Without you, we'd be toast.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Outreach to the mountains

My experience in Gatlang was very refreshing. In almost every aspect: physically, spiritually and mentally. I found that I had a lot of spare time to myself to spend walking through the fields or up mountain paths in the mornings and evenings, just thinking, praying or singing and admiring the beauty surrounding me. It was very much like living a few hundred years ago… life there is very simple. We slept on the wood floor in the church room, with a fire hole in the middle, and the guys stayed outside in tents. Every morning, we would wake at the crack of dawn… no, it was before dawn because the sun was definitely not awake yet. Gatlang is a small village in the middle of a mountain which is somewhere in the Himalayas, so when the sun would come out you could just see it peaking over the top of the highest mountain and a couple minutes later, the rays would flood the whole area, very beautiful. We put up some pictures on facebook.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all cooked over the fire and we would occasionally get milk from one of the farmer's yaks, so we could have some nice white tea for breakfast. The people from the village were very attentive to everything that we did, so we would occasionally have a group of either kids or adults gathered together watching us cook and eat. There was one occasion when I was playing the guitar out behind the church on the ledge, and about 5 kids came and sat down- listening very intently. There's no TV or radio of any kind way out in Gatlang, they live very secluded lives, so I'm sure that listening to worship in another language was a new experience for all of them. I saw the potential in a young boy sitting beside me trying to copy my strumming as he watched and listened. Who knows but that God had His hand on this boy's life to mould him into a future worship leader. As I played I sung out a prayer over the boy's life. It excited me to see God's hand moving through the village.

A bunch of the youth gals and we three went into the village to visit a few of the believers' homes, for encouragement and fellowship. One of our youth, who was from the village, translated from Nepali and English into their native tongue, Tamang, they shared needs for prayer (ie. Sickness and we found out that many of the children with distended bellies had worms). We prayed in and outside peoples' homes, often in the view of non-believers. And let me tell you, praying with other Nepalis is not a mutter-under-your-breath kind of prayer…quite the opposite actually. This loud, passionate group of prayer warriors attracted a lot of attention in the middle of the village homes, many of whom then asked us to pray for them. We snatched up this opportunity to also witness to them and invite them to come up to the church- which ended up being a jam-packed final service on our last day there. It seemed like the entire village had come. After talking with Shem Dai, we found out that they had been praying about this mission's trip to Gatlang for 4 years. How exciting that we got to partner with them in furthering God's kingdom into Gatlang!
(posted by Alana)

Friday, May 2, 2008

Three days on the mountain side

Where to begin? This is the trip that the youth (including my Dad) took up the mountain to a village called Gatlang. The village is made up of roughly three hundred and fifty homes, which is large for a mountain village, so we were told. We have to think that the houses are, after all, scattered across the side of a mountain. It was an amazing experience, to say the least. But it really began on the bus ride, because that ride up the mountain was an adventure in itself. We have no seat belts to begin with, but on the ride up we were crazy enough to join some of the Nepalis on the roof of the bus. We clung to those roof racks for dear life, as the bus swerved around the corners and drove dangerously close to the edge of the road, where there would be a sharp drop into the valley far below. However close we were to having a heart attack, we could still admire the beauty of the mountains towering above us, and the sight of the river flowing down the ravine at the bottom of the valley. It was sights like these that greeted us every morning at Gatlang.
The first day there, we watched a group of the villagers travelling up the mountainside, up a steep path. The path is extremely dangerous, even for them (they lost someone last year, who fell off the path) and it's a one hour climb, only to gather grass for their livestock. We found as we went through our time there that all of their life is full of adventures like this. It's daily work for them, but awe-inspiring for us. We had to hike down into the valley to get to the river below for baptisms on the last day (after we had gone on hikes both days previously!). It was killer on the legs, but worth the pain. After the baptisms, we and all the youth went swimming in the river, which was completely pure but ice-cold. I've had experiences similar to this - rock-hopping and swimming in small rapids back in Canada - but there was just something different about doing it with Nepalis, and having a mountain face on either side. It's probably imprinted in all of our memories.
As for the ministry with the people, that was the more difficult part - for me, anyways. It was more difficult because the language they speak there is Tamung, with the adults being able to speak Nepali as a second language. Whatever I wanted to say had to be translated into their second language, and so it made communciation a lot more difficult. Karina and I were working with the children on the second day. The children, of course, were not so fluent in Nepali and were only beginning to learn it. So as I did children's ministry I began to realize that Rabin, who was helping me, couldn't communicate with the kids either. He tried to translate what I was explaining (games and what not), but we couldn't even get them to understand that we wanted them to sit in a circle! All in all, though, I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about the people and how they live their lives. It's very similar to pioneer days, except put a little spin on it by placing the village on the side of a mountain. I may never see anything like it again, but what I saw I was glad to have experienced. If I could, I would relive those three days, beginning to end! (posted by Sheri)

Thursday, May 1, 2008

'UP' in Koth Gaun

A group of us visited the Koth Gaun Vineyard the other day. It was mainly for the women's fellowship that we went. The Lord, it seems, had a bigger plan than the women's meeting. As they had their fellowship, the seven men who went - Pastors Raju and Shyem, Alexander Venter (one of John Wimber's former associates who is visiting from South Africa), his son Zander, friend Brian Gardner, Suresh and myself sat in front of the house chatting. The women's meeting ended and we were invited in for a spicy hot meal of beaten rice, curried potato and chicken. After the meal, we were seated with the son whose father had just passed away two weeks previous. As we talked, the man said that he had a problem with alcohol and he wanted prayer to stop drinking. Raju said that we should all lay hands on him. A thought came to my mind and I turned and asked Raju if he was even a Christian. Raju said no and that he had shared the gospel with him before but with no commitment. I told Raju to give him the invitation again. After a short conversation, Raju turned to me and said that he now wanted to accept the Lord. Shouts of hallelujah filled the house! Now we were ready to pray! We spoke words of encouragement and blessings over him first, and then came against the power of the addiction. For the first time since meeting him, a smile came over his face. From darkness to light, the Kingdom of God came to Koth Gaun that day.

This wasn't the end of our ministry. As we walked back to the land rover, we greeted some other believers who were sitting outside their house. The grandfather who, a short time ago, accepted Jesus was asking for prayer for asthma. Again we laid hands on him and prayed. Nothing appeared to happen but he, too, seemed blessed that we would take the time to pray for him. We parted company with them only to be asked by another believer two homes over to come in for tea. It turned out that this was the home of one of the girls who accompanied the Kathmandu Vineyard youth to Gatlang. As we were seated and drinking our tea, I felt an urging from the Holy Spirit to speak to her regarding her life's direction. I felt awkward sharing with our Nepali believers prophetic words, not knowing whether or not they've received proper teaching. I tried to caution myself but felt the urge to share the words far greater. Hmmm…..how do you spell faith…R.I.S.K! We gathered around her and all prayed with the result that the Holy Spirit touched her through her tears. Bless the Lord, for he is good! (Posted by Ken.)