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.