NEPAL, Outreach
- januar 2015
“Dajes mi spoznati poti življenja; polnost veselja je pred tvojim obličjem, večne radosti na tvoji desnici” (Ps 16:11)
Najprej vam zelim zazeleti srecno, zdravo, blagoslovljeno in cudovito novo leto 2015. Upam da ste lepo praznovali oziroma pričakali novo leto.
Posiljam vam tudi pozdravcke iz Nepala, kamor smo varno prispeli pred malo vec kot dvema tednoma. Potovanje je bilo varno in vse je potekalo super in brez vecjih zapletov. Ko smo prisli, smo se nastanili v hisi poleg stavbe kjer bi morali bivati, ker je bila v nasem stanovanju se neka druga YWAM skupina iz LA-ja. Ravno ta teden pa smo se preselili v nase pravo stanovanje, kjer je vse skupaj veliko bolj domace in smo se lahko v miru razpakirali, ga nardili nasega in razstavili stvari in uredili da nam je udobno.
Skozi ta cas smo se ze privadili na zelo mrzla jutra in vecere in mrzlo vodo. Skozi dan se ozracje segreje in je precej toplo in smo lahko celo samo v majicah, ko se sonce skrije pa postane res mrzlo. Kupili smo si najdebelejse mozne spalke za minus temperature in jaz osebno ponavadi spim z dvema paroma nogavic in se dvema ali tremi dekami :))
Na hrano smo se tudi navadili, je precej dobra in vcasih malo pekoca, kar se mi vsi smejijo, ker so vsi bolj vajeni pekoce hrane kot jaz. Kavice so se kar dobre, zelo zelo zelo okusen pa je tako imenovani milk-tea, res znajo narediti dobrega.
Nas dan zgleda tako da zjutraj ob 7 ustanemo, imamo par minut skupne molitve in potem vsak svoj tihi cas. Nadaljujemo z zajtrkom in potem ponavadi odidemo ven. Bili smo ze v sirotisnici, srecali veliko ljudi ki jih nekateri poznajo ze odprej, molili za ljudi na ulici, se igrali z otroci na ulici, molili za bolne, hodili okoli stupe ki je tukaj najvecji budisticni tempelj in molili za tukajsnje verujoce in vse ki pridejo sem na duhovna potovanja in raziskovanja, bili smo tudi ze udelezeni na mladinski skupini in v cerkvi, preziveli cas z mladimi iz cerkve in spoznali precej novih random ljudi na cesti s katerimi smo delili evangelij. Cas tukaj hitro tece, dnevi so kratki in nimamo nekega posebnega urnika. Vcasih stvari planiramo, vcasih pridejo spontano, definitivno vsi uzivamo biti tukaj in tudi tranzicija in prilagajanje na okolje in kulturo nam ni delala vecjih tezav. Z gotovostjo lahko recem, da je nasa skupinica sestih cudovita skupnost prijateljev, pocutimo se kot druzinica in skrbimo en za drugega, si pomagamo, se spodbujamo, se sprejemamo in spoznavamo. Imena v nasi skupini so Kathrine, Olivia, Janelle, Tylar, Joel in jaz. Ravno pred parimi dnevi smo se pogovarjali o pomenu imena in nasa imena pomenijo: dar, mocan, povezan z bogom, veselje. In ce damo vse te pomene skupaj nasa skupina dejansko tako izgleda in funkcionira. Res se pocutim blagoslovljeno da sem lahko del tako cudovitih ljudi in novih prijateljev.
Nas pa seveda tudi “sovraznik” preizkusa in sem in tja malce ponagaja. Ta teden nam je dobro zagodel, saj smo cisto vsi v skupini bolni in lezimo. Jaz in Tylar sva imela drisko, prebavne motnje, oba sva bruhala in en dan sem se pocutila tok svoh da nisem niti sama mogla hodit. ostali stirje pa imajo mocan prehlad, vrocino in kaselj. Skozi cel teden nihamo iz dneva v dan na boljse in ko ze mislimo da smo zdravi, je naslednji dan slabse, tako da smo skupinsko nekako bolni. Cudovita stvar v tem je, da se noben ne pritozuje, nekako v velikem veselju in dobri volji prenasamo vse skupaj, lezimo, kuhamo caj, jemo nic, beremo Narnijo knjigo ali gledamo film ali se pogovarjamo.
Praznovanje bozica je bilo cudovito. Bozicni vecer smo preziveli skupaj kot ekipa, na 25.12 pa smo s cekrvijo odsli v hribe na piknik in tam preziveli dan. Novoletni vecer je bil zanimiv, definitivno si ga bom zapomnila. Za vecerjo smo imeli palacinke z jagodami in nutello. Torej novo leto sem docakala sama, ker so vsi pospali in ko sem jih poskusala zbudit se noben ni nikakor ni hotel zbuditi… Haha…kmalu po polnocni je en od prijateljev tok mocno bruhal, da nisem vedela kaj naj naredim z njim ker cesa tazga se nisem vidla. Ko sem ga spravla spat se je zbudil drugi in se tresel kot siba na vodi, ker je imel tok mocno vrocino, tud njega sem uspesno spravila spat. Po vsem tem so se zbudile se punce, ena je hodila v spanju in se nicesar ne spomni, ena je bila v spanju razocarana sama nad sabo ker ni odstevala do novega leta in tretja je bila v svojem svetu ker je misla da je ze jutro in zacenjamo dan. Ob 3:30 ko sem vse spravila spat sem sla tudi sama spat za tri urce in zjutraj ugotovila da se najboljse pocutim od vseh, tako da sem bila vceraj mama za mojo druzinico tukaj, kuhala cajcke, juhico, sla v trgovino ter generalno ocistila kopalnico in kuhno da si nehano prenasat bacile in jih delit. Danes zjutraj sem se po vsem tem tudi sama zbudila spet z glavobolom, tako da sem spet postelji, ampak na splosno je vecina ostali v redu in vsi upamo in molimo da se postavimo na noge v parih dneh.
Stvar katero se definitivno ucim tukaj je, namensko si vzet cas za Boga in prezivet cas z njim. Vcasih imam obcutek da, je zivljenje tukaj tako kot doma, ko ves da moras nekaj narediti stremis proti tistemu in delas na svojo moc. Definitivno je cas z Bogom tukaj drugacen kot v Koni, ampak nic manj bogat.
Ko smo molili za novo leto sem dobila besede da moramo v tem letu pricakovati Jezusa povsod in ob enem pricakovati velike stvari, katere bo storil v letu 2015. S temi besedami tudi zakljucujem tale del besedila in vas vse lepo pozdravljam : expect Jesus everywhere. He will do a big things this year!
- januar 2015
One of my highlights soo far was for sure visiting Cethwan area. This is a village, 5 hours driving out of Kathmandu. We spent a few days there and had a blast. Everyone loved being there. People are amazing, landscape is gorgeous, its way less dusty and doing ministry there was simply amazing! We stayed with family who runs orphanage Mercy and have church place in the same house. Soo sometimes we helped with kids, in the mornings and evenings we shared messages and testemonies, during the day we pretty much were walking few hours away from their house and saw poor villages, visit church members houses and were incredibly inspired by how generous they are. At that time i was reminded how poor people are rich in spirit. For sure those days were one of the most wonderful and blessed soo far!!
When we got back to the city, we had pastoral visit. Hailey Blant, our school leader, came and spent few days with us. She brought “fresh air” and we had soo much fun to have her here. We all enjoyed time with her, living with her, include her into our daily life, having one on one with her, fun and serious conversations. We simply we blessed with her visit!
At that week, I also got a one day visit from my slovenian friend Katja! She is actually in India right now, but since we are soo close she came to Kathmandu and stayed one night with us! I can tell you how much that visit meant to me, for sure i didnt expect that someone from home will visit me and brought a homy filling, known jokes, known and comment things and my language. I was soo incredibly happy and blessed having her. Also my team welcomed her soo nicely, just in a few hours she almost became one of us. It was realy nice to see how nicely they accepted someone who is close to my heart!
In general in last few weeks, we were working a lot in different orphanages and with kids. We are weekly visiting disabled orphanage, Orphanage in our street, Indian village. We all really like visiting Indian village and spent time with baggers there. Sometimes we are just hanging out with them, share gospel stories with them, buy food for them etc.
Also in a last few weeks we were all chalenged with sharing gospel and Bible messages. I need to admit everyone did great job on teaching and preaching. I shared message about What kt means to have Christian lifestyle and relationship with God. Before i spoke i was a bit scared how it will go, since i was going to speak in my second language (english) and will we at the same time translated to a third one (nepali); but i found out it wasnt hard at all and i really enjoyed sharing. After sharing people came to me and said that they were really incouraged and felt God’s presence during speach…. Yesterday one of my teammates was sharing infront of whole church and did amazing job with solid message. One remarkable thing which happened yesterday at the church was, that during worship time one girl was attacked with demon. I have never seen something like that. She was rolling around the floor, yelling, she was soo agressive. When she callm down a bit, me and my friends walked to her and start praying for her. We prayed for about 15 minutes, during our prayer time friend who shared that message started to talk. His message was about having faith and doubts in life and how much God does through faith. One of his points was also demon posesed people. We found out that was soo interesting to saw that girl and at the same time listening his words about exsactly the same thing. At one point girl just came back and become “normal”. Later we were talking with her and she shared that this was for fifth time happened to her and she cant remember anything and cant control herself at all. We will probablly get together with her in a future and pray for her freedom…. Before i came to Nepal one of my ” wishes” was to see demon posesed person and how God can set free/heal person. For sure i got vivid experiance soo far about it yesterday.
In general our team is doing well, we still get along great, became even more close, love each other, help and encourage each other and simply feel like we have our own little family here, which is really incredible. Our leader often says that not many teams have that nice athmosphe, and such a solid and mature people in a team who always wants to do and work more ministry on a daily base. Sounds like a “nice problem” J
I was a bit sick in a last week, nothing serious, just really hard cough. Coughing made me be really tired, but it didnt keep me away from doing things. I spent only one afternoon in a bed and my friends relly took care of me, which i found out as a challenge, because usually i am the one who takes care. Soo i admit, i had hard time just do nothing and allow people help me and took care and serve me 🙂 l can surly say God is working through us and in us, each of our team memeber. I was refreshed with many Bible verses, the one which is standing out the most for me is: “i love you Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock in whom i take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2-3). Not only here, but in general for my life, lifestyle and future i was reminded who is God for me, what He did for me and how much i am blessed on daily base. I can say my heart became more thankful and specialy thankful that i know Him and have life in Him.
Anyway, we still have about 6 weeks in Nepal, which is crazy how weeks are flying. February is going to be soo packed and busy month. We are planing to go back to Cethwan for a week, do short track in a Kathmandu valley and 9 days long track and prayer walk. Those are the biggest plans, inside of short ones we are planing to spent time with people here and disciple them, do some paintings in orphanages, do some practical work in a street and indian villages, do bozs and girls nights for church youth etc.
- februar 2015
First of all: happy belated Valentine’s day 🙂 i love you dearly and i am thankful and blessed that you are part of my life!
Its been quite a few weeks now since i send you my last updates. Last weeks have been super busy and as i always say: time here just flays, literally is flaying. It seems that days are so short and so packed at the same time. We only have another 3 weeks of staying and that’s why we want to spent time here wisely and do as much as possible.
About two weeks ago we went to a Nuwakoat for a weekend. This is area which is about 3 hours bus ride away. First night we spent time with people from one church, listen their testimonies and share ours and the next day,on Saturday we had privilege to lead conference in another church. We taught on discipleship. Each of us share different part of this topic, we were so blessed and privileged that they chose us and allow us to share with them. This is for sure one of my best moments so far. Its been amazing to see how God used our team, different personalities and our backgrounds for teaching, working together as team and how far away He brought us to teach people in a church. For sure blessed times and it was amazing to see how people were thankful!! We were asked if we can do the same thing again in one of the churches here in Kathmandu next weekend, of course we are super excited to do it again and blessed that God open another opportunity for sharing and teaching.
After we got back from Nuwakoat, we went on a 3 days long trick with our friend Babu. We were able to see remote villages and also share gospel there. Those are another amazing times. Not just because of sharing and loving people there but also because it was so nice to go out of the city, out of dusty air for a bit and spent time in nature. We saw so much nice views, enjoy beautiful landscape, peaceful and beautiful nature, listen birds and smell nice flowers and simply forest 🙂 none of us is really super city person, l mean we all like city but going out was really refreshing thing for everyone. After we got back home everyone in our team got sick 🙁 this was another week of super bad sickness. Some friends were throwing up for almost a week, some had diarrhea, some fever and headache … We really had mix of sickness. Because of that we postpone our plans with long track. At the end it happen that Joel, Janelle and Kat went on a track by themselves and Tylar, Olivia and me stayed at home in Kathmandu. This is our first time that we split. So friends who are tracking will do ministry at remote villages and we will do ministry in Kathmanu. Olivia and Tylar finally got better and feel good enough to go out. So yesterday we went to a church and after that met some youth from church and spent time with them. For sure it was nice time. We actually had privilege to go to Tibetan church and experienced service there. I need to admit that we had amazing time of worship and we heard message in English for the first time after 2.5 months. Pastor from Singapore came and spoke on a freedom topic. Anyway, for sure one thing our team faces the most is sickness, we were talking about that and we all think that that’s the area where evil gets us and stop us from work. Looking back, we never lost team unity, we were always asking for Gods guidance and had great time with people, but sickness has been thing where there you can do much if you got sick.
Our plans for next weeks are: since just 3 of us is staying here in the city we prayed and asked what should we do and we were reminded that that’s time when we can meet with people, ministry them and go deeper in a friendships with them. So we are planing to meet a lot of friends this week, also we will spend one day at orphanage and help to paint their building, one morning we will go back to a Beauty for Ashes organization and help them and we were talking to go into Indian village for a few mornings and share gospel there, specially with kids 🙂 when our other half of the team weekender s back we will leave for a Chetwan and remote villages there.
I personally was thought A LOT how to surrender my life to God on a daily base, how to trust with a future and trust in God’s plans: For l know the plans l have for you, plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Also one big thing God showed me and set me free from it was: fear of being rejected. I think l had this fear in me since i was a kid and it controlled me a lot, what i did, how i did, what will people say. For sure being afraid of mankind was hard to carry, i just didn’t realize that thing was such a big one in my heart and controlled me so much, also put lies and wrong weekend’s into my mind about who l am sometimes and where i suppose to go and what to do.
- marec 2015
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17)
This is the verse from Bible i got this morning when we were praying and asking God for a verse which would guide us in a next few weeks, future. Sadly our outreach is quickly going towards end. Yesterday evening we just enter into team debrief week. That means that these days are dedicated to look back, evaluate ministry and our work here, what we did and also what God did in us and though us. When i was looking back on last three months i saw how much things we experienced here in Nepal, how blessed we were/are, how many different ministries we were able to do and how much God worked in and through us.
For sure i am thankful for all things l have learned in last few months and helped me to grow personally and spiritually. There is a huge list of things i am thankful for:
-I am thankful that God sent me in Nepal
– I am thankful for all ministry opportunities we had (working with Kantipour church, leading youth group, discipleship, teaching and sharing messages, working in different orphanages, working in Chetwan, going on a track, working with baggers, indian village, etc)
-I am thankful for everything God did in me and through me
– I am thankful for amazing team who basically became my family
– I am thankful that Nepali people were so generous and open to us
– I am thankful for new Nepali friends
– I am thankful for all fun and adventures things we experienced
For me personally few highlights happened in Chetwan, visiting Beauty for ashes and doing ministry two weeks ago, when our team split on a half and three of us stayed in Kathamndu and three went on a long track. In that week a lot of amazing things happened.
God was leading us daily and conect us as a friends even more. One morning we got a call from one of our friends. He came over and share his stringless with us and ask us to pray for him. We were able to go and spend time in different orphanages and love childreen. We spend one whole day with one girl from church and celebrate her birthday at her house. We had time to spend time with our Nepali friends and almost each evening spend time with Kyle and Joel who are sweet kidos from our landlord. He brought them over and we played with them, made dinner for them, sing, run, played games, and laughed a lot.
Last week we went to Chetwan and spend the whole week there. It was another amazing and blessed week. This time was super refreshing and lovable. Family where we were staying was super generous, they were taking care of us and inspired us a lot. Father of a family, also leader of a church and orphanage and farm they have was taking us around other villages and we were sharing Gospel and messages with him. Personally my big aha moment was we were in one village and Krishna sat on a floor and start drawing picture in a mud and talking about Gospel, it was totally the same as story in Bible is, how Jesus was sitting on a floor and drawing. Next day we were off to Dusani village which was about 6 hours droving away and was super isolated and up in a hills. It was long ride with an open truck. When we got there they almost didn’t allow us to stay because we are Christians and that village is Hindi. But one family open their house for us, so we stayed and slept at that house. Next morning when we got up it was raining and we weren’t prepared for that, we were super cold, didn’t have umbrellas or right shoes at all. So we were walking in a rain and mud. We shared and worship in one primary school and later in the evening we showed them two hours long movie about Jesus. Next morning we were suppose to leave but because of a lot of rain almost non truck came and it would be super dangerous to drive down the hill in a mud. We thought we will need to walk for whole day till smaller city but after few hours sun came out and we got a driver who was able and dare to drive in all hose circumstances. Thank God. We came back to Chetwan and share message in a youth group and than on Saturday had hour and a half long message at a church. For sure we felt challenged through all week and were need to rely on God. I need to say that this was one of the hardest weeks but also the most beautiful and blessed week. On Sunday morning, 4am we left. It was hard, that family for sure left a huge mark in our hearts and help us in many ways.
Now we are back in Kathmandu and we are saying last goodbyes to Nepali friends and work on debrief things and spend last days together as a team. We are leaving Nepal this Friday at 4pm and we are flying to Seoul, where we will spend night and whole Saturday just as a team to have something fun together and do something together and than on Saturday evening we have next flight for Kona, Hawaii. There we are going to have class debrief and on March 13th, the majority of us is heading back home. After class debrief in Kona l will for sure send you last and final email with updates and testimonies, till than i just want to say thank you for your prayers, support. For sure prayers for safe travelings are more than welcomed and needed and also pray that goodbyes wont be too hard and friends we have made wouldn’t be too hard to leave as we are heading home.
