Day 7 (Tuesday) Kathmandu, Nepal
We were told that we could sleep in, but that wasn’t going to happen for me. The bed that I was on was really hard. I honestly spent a little bit of time complaining about this. I had spelt terrible that night. I woke up early and went downstairs to the lobby of the hotel. I sat right next to a Hindu statue and worship the true God. Above me were several Buddhist prayer flags. I still do not understand letting flags do your praying for you. It was a little weird at first, but then I got a kick out of it. We had breakfast as a team while we waited around for our Nepali friend to show up to take us out for the rest of the day.
We headed out over to the Esther House for the morning. At this house there is a children’s home, a school and a church. We spent our time here praying over the children’s rooms and then we divided up all of our presents on each of the children’s beds. As we walked around, I took special notice of their beds. They had a piece of plywood and then their bedding. I was extremely humbled that morning. I was complaining about having a hard bed and then I saw this. Those kids don’t even have mattresses.
We went up to the school and spent some time handing out gifts to all of the kids. Even the ones that weren’t from this home. It was great to see the smiles on their faces as they played with the yo-yos and other items. We then spent time going into each classroom and praying the students and the teachers. I was a great experience. We then headed over to the church where we spent time praying for that community of believers. We were waiting for our leaders to come back out so we spent some time on the stairs below the church singing some worship songs. One of the older girls came home and we were able to hang out with her for a little while. I love the Nepali people. They all have such a kind heart. This girl lives at this home and is going to college. She was a such a sweet girl. We sang a few songs with her and just really enjoyed our time together.
It was time for us to move on so we headed back to the first Chinese restaurant that we had gone to. After lunch we took a stop at our friends office. We learned about the beginnings of the company and the first “sabers” that they used to spread the gospel. It was a piece of cardboard with a metal connection and a pin. You would then put the record on it and use a pen to spin the record which released the sound. It was amazing to see what God was doing there and where they had come from. They were all devoted to getting the gospel spread in every language and for people to hear it in there native tongues.
We ended our day out with a trip to another children’s home. This one was my favorite. This was a Tibetan children’s home. It was an amazing place. We learned about the pastor and his wife that were taking care of these children. They are both Tibetan as well. The children were not home when we first arrived so we spent our time talking with the pastor. He has such an amazing heart for leading his people to Christ. Tibetans are mostly Buddhist and not always peaceful. He has struggled with other Tibetans trying to destroy villages that turned to Christianity on the Tibetan Plateau. His life is threatened when he goes to spread the gospel, yet he still goes. He loves his people and wants them to come to Christ. All of the stories he told were amazing.
Then we met the kids. They have such warm hearts and were full of laughter. We spent time playing games and singing with these children. We were able to teach them Blessed Be Your Name. They had such a desire to learn more songs that they could use to praise God. We blew bubbles, played Duck Duck Goose and Red Light Green Light. When we left, we were presented with some Tibetan made scarves and a pray from Tibetans bookmark. It is apparently a very high honor to receive these scarves. I couldn’t have been more blessed by visiting this home and loving on these children.
This was the perfect way to end the day. We headed back to the hotel, had some dinner and called it a night. What an amazing day God had given us!