Day 8 (Wednesday) Kathmandu, Nepal
Once again, we were able to sleep in, but I did not. It was another great morning in God’s word. The ladies all trickled down and we made our way to breakfast. It was our last breakfast as a group of 10 as the men were all headed back that afternoon. (I was getting a little excited to see Brent!) After breakfast we were planning our day and decided to take a walk over to another Hindu temple that was near by. The streets were coming alive as vendors were getting their shops ready and the cars were streaming by. We had a nice walk over to the temple. I loved seeing the colors of the street up close and the people. We took some time to hand out tracts on our walk over as well as we rushed through the streets.
We made it to the temple where we spent a little bit of time debating whether or not we should go it. The cost was a little more than some of us wanted to spend, but we decided that it was worth seeing what was happening and getting a better idea of the Hindu religion. We were stopped by a bunch of students that wanted to take a picture with us white Americans. It was kind of funny, but then we finally moved on to follow the tour guide. He kept taking us by these statues that are “gods” and describing everything about them. The things that they believed about each particular thing seemed crazy to me. It was hard to believe that they would build an idol and worship it like it would actually do something for them. Then I thought about the Israelites and how they kept on building idols because of the lack of faith they had. It is hard to believe in something you cannot see and that is why it is called Faith. We idolize money and other things in life as well. I’ve done it, but the weird thing for me was seeing something physically built to worship. They concisely spent the time building these things. When we create our own gods, we limit what can be done. They can’t do anything outside of us. That is why our God is so great! He can do anything and everything. We cannot limit Him.
We then went and visited the Living Goddess. Shortly after we got back, I blogged about her here. Read up to refresh your memory. We waited around but ended up leaving to go check out another building. In this building we learned about how you can rub your back on this one piece of wood and it would heal you. A guy did it and our friend asked him if he felt better. The guy said “Yes!” We all thought it was funny because we knew the truth. We headed back to see the Living Goddess. As we looked into her eyes, we saw desperation, despair, loneliness and I could go on. It was hard to see this child sitting in the window looking out onto all of us. She is stuck. Please pray for her and the other children in her situation.
After this we left the temple feeling dirty and heavy hearted. God worked on my heart a lot that day. We went over to a coffee shop to think about everything that we had just experienced. All of us ladies washed our faces as we couldn’t get over how dirty we felt. Outside the coffee shop was a little boy with deformed legs. Some of our group went out and gave him some food and prayed over him. A little before we left, I went back out with a couple of the other girls as well. We took a picture of him and showed him. He had the biggest smile on his face. We then each spent time with our hands on him praying for him. I had never done anything like this before. God was working on me big time.
We had stayed at the temple too long, so the rest of our morning plans got canceled. We were going to go do a service project, but it was too late. We ended up walking over to a location to meet up with our van and drivers and then headed out to lunch. We went to a great lunch place where I enjoyed some tasty Indian food including my favorite, naan (and you can bet I had a ton!).
After lunch we had a great time of learning how to cross the street in crazy traffic. Most of us got through, but that left a few on the other side. Finally one got brave enough, stuck her hand out into traffic and went for it. It was great! This was a hard task for anyone to do. We then went over to our friends little shop. It was great to support someone we knew. The shop was filled with scarves, hats, mittens, backpacks and yak wool blankets. I wasn’t planning on by any souvenirs or anything, but I couldn’t help myself since she was a friend and sister in Christ. I bought just a few things as I watched everyone else pick out their finds.
We headed on over to the Asha house which is a women’s and children’s home. We started off by getting a tour of the land. They have several green houses that are growing carnations and roses to sell as well as a garden. Whatever they do not need to use at the home, they sell to make money. They have also started to try and grown mushrooms. It was great to see the things these women have been able to do after getting rescued out of human trafficking and the sex industry. They have a place where they can live and thrive! It was so wonderful to see what God has provided for them. We went back to their craft room where we learned about the crafts they are making to sell as well: cards, soap, journals, necklaces and bracelets, pencils made out of recycled newspaper and other great things. They were all for sale, so once again all of use women decided to support them.
After our shopping spree, we went out and were able to spend some time loving on the women. Some of the other ladies went and played with the kids. There were a few older women that didn’t know any English that we tried to talk with. It was hard, but fun. There was this one lady in particular that I spent some time with. She was just a little younger than me and had a cute little girl. This lady just thought that I was so beautiful. She stroked my hair, held my hand and gave me hugs. I thought she was super beautiful. The sad thing is that most of these women have been so abused that they do not think they are beautiful. I just kept telling her over and over again that she was. It was a little hard to leave. It would have been great if we could have spent even more time with these women and children.
We headed over to one of these lady’s shop where we had something to drink to help support her business. It was great to be able to help her. Her story in particular was a hard one to hear. Her brother had sold her and her sister into human trafficking down into India. They were eventually rescued after several years and came home. God is so good that they were able to reconcile with their families and became Christians. What an amazing story. We left and then made our way back to the hotel.
I was super anxious as we were approaching. Brent was there and I couldn’t wait to see him. I grabbed the box of water as I knew I couldn’t show him affection in public. I walked in a the hello was just a little awkward as all the guys were watching what we would do. We were having a late dinner, so four of us went out to hand out tracts. It was great to be able to fill Brent in on what was happening in the area. I pointed out the street kids to him and the women sex workers. We all decided to start going straight on into the brothels to hand out the tracts. This was very eye opening. It was still early enough were the women were just finishing getting ready. We even had a few occasions where we spent some time talking with some of the guys that were in there about Christ.
It had been a really long day. I was excited for bed, but Brent and I spent a couple hours swapping stories about the amazing things that God had done over the week. Please pray for this boy and all the ladies we encountered that day. Not just the ones in the brothels, but the ones at the Asha house.
