Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Nepal - Week 1

This spring Yuliya and I had the opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip to Nepal with a team from the seminary here in L'viv, Ukraine. Our time there was basically divided into 3 weeks so I will post accordingly. We first flew through Dubai and landed in Kathmandu.

Immediately our senses were bombarded with a new culture as we exited the airport and rode in jeeps to our host home. They don't really seem to have many rules on the road, besides one - honk your horn a lot to let everyone know you're coming. We had 1 day in Kathmandu to walk around but mostly we searched for some things at the market that we would need for the mountains including sleeping bags, hiking poles, and food. We then left on a 9 hour bus to the city of Pokhara in the Annapurna mountain range region. We stayed there for one night, then set out the next day for our first destination. We hiked mostly uphill for about 6-7 hours and got to the first village where we stayed for a few days with a kind, old grandma. We would sleep and eat there and in the day go visiting the surrounding villages.

In the villages we showed kindness to the people, made conversations with them and just played with and talked to children. The people were very kind and often invited us to sit and drink tea with them. The kids were really sweet, and we made them balloon animals, handed out candy, and our girls checked their girls for lice and brushed/braided their hair. Our friend and brother in Christ Min, a former shaman who was saved and is now a preacher, would preach while we spoke with the people in the villages. Then we invited them to watch the Jesus film in the evening if weather permitted. The first few nights it was raining and wet and only a few people came. However, on the last night it was dry and more than 40 people were there from the surrounding villages. Join us in praying for these villages. On almost every mountaintop there are temples to different Hindu gods.

These beautiful people are desperately in need of Jesus! The first week was difficult, wet, and humid but God gave us strength and we were able to help Nepali missionaries reach out to these people and preach the Gospel. We pray that God will continue to use these people like Brother Min to reach the lost in these mountain villages in Nepal.




"Then He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15 CSB

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Nepal - Week 2

After our first week we understood a little bit of the price you must pay to be a minister or missionary in Nepal. Praise God instances of physical persecution are not common in Nepal, as far as I know, but it is still very difficult for believers there. There are many gods, temples, and shrines all over the place and for us it was a little disconcerting at times.  There are so few people willing to go...but some ARE going, and God is working through them and people are hearing all about Jesus in these remote places!
We often prayed that those false places of worship would be ruined and that the one true God's name would be lifted up in those places instead. Please join us in praying. Also we understood the physical cost of evangelism and discipleship in these mountain villages. It is very hard to climb from one day to a couple weeks to get to some of these villages. As Jesus said -->

In week two a couple of our girls, including my wife Yuliya, went back to Kathmandu to help with some camps in the orphanages instead of going with us to Tibet. The rest of us got back on a bus and then took a jeep up very steep mountain roads, past a few guard checkpoints and into the Tibet region of Nepal (near the border of China). The place where we were the first week we worked mostly with Hindu people, but closer to Tibet Buddhism is the dominate religion.

Everywhere we saw the very colorful Buddhist flags which actually have prayers written on them. They believe the winds blow the prayers to heaven. Our plan in Tibet was to climb all day for 2 days to reach a village and show the Jesus film there where it hadn't previously been shown before, and in a few villages on the way up. So we climbed, and climbed, and climbed with the sun beating down on us and the dust kicking up and resting inside our nostrils. It was much harder than the first week in terms of climbing but we kept going and helped each other as much as possible. We finally reached our destination at 3500+ meters which is more than 11,000 ft. It is already high enough that no trees grow as you can see in this picture, and it was freezing cold at night. We woke up to snow and our translator was very happy as it was his first time seeing snow! We showed the Jesus film to about 40 people again. At the base of those mountains is a Christian church so we shared with them our plans and route so that they could also continue working with these people.

Please join us in praying for the people of Tibet. Buddhism has a strong hold on the area and the work there is very slow, often without a lot of visible fruit. Please pray that pastors, and missionaries would be called to reach these people who again are in need of a Savior, and that he would give them strength and boldness to preach the Gospel to these remote mountain villages.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Nepal - Week 3

After our second week we went back to Kathmandu and had a couple of days to rest and prepare for the camp we would help do with some of the orphanages. There are a couple of missionaries from Ukraine, USA, Belarus, Russia, and some other countries as well who run small orphanages with 20-30 children. We did camp for 4 of these orphanages. The work these missionaries are doing with these kids is amazing. They are helping raise up missionaries, pastors and ministers from among these orphans. They teach them and help them gain necessary life skills, as well as teaching them about God, the Bible, and salvation through Christ alone. Many of them have given their lives to Christ and we were amazed as we spent some evenings with them during their devotional times (which the kids themselves lead). Hearing them sing their hearts out in Nepali (even though we didn't understand anything) was truly a humbling experience we will not soon forget. Our task for week 3 was to help teach these children and help them mature in their walks with God. In one photo I am with the translator teaching the Bible lesson at camp.

We taught them that God made everyone with a purpose and that our purpose is to love, glorify, and serve God in all that we do. Please join us in praying for these orphans, orphanages, and the local missionaries who are working with them. They are really doing a great job! Also they are always looking for sponsors for the kids so if anyone reading this is interested just let me know and we will get you in contact with them. We really enjoyed the 3rd week. We spent all week with these kids and really got to know and love them.

I don't know what God has in store for us in the future with regards to Nepal, but we hope someday we will get the opportunity to at least visit and see these beautiful children again, they were really special. Pray also for Kathmandu there is around a million people here. This panorama is of Kathmandu (photo was taken from a Buddhist temple). A million people, many that never heard of Jesus and his love for them. Please join us in praying for Nepal, and for missions and missionaries all around the world. I encourage everyone reading this to be a part of missions in some way, either by going, sending, praying, or supporting mission both local and international.
God has a heart for missions and our churches should as well. Please pray for the persecuted church, and for believers all around the world that are suffering for Christ. A good resource with facts and stories about the persecuted church can be found here"Open Doors".
I encourage you all to make lifting up these people and their needs in prayer a part of your daily life and walk with Christ.

Thanks as always for your love and support for Yuliya and I. We miss you and hope to hear from some of you soon. Let me know if you want to hear more. If we get the chance to come to the USA this summer we would be happy to show you more pictures and tell your more in detail about what we are doing in Ukraine and our trip to Nepal. God Bless!

For some Fun Facts about Nepal click here