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