New Friends of AIM

Please join us in celebrating our new friends in Western Nepal.  

Pastor Philip hosted the conference at his house/church.  He is an effective evangelist, always sharing the Good News with nearly everyone he meets. When his church plant began to grow he wanted to build a church, but there was no land. (Land is an incredibly expensive purchase, when land can be found.) So, he decided to build UP! He added a set of stairs and a large room on the roof of his house, which is where our training sessions were held.  

This training group contains several pastors, some evangelists and also elders (both men and women); each church was invited to send 2 leaders. Some walked as far as 2-3 days travel in order to attend.  And they enthusiastically received the training, soaking up the Word of God like thirsty sponges. 

We have noted that this culture is normally one of formality and decorum.  But as many of you know, the Activation International presents a very light and congenial teaching style.  We observed that this actually helped to relax the atmosphere and gave them permission to relax as well.  By the end of the training, we knew we had bonded with many of these leaders, and have strong hopes to return for more opportunities to strengthen and equip them.      

                                                                                                  

Movement and noise.

 

It’s a explosion on the senses of sight, smell and sound.  Traveling in India and Nepal is truly an adventure! We have ridden in rickshaws, trains, and taxi’s of all sorts.  The roads are clogged with bicycles, motorcycles, rickshaws, taxis, buses and trucks, not to mention domestic animals towing carts of goods. 

Horns, bells, and alarms are freely used to alert other vehicles of your presence; so traveling any distance is a cacophony of acceleration, braking, horns honking and constant swerving around obstacles.  SO HANG ON! But don’t let your hands or arms extend outside the vehicle because they could get lopped off in the close quarters.  

Children freely traverse the streets seemingly oblivious of what appears to us to be complete chaos. They watch us with a curious shyness and sometimes waving with joyful faces. We notice a definite reverence for life here and we have seen both the touching and the humorous sides of this care for all living things. Cows freely wander the streets and are at times even presented offerings of vegetables from street vendors. Other times we have witnessed traffic surge around their inert forms (like unperturbed stones in a river rapids); they calmly chew their cud while standing in the middle of an intersection.

Crossing into Nepal

Two international flights, a day and a half in New Delhi, an 8-hour train ride and a 5 ½-hour taxi ride finally deposited the Activation International training team at the southern border of mid-western Nepal.

Here we are! FINALLY!  The place for which our hearts have burned for over 2 years.  Even through the dusty exhaustion, our hearts were lightened as we completed the paperwork for Visas and entry into this small, beautiful country nestled between India and China. 

We breathed deeply as we crossed into the land of Nepal, sensing a lightening in the atmosphere. “What is this, Lord?” Susan prayed, “I expected the spiritual atmosphere to be dark and heavy here, after centuries of oppression for the Gospel.”

The Lord whispered in His still small voice to our hearts. What we feel is an alignment with the purposes and timing of the Lord. God is at work in Nepal. We know that He wants to do great things. We have aligned ourselves and our ministry to be partners in His Kingdom movement in Nepal.

Praise flooded our hearts and spirits as we reaffirmed that we are in Nepal at the will of our wonderful Savior. He has chosen this place and this time for us to be here. May His Kingdom come and His will be done in Nepal as it is in Heaven every day!