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!

A New Direction

We are getting ready for something new.  We have been studying, researching, reading, talking to others who have experiences; all those things you do to prepare when you know you have a lot to learn.  Most of all, we have been praying, because it is God who is sending us.  He gave some of us this vision for Nepal starting back in 2008, and since then it has been coming more into focus. He has expanded it out to include India (the Orissa Region to begin with) and Sri Lanka.  Now God has indicated the time is ripe, and He has opened the door.  

Nepal: Is a country where Christianity was banned until 2008. But the Gospel is beginning to explode taking this country from 2000 to over 1 million new believers! Hallelujah!  But who are the leaders when everyone is les than 5 years old in their faith?  That is why we are going, to raise up the indigenous leadership for the church.

India: Is a country that recognizes literally MILLIONS of gods through the primary religion of Hinduism. How can we prevent the simple addition of Jesus Christ as one more “deity” to put on the shelf?  That would be through developing strong leaders who are grounded in the truth of God’s word, knowing the truth of the One True and Living God and His character.

Sri Lanka:  Is a country that is home to over 50,000 widows whose husbands died in the 30 years of civil war. The war is over now, and they have declared freedom of religion, however after a generation of deep presecution, they don’t really know how to be the church.  They need strength in their leadership and wounds to be healed.

All three countries suffer in great darkness. Human trafficking rates are some of the highest in the world.

Pray for us as we go and as we listen to God to identify where He wants us to serve.

A new Discipleship-Module 1 Class

The room filled with 20 “new” disciples-in-training, some of them acquainted, and some not. Though from at least 8 different denominations, they all shared some things in common: they are all involved in church ministry, and they all love God and respect His Word. 

About a month before this training session, we met together with last year's Discipleship class to compile the invitation list for this new class. With careful consideration and prayer, 18 people were chosen. These class members had come from areas beyond which we have traveled, from villages we have not yet visited, expanding the reach and scope of the work begun in 2008. 

They arrived eager, as did we. And we were NOT disappointed! Engaging themselves in the challenges of Discipleship, they were stretched and encouraged to begin to think like a disciple and to learn new ways. They happily (though reluctantly, at first) participated in group discussions and challenges, coming more and more "out of their shells" with each activity. Over the course of 3 days, they developed skills to both learn and discern from the Word, as well as the activation to LEARN IT, to DO IT, and to TEACH IT. 

By the end of the class, the atmosphere was electric. They were excitedly sharing with each other, ready to go back to their villages with a discipleship approach to ministry, ready to engage the tools they received in order to open the eyes of others to the richness of being a true follower of Christ.

We are looking forward to following up with this new group next year to see just how far they have gone.  We also praise God that they are not left alone. Not only do they go with God, but they also have the support and encouragement of last years' attendees. Now they have fellow-laborers throughout the region who are ready to work together, study together, pray together, grow together, and expand God's Kingdom.

Meet Lusajo

Our team was blessed this trip to meet Lusajo, a strong and gifted young church leader in Katesh.  Lusajo has a very strong command both the written and spoken forms of the English language. It was great to get to know him, his beautiful wife and baby daughter.  When he learned about our ministry work in the bush of Northern Tanzania he immediately volunteered to assist us with translating the training materials. The more we worked together, the more excited he became and the stronger our bonds grew.  He recognizes part of his calling to be one who helps to connect church leaders from many denominations, so he was powerfully effective as a translator since we share a similar passion for the church.  

Lusajo joined us in Bashnet for the new Discipleship-Module 1 Class. Though he was a student in this class, he was happy to also fill in as our interpreter, his enthusiasm really adding power and excitement to the teachings. It was clear during the break times that his energy was contagious, as very animated conversations among the participants created an atmosphere of joyful anticipation and revelation.  

We expect that we will continue to work with Lusajo in the future. God has given this young man a vision along with the strength and hope to walk forward with Christ into his calling.  It is a priviledge to work with leaders of this spiritual caliber and vision. We look eagerly forward to seeing God unfold His plan for the Katesh area through the unity of like-minded, like hearted pastors empowered by the Spirit of God.

On the way to Bashnet

On our drive out to Bashnet, we stopped the car when we saw this grand, gnarly tree.

“You shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of waters" (Psalm 1) came to mind, as we examined the knobby roots that spanned the stream and clung tenaciously to the rich Tanzanian soil.  The very size of the tree made it “photo-worthy”, and Susan found the shade cool and refreshing on a hot, dusty drive.  She took a few moments to contemplate the difficult conditions under which this tree lives, with water only a few months of the year; the rest of the time, dry and parched conditions remain here by the side of the dirt road.   It was tempting to pull out the journal and sit on those massive roots and get into the contemplative writing mode, while listening to the quiet babble of a seasonal stream rolling over the stones in the creek-bed; but, alas, we were on our way to Bashnet to meet with a whole new group of potential Disciples of Jesus for 3 days of training.  And what a time that proved to be!