Life for a believer in Asia

My life  was very typical of a kid who grew up in the church. We would go to church as a family on Sundays.  I would read the Bible and listen to worship music when ever I wanted. There were no restrictions with my faith.

Sometimes, we as westerners take our lives and freedoms for granted. Traveling to another nation is always eye-opening and an amazing way to gain perspective on what life is like for others. The following is a little glimpse into the life of a friend in an Asian nation who is the only believer in her family.

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I was always the responsible girl in our family. When I was 14 or 15, I would take care of my two younger brothers and our house. My parents expected me to do what they ask, and I would. They both worked hard away from home, so they relied on me to help.

When I started going to church, my family did not understand. You see, I grew up in a home where my parents were following hinduism and buddhism. My grandfather was a shaman and was who people would go to for healing. My two younger brothers and mom are very superstitious people.  Life in my family was not easy when I said yes to Jesus.

I began going to church because my best friend went and I was curious. One particular day at church, I felt sick with a fever and cough. I sat down and began praying. “God, if you are real, and the true God, then heal me!” After saying that prayer, I felt so much peace and joy. This is when I began my journey of finding out who Jesus is.

The day Jesus healed me from a simple cold and I started following him, my family basically hated me. My decision to volunteer with a youth center to help out young people in my country, also upset my family. They would tell me I was being selfish and not being responsible for my family. My mom told me she questioned why she even gave birth to someone like me.

These conversation with my family made me really question why I decided to believe in Jesus. Even with this, I kept my faith and eyes on Jesus.

It has now been 3 or 4 years that I have followed Jesus. I just got baptized a year ago! My family is finally seeing that I am doing good in several areas, including helping provide for them as much as I can.

In our culture, family and moms are more important than anything, and definitely more important than going to church. My mom would not allow me to attend church regularly for a long time. But, recently, My mom and dad have agreed that I can attend church services! They still question why I go, but I am so thankful to have permission to go!

In our culture, the only time people actually could be full of joy and celebrate was during specific festivals. When I started following Jesus, I realized I could have joy every day and I don’t have to wait for a festival! Now I pray for wisdom to talk with my family about what I believe. I want them to know the peace and joy that I have found through my relationship with Jesus.

God has changed my life by helping me be vulnerable with others. Before believing in Jesus, I was a very private person and would not even tell my family what was going on in my life. Now, I feel I am an open book. I have more integrity and compassion and I do my best to act and talk the way Jesus wants me to.

The best part of walking with Jesus is everything! I have an amazing best friend who is a believer. We are able to pray for each other and encourage each other. There are also believers at the youth center where I work, so God has surrounded me with people who love him. I am excited to continue my work with the youth in my country. I feel Jesus’ presence when I am there with the youth. My hope is that Jesus can use me to encourage them and be a listening ear for them.

People & Perspectives - Nepal

When I was younger, I had a fascination with the small nation of Nepal. I had dreams of grand adventures involving climbing giant mountains and trekking through tiger infested forests. Most of the time, when the nation of Nepal is mentioned, people immediately think about Mt. Everest. That was really all I knew about the country as well, until my first visit there. 

For two weeks, our team of 4 stepped away from our normal routines to photograph and film the work our friends were doing with some village areas in Nepal.  Our adventure into the small village began with a long, bumpy 6 hour bus ride on ‘roads’ that were more like dirt pathways etched into the side of the mountain. For the local people it’s a normal part of life to squeeze into the spare space of buses packed with anything from animals like chickens and goats to sacks of rice and other crops.  As our bus swayed back and forth, it came to a halt in front of a suspension bridge that stretched over a river.  We all jumped out of the bus and grabbed our packs to continue on the next leg of our journey.  None of us knew what to expect, but we were ready to experience life in the small village we were trekking to. 

After several hours of hiking, our guide pointed up at a large white arch marking the entrance to a village.  We had made it! The arch had colorful Nepalese writing painted on all sides and stood right next to the school that kids run barefooted down the mountains to.  We crossed over a river on a suspension bridge, and prayed as we entered the village. Curious people looked our way and children ran to meet us with palpable excitement on their faces. Looking around, I noticed clean dirt pathways, trash bins hanging from trees, and hand-cut stone homes.  The group we worked with during this trip, has a community transformation focus.  On day one of our time in the village, I was convinced whole-heartedly of the impact our friends and others have made on this village.  Through partnering with the village leader and others, our friends helped start homestays, build fish farms, latrines, trash bins and hand washing stations. As they help transform village life, they also work hard to educate and inform the local people on the dangers of human trafficking. 

Though our time was short in this beautiful village, I learned so much from the people we lived with. I came on this trip with an expectation for God to speak to me Himself about ways I can make a difference.  Learning from the incredible people of Nepal was a very unexpected surprise. As a mom, I was very impressed with the young kids and their willingness to help cook our food and pull weeds from the village leader’s garden.  Kids worked and helped without being asked and did it all with a smile on their faces. These same kids would run up and down the mountains, barefooted, to visit friends and run errands for their parents. The display of contentment in their daily actions was something to be desired.  

Contentment shown by the people in their everyday actions was the biggest lesson I learned while in Nepal.  With as little belongings as these people have (in comparison to the western world), they were content.  They have their food, their goats and water buffalo, and their very limited wardrobes, but the most important thing they have is not a thing.  It’s family and relationships with the people they live with. Eating a meal with your friends and family is highly valued and more important than cell phones or movies or video games or the latest trends.  Sharing a meal with people who are closest to you is a lost art that we can learn from. To take that a step further, cooking together, or simply being in the kitchen as someone prepares a meal is an amazing chance to converse and talk life. Some of my favorite moments involved sitting on grass mats in our host’s kitchen, just watching her as she cooked our food and served us tea in stainless steal cups. 

People may be drawn to this region of the world because of the adventurous trekking and beautiful scenery, but there is so much more to this place. It is a nation full of people that have so much to give to the world. I am convinced God’s heart for the nation of Nepal is to gently draw people in to experience His majesty and might through the incredible views and to experience a little taste of His love for us through the joyfully hospitable people. Our team left that place with the heart of God for the Nepalese people and so much hope and passion to see them reached with the light of the Gospel.  

Life is a Gift

4.27.08 (Jessie - journal entry)

‘So we took your mom to the hospital at 11pm that night. We waited almost 10 hours to find out what happened and why. To make a long story short, Hunter’s sack ruptured and the doctor only gave you guys a 25% chance to make it. We (your mom and I) lost it. It scared us so much. Even as I rehash this, I begin to cry and have the fear of losing either/both of you. We have been to the doctor twice since that night and everything seems to be ok…Hunter - please fight, please push forward, I want to hold you, play with you, please don’t give up. Noah - defend your brother, help him any way you can, I wish you could give him some of your fluid, I know you would!’

Deuteronomy 31:6

“Be strong and courageous.

Do not fear or be in dread of them,

for it is the Lord your God who goes with you.

He will not leave you or forsake you.”

4.29.08 (Kristen - journal entry)

‘Well, today is the 2 week mark since Hunter’s sack ruptured. Thank you for hanging in there guys! I know God is going to get us through this, you guys just need to stay strong! I am doing everything the doctors have asked me to do to make it through this. Two more weeks is our next goal. I know you guys can make it! God is with you and protecting you!’

I can remember the night the rupture happened with Hunter’s sack. We were devastated. We were told by one doctor the normal thing to do is terminate, but we trusted God and his promise to ‘never leave us or forsake’. Praise God for the second doctor who came in to talk with us. We will never forget his words in such a heartbreaking moment, ‘your faith has prepared you for this.’ We moved forward with the pregnancy and I sat in bed for two months. In those two months, God birthed this holy determination in me to not give up, to trust Him and His promises, and to fight my best for the lives of these babies.

When our boys were born at the 28 week mark, the battle wasn’t over. My thoughts went wild as my incredible husband talked me into going into the NICU to see the boys for the first time that next morning. I was so afraid that if I saw them and fell in love with them even more, I would lose them and be broken. My heart physically hurt and felt as if it were being ripped out of my chest just thinking about the possibilities the doctors would remind us of. Seeing our vulnerable boys hooked up to beeping machines was not easy. But we knew those machines and those doctors and nurses were helping them survive. God used the doctors and nurses, and ventilators and blood transfusions to help the boys grow healthy and strong.

We missed the ‘newborn’ stage with the boys. We missed the firsts being in the comfort of our own place. We didn’t get to hold them until they were a week old, and even then, the nurse would gently pick up each boy and all the attached wires and place them on our bare chests for skin to skin contact. But God is still good. We knew that missing those firsts meant our boys making it and having a chance at life.

As I sit at my kitchen table wanting to share a story of hope, tears stream down my cheeks. It has been too long since I have read the journal entries about our mighty warrior boys. God is so good and full of mercy to have fought with us for the lives of or first borns. As believers, you don’t ever expect to have to ask God the tough questions or make declarations like, ‘even if they don’t make it, we will still love you, God, and serve you.’ But we did, and He answered our prayers and the prayers of countless others around the world. One of our good friends would send us messages asking how the boys were holding up and explain that God woke her up during the night to pray for them.

Now, I am constantly reminded of God’s goodness in that looking at the boys, you would never be able to tell they had such a rough start to life.

In sharing this story, my hope is that you will understand that God is faithful. He never promised life would be easy, but He does promise He will never leave us or forsake us. Even if we lost the lives of our boys, God would still be faithful. He is with us through our best and in our deepest darkest moments. He never will leave us to walk alone. ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have over come the world! (John 16:33).