Outreach part 1: Nepal

Day one:

After 48 hours of traveling we arrived in Kathmandu Nepal! Stepping out of the airport was so surreal. I felt like I just stepped into a movie. It smelled like trash, people were staring at you, street dogs were barking, having to dodge cars and people. Part of me wondered "What am I doing here?" Then God brought to mind Isiah 61:1-2 

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim liberty to the captives,and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn"

Tomorrow we have cultural orientation, then my team splits into two teams and we head to separate ministries.


Day Four:
After a 15 hour bus ride, my team is now in the jungle! We are staying at a church for five days in a very small village. It's very peaceful and pretty here. We are staying and working with another YWAM team! While we're here we will be going to house churches, working with kids, and a blanket distribution. 

Day Six:
Today we went to a nearby school and walked with the kids to a sports event they had. It was kind of like a children's Olympic event. We were asked to sing a song. We thought the song would be for the kids but it turned out to be for the official leaders of the area! We sang "How He Loves" and it was awesome because we weren't supposed to do any religious acts there and we got to do that!



Day Seven:
Here is a taste of living in Nepal: the power is only on for a few hours each day, when greeting someone you put your hands together and say "Namaste" or if greeting a Christian you say "Jaimise". At night there is spiders in the squatty potty and the killer bees next door will suck the water from your wet clothes on the line.
Today we handed out blankets to families, and toys and clothes to kids from a nearby village. They came to the church we were staying at and we sang some worship music, gave testimonies and a sermon. We, then, handed out toys and clothes to the kids. Then we handed out really warm blankets to the families. The blankets were a huge blessing to them because hundreds of people in that area die each year because of the cold temperatures each year. It was so great to see the look of happiness in the eyes of the children, and the relief on the woman's faces when they received the blankets! God is so good.


Day Eight:
Today we went to a nearby school and we brought sports equipment and played with them. It was so fun and they loved it so much!

Day Nine:
So remember how we sang How He Loves for the area officials? Well, they invited us to their house for tea and briskets. They told us they've been receiving calls from people saying how much they loved our song and they asked us to sing more songs for them! We sang some more worship songs. God is amazing!


Day Thirteen:
After a couple days of debriefing we are now in Kathmandu valley staying at a YWAM base. Today we will be walking around evangelizing there. I got to share the gospel at a brick factory. Thank God for the Holy Spirit for giving me the words to say! My team also got to perform the Everything skit for the workers there. It was quite the experience because the music stopped right at the most insistence part of the song, but we were able to finish without the music. :)

Day fourteen:
We did more evangelizing today, and we went back to the brick factory. They were so happy we came back, and wanted us to do another skit! We sang some worship songs for them, too. We left some children's clothes with our translators for them to give to the kids there.


Day Eighteen:
For the past three days we went to Beauty For Ashes  http://www.beautyforashesintl.com/wordpress/ . It was awesome!!! Beauty For Ashes is an organization that gives woman, who have been in prostitution, jobs and a Christian environmental to be in. We did devotionals with them, and we helped with other things like sorting beads, tagging things, and whatever else needed to be done.



Day Nineteen:
We went to a church today and did the Everything skit, then we did the children program. We did motion songs, a puppet show, and a craft.
Tomorrow we leave. I'm really going to miss the people we worked with, seeing the mountains everyday, and the peacefulness of the village and the valley.

India here I come!

YWAM: Week 12

This week the teaching was on relationships. No, not just that kind :) We also talked about relationships with everyone around us, and we broke down 1 Corinthians 13 to see what love really means.

We also had our first real snowfall here this week!

Next week we will have four days of outreach prep and team bonding, then a weeklong break for Christmas, then at the end of this month my team and I leave on outreach to Nepal and India!!!!! This will be the last update until when I return in February. Pray for my team and I as we visit places to serve that ranges from the jungle to the mountains, cities to the countryside, children’s homes to the red light district. Pray against sickness and attacks from the enemy. Pray for team unity and boldness as we share the love of God with the people of India and Nepal. I am so thankful for your prayers and support, and I couldn’t do this without you!!

In Christ,

Emily

YWAM: Week 11

This week our speaker was a man who works at a street kids ministry. He came and talked to us about his ministry, and stories of the children there. He also gave us guidance for working with street children.

In Christ,

Emily  

YWAM: Week 10

Sorry for no update last week, we had a short break for Thanksgiving! Before we left we all dressed up, had dinner together and shared testimonies of what God has done in our lives.

Coming off of Thanksgiving break, this week was about destiny. We talked about how God has a plan for our lives, and that when you follow the will of God it will be good, because God is good, not because of your circumstances. We also got to pray for each other and learn how God sees us.

In Christ,

Emily

YWAM: Week 9

This week we learned about the Holy Spirit, who he really is not just what we think he is. The Holy Spirit is our greatest weapon so the enemy does the best to distort the true person and character of him. Friday we had a time set aside were we just soaked in the presence and were refilled. My small group went to the Wisconsin Dells, we had a blast!

In Christ,

Emily

YWAM: Week 8

This week we talked about what roots have been established in our lives, good and bad. Things we were aware of or not. Experiences from our past that make us react the way we do. We also talked about forgiveness, and grudges we may have buried inside and have caused us to react in certain ways. We talked about how God forgives us so we can forgive others.

We also got to spend some time at a Farmer’s Market on Saturday!!

 



In Christ,

Emily

YWAM: week 7

This week we went to Cincinnati for a missions conference, we had some problems getting there! First the bus broke down 6 miles from the base, after a couple hours we were able to get it fixed and were on our way! Then we got stuck in traffic for an hour, but we finally made it there! During the week we had worship and teachings. We learned a lot about unreached people groups and how we can reach them.

God spoke to me personally a lot this week, showing me a glimpse of how much he loves me.

 

In Christ,
Emily