Trekking In The Himilayas!

Today, Monday, we drove 3.5hrs west of Kathmandu and then we had to hike two hours up a solid incline to meet with one of the more remote churches that have been established by GFN. To make matters worse, the heat was intense and so Phil did not make it to the top. At the top, I met the Dhuwukot Mandali church. The pastor is Bahadur Tamang and this church is a church plant of another remote village. It is truly amazing. They wrote special songs just for our visit thanking God and praising Him for His glory in bringing us here. The church has grown mainly through answered prayer and healing. He is shown Himself in powerful ways to bring these people to Himself. Bhil Lal tells me the story of how he baptized 21 of the people here. In the baptism class, he shared on the life of Christ and that just as Jesus was tempted right after his baptism, they should be aware of tests and trials as well. Well one of the ladies fell sick just days after her baptism and died in the night. They began preparing a casket for her and doing some customs they do surrounding the funeral by placing coins in her mouth. As it happened in the night, they waited till morning to bury here, but continued singing in the night. Three hours after she died, the pastor heard a voice and placed his hand on her and she came back to life. People will question that is for sure, but this is one example of a powerful manifestation of God here!

Once again I was completely in awe of their spirit of worship and how together they all prayed out loud and filled the presence of God with their voices. It was fitting for me to preach to them on Psalm 121, "I lift my eyes up to the mountains... my help comes from you, creator of the earth! Afterwards many stayed behind for prayer and we once again together out loud as pastors and leaders prayed over these wonderful people. I then trekked on to visit another church and meet with the pastor there and then it was time to head back to the city. We were on the road at 7am today and we arrived back at 9:30pm and we get to do it all over again tomorrow as we will be travelling east.