Mount Lamtang

Pastor Lok Bahadur and his wife, Maity Maya

Smooth Like Battar!

Well, today, Tuesday, we travelled East over the only crazy road that winds through the mountains. This road is not for the faint of heart. There is barely enough room for one vehicle to drive by in a lot of places and don't look down because as you climb up to 6000ft, its a long way down to the rice patties!! So, after taking 3 hours to drive 65km and stopping to take in the view of Mt. Lamtang and Ganesh (4th highest in the world) we arrived in Battar. We were greeted by Pastor Lok Bahadur and his wife Maity Maya. They served us battered fish of course...see the picture. After lunch we went to the church. The pastor has about the same commute to church as I do...just across the road. It was there we were once again so blessed by such a powerful spirit of worship by the believers gathered there. I felt led to speak on challenging them to let the rivers of living water flow through them. We had a time of prayer for healing for both children and parents who made their requests known. It was another wonderful experience to be blessed here and be a blessing to them...I even had a chance to baptize the pastor afterwards as I poured some water down his back. It was a great laugh and I think I'm loosening these Nepalis up a bit! Tomorrow, we are off to see the orphanage and then we are flying out to New Delhi

It's Official, I am one with my nepali brothers!!

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.

Can Do in Kathmandu with GFN !

We flew out of Kolkota at 2pm on Sunday and arrived in Kathmandu shortly after 3pm. After we got our visas taken care of, we hooked up with Bhim Lal who is the head of Good Friends of Nepal. We were off to the GFN center after we quickly checked into the Himalayan Hotel. It was there we met with the Bible college students. There is about 15 who are studying there and they are passionate worshippers! We learned how many have to walk for up to five days to come to the school. They live in a very modest residence there and there focus is taking the gospel to the unreached people groups here. One young man has deformed arms and legs, but he doesn't let it hold him back whatsoever! I shared on being consecrated to the Lord with them and to never forget the calling that God has placed on their lives.

Rockin Rooftop!!

So, here here we are back in Kolkota after a whirlwind tour of ministry in West and North Bengal. On Saturday, we met Vivek at the airport who whisked us off to his ministry in the city. It was there we were able to minister in two services to children and youth. He personally runs a ministry that reaches 350 youth and children. Each week these street children come to their home, actually their rooftop to be ministered to! All of the children come from Hindu homes. So, we shared the gospel and to get the point across this time, I talked about our Father who gives good gifts. If we ask for bread, would our earthly fathers give us a stone…so I took some stones and put them in my mouth, that got a good reaction, but more importantly hopefully we left a vivid image. Phil left clothing and we were able to give candy out! One little girl did a traditional dance for us. She was a little beauty!!

It is Sunday and we have now been here for a week and have just finished breakfast with Ashok. He is a man who puts everything in perspective and someone who you can just sit with and soak in so much from listening to him. As a pastor, I realize that there is very little difference between us in the challenges that we face as we seek to stay true to the message and continue to create new forms to wrap it in. One insight that has always stuck with him is that Jesus called fisherman to be fishers of men. There is a significant difference between the two. Fishermen catch live fish that die whereas fishers of men catch dead men that become alive! It is an awesome thing to see people come ALIVE in Christ!