Nepal!

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  Nepal!! It is such a beautiful country, the mountains here are insane and I thought Colorado was beautiful, but here is a different level. The people are full of hospitality and kindness and are amazing to know.

The ministry we have been doing here is going to the slums and playing games with the kids and teaching them math and English. We went to the slums every early morning and late afternoon because we had to work around their schedule. We spent a total of around four hours on the public transport buses everyday to get to and from the slums. So that was ministry as well, simply talking with the people we were sitting next to, whether on my team or the Nepali people! The other main ministry we had apart from with kids was at a women’s center. We went in the middle of the day and did an hour long workout, Bible study, and taught English. This was such a great ministry because all the women were so sweet and desiring to learn new things! We also would teach sermons at different churches on weekends. The first week in Nepal, basically day two, I gave a sermon at one of the churches which was the first time I had shared that formally and in front of more than simply like 10 people haha.

I also had really cool experiences with American Sign Language (which I took for four years in high school). I got to sign with a lady outside of the women’s center who was deaf, and learned about her family and got the chance to invite her to the center as well. And I got to meet a guy that worked at the grocery store who was deaf and signed with him and learned he was Christian! I said “I LOVE JESUS” he goes “me too!” Haha, it was sweet. And now I say hi to him every time I’m at the store. I also taught the kids at the slums how to sign the American Sign Language alphabet! It’s been awesome to use ASL here so much. And it’s sweet because every time there is someone who is Deaf or signs, my team goes “Payton! Payton! They can sign!” And then every situation I have had with it, it’s really cool to step into the other person’s world and communicate because they don’t have that very often in their random day to day.

Our ministry hosts here have been incredible, it is a big family and has been so much fun to be around a family dynamic. We had Shabbat-Shalom every Friday night with them where we would all hangout and eat a meal, then do worship and someone would share a small message, and we’d share testimonies! It was such a fun team each week and sweet that it was prioritized and that they invited us into that.

Another cool opportunity was meeting the man who started the “Church Boys United” which is the National soccer team of Nepal. He started the club and his main mission is to spread the gospel through soccer. We got to hear his testimony and help him with a writing a book to help fundraiser for the team. He shared his testimony, I typed it out, and we edited it and wrote a book about how the club came to be!

We also painted the slums kids classroom and the women’s center. This was such a God moment too in fundraising for the supplies because me and my friend both became in charge of fundraising the $350. She raised $205 right after she posted something about it. Then I posted and got exactly $145 from people who donated which was amazing! And received donations from people I haven’t talked to in so long as well as friends and family close to me. So thank you to everyone who supported! And also how cool how God brought that all together! And then we ended up needing slightly more, and a friend donated $30 which covered the additional costs, SO COOL.

Our last week we got to travel to a couple different cities, we have been staying in Kathmandu this whole time. So we went to Hetauda where we took a bus up a mountain to a remote village and did house visits and met with a pastor there. Then we went to Chitwan which is known for the elephants, so of course we went on a safari on the back of an elephant. Next we went to Pokhara which is known for its beauty in Nepal because it is in a valley and is surrounded by these GIGANTIC mountains. We got to do house visits there and meet a pastor and his community which were all incredible. We also went down the world’s tallest and steepest zipline, so that was fun.

In addition to that, we’ve also gotten to go to a lookout point and see Mt. Everest and we went rafting through the Himalayas. We went to a movie on Nepali with the women’s center ladies which was a fun time. For many of them, it was their only outing for the year, so we all dressed up then got chai and samosas afterwards, and took many pictures. The Super Bowl also happened this month and yes, me, Doug (our leader), and Cortland all watched it. That meant me woke up at 5am on a Monday and watched the Super Bowl before we went to ministry. My birthday was also this month and I got to do ministry on that day and we had breakfast for dinner and my team was sweet in celebrating me! Another thing that was literally only five minutes of my life but was so much fun was the bumper carts we did at a mall for less than a dollar, and we laughed so hard the entire time. Just felt like I should share that hahaha. We also went to a cultural dance that was quite interesting and even got to go on stage and dance at the end.

Funny bus experience: We just finished painting the women’s center, and I was covered in paint all on my arms and some on my face. And I get on the bus, the guy in charge was telling me to turn around but he said it in Nepali because everyone thinks I’m Nepalese. But I fear I only speak English. So I didn’t understand what he was saying. And then a lady asks me which country I’m from and I say “China” and four other heads turn and go “China?!” Then I turn because this other lady is pulling on my shirt to tell me there is a spot I can sit down. But she isn’t moving over into the empty space, she’s telling me to crawl over the people to get to it. So I in fact do that (because if there’s an open seat you just have to take it, unspoken bus policy), and quite literally fall on three people as I’m trying to get to this seat. Remember I’m covered in paint. Then my friend on the other side of the bus is saying “Payton Payton! This kid knows ASL!” And taps him on the shoulder to point to me. But there’s so many people between us so I can barely sign anything to him. Then I eventually get off the bus, sign to the kid through the window asking him where he’s going and to have a good day. And in conclusion, it was chaos, but funny, all a common bus experience.

Random stuff: Rode on an auto down a mountain, an auto is like a trolley on three wheels kinda, but we were packed in with all our bags, I feared for my life a bit, I’ll admit it, thought we might fall off the side of the mountain, but we only got stuck at one point and had to push it out of the dirt. We got to ride down a mountain on top of a Jeep type car too which was fun. Swam in some river on the way to a village. Went into two different temples, one where they burn dead bodies and the other where they worship a little girl as if she is a god, both are so sad. We had fried eggs literally everyday, hungry? Have an egg. That was our only snack for a long time until we started meal planning haha. Paid $1 to play PS5 for an hour and a half one day. Drank so much chai. Had more apples and bananas this month than I think I have in my life. Got so sick at one point with a fever and was very unwell, but all is well now. And um, held some baby goats.

The Lord has been revealing a lot to me this last month, lots of things I’m still walking through and learning from Him! Excited to go to Africa next and see my parents in a couple of weeks there!

Thanks for reading! I love this country and would love to come back some day:)