Nepal

I have been wanting to write a blog about my trip to Nepal for some time.  But, it has been difficult to say the least.  The trip was eight days long, yet we did so much.  I made new relationships, helped hand out presents to children and adults, taught, listened to some great teaching, learned how to squat to use the bathroom, and so forth.

How do you narrow that down to one simple blog?

Well you can't, so I have decided to write about one thing that blew me away - something that amazes me even now.

Christians represent one to three percent of the population in Nepal.  Speaking to people about Jesus can start a small riot.  When people decide to accept Jesus, they do so knowing they may lose their families, their jobs, and their communities.

Because of that, the choice is not lightly made.  This creates a strong Christian community in Nepal where people help each other out. There was one way I saw an example of this that was so awesome.

Nepal is a very poor country.  Human trafficking is a big issue since many people are uneducated and fall for the schemes traffickers use to trick people into going with them.  Most are taken to India. The boys are used for mining and the girls are forced into prostitution.  Once they are used up or hurt they are discarded into the streets. Most never get home again.

With this in mind, and because there are a lot of orphans in Nepal, Christian families have taken it upon themselves to help as much as possible. 

So, they build these giant orphanages where they take care of thousands of children.

(No, I'm just joking.)

There is no money to do that, and the government makes building an orphanage in Nepal very difficult.

No, what they do is take children into their homes.  Now, these are people who are poor just like everyone else in Nepal, but they know the scriptures say to take care of orphans, so they just do it.  They can have four additional kids live in their house besides their own without any questions asked, and these families take in four kids, raise them as their own, and when those kids get old enough to move out they get four more.

This, to me, is walking out the gospel in the purest way.  They see orphans and they say, "We will take care of you, and raise you as family."  It is always amazing to see the gospel walked out in such a simple way by people who do not expect any praise, but they will be rewarded in heaven.

*Disclaimer: These are the things I heard in Nepal. Because of translation issues I may not have heard everything correctly. If I got certain details off, I apologize.