Faith Without Borders

After Birtamod we headed to Pokhara. We actually flew from Birtamod to Kathmandu in a small airplane, the flight took 45min. if we would have taken a bus it would have taken about 17 hours, which should tell you something about the roads here in Nepal (hint: they are the worst roads I have ever been on). The flight was pretty safe, I was able to do some homework, get some complimentary coffee and by happenstance see Mt. Everest from the air, so I was pretty happy. We then took a private van to Pokhara which is about 6 hours to the West of Kathmandu. In Pokhara we worked with another YWAM base and helped out with their slum kids, street kids feeding program and men’s drug rehab center fellowship time as well as general work on the base. One highlight for me was working with the street kids. These were all boys who for various reasons had to live on the street. Once a week a Christian man named Ram would feed them, give them a place to clean up and provide basic health care for them....

Since my last update my team and I have traveled to both the Far Eastern border of Nepal to an area called Birtamod (pronounced bit-a-more) and the West to a place called Pokhara (pronounced poke-a-ra). In both places we had the privilege and honor to work with some YWAM bases and partner with the different ministries they have. In Birtamod we got to hang out with some students currently involved in a Discipleship training school (DTS). This week was more of a time for us to relax, enjoy the heat and help out on the base in any way possible (e.g. cooking, cleaning…). For a couple mornings we lead worship and prayer times and got to share what God has been doing in our lives recently. In this area there is a very small population of Christians with the majority being Hindu. We were able to witness to some of the neighbors who invited us over for tea and on one occasion for dinner (which was a treat from the normal food we had to eat every day twice a day). One family had many que...

On one of our last ministry days, before heading East for the next week, we went into the tourist area of Kathmandu called Thamel. At night all the shops close up but the “dance bars” open for business. Dance bars are exactly what the name suggests. From about 9pm till 12am the women/ girls who work there dance in, at least by Western standards, modest dresses (e.g. tube tops and spaghetti straps). They dance, pretty badly I might add, to music while customers come to drink and talk with the girls that catch their attention. After 12am however the bars close and only remain open for high paying customers who pay to spend the night or a few hours with the women. All eight of my team as well as four Nepalese went to Thamel. We did a prayer walk down a road with many dance bars and asked God which bar we were supposed to visit that night. After many signs and confirmations we knew which bar we were to visit. In this act alone it was cool to see how God still talks to us and answers...