A full circle..

"You know the hopes of the helpless, surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed so mere humans can no longer terrify them." Psalm 10:17

It is crazy to think that this is probably going to be my last blog and that this journey is coming to an end.

We have been exposed to a lot of injustices over the last few days. More so than what we have experienced the last 5 weeks. Last Wednesday morning we met Roshan at 7am to help him and Agape Ministry play futbol with some street kids. We went and picked up the kids and rode back on the bus with them. I was able to sit with a little boy who couldn’t have been older than 10. Many of them just wanted to hold our hands and be close to us. It shows you that they have had a lack of that attention in their childhood. Once all the kids arrived we went to the field to play futbol. There were about 20 kids that played with us. Three of those 20 kids seemed no older than 5 years old. As I looked at their torn up clothes, scars and bruises on their bodies, and their sweet and innocent smiles, the only thing I knew in that moment is I had to trust that God was going to bring justice to these boys lives. A lot of the boys were about 10-12 year olds and there were about 3 boys who were about 16 years old. The older boys are known as the “bosses.” They will be the ones to decide how to spend the money they get from begging and what to buy. No 16 year old should have to face the terrors that come with being a street child. Every night there are usually “territory fights” among the different groups of street children. There is a group of boys that we worked with that are all pretty young that stick together as a group. They told us that they wouldn’t sleep in the same place every night because the older boys could easily come and beat them up and rob them. Very rarely will you see a street child that is a girl. Most girls that are on the streets will dress like boys and keep their hair short because that is the only way they will survive on the streets. No child should have to sniff glue to escape the hurts of their lives. To look back at all these things and trust that God is going to bring justice to these lives is something that is hard for me to process. The only thing I had to hold onto in those moments was the justice of God and the promises He makes to the poor and oppressed.

Thursday night the girls met Brian from Agape Ministry to go to the dance bars in Thamel to minister to some girls. I have been battling a head cold this last week and I wasn’t going to go last night. I ended up fighting through it and went with them to the bars. I am so thankful I did. We met Brian at around 8:30pm and from there we did a prayer walk. We walked around Thamel praying for about 7 or 8 minutes and we passed about 10 dance bars. We finally went to one and walked in. When we sat down we had to call the girls over to us. We had 2 girls come sit down and we bought them a Coke and just talked and invested in them. Kyra and I sat down with Basnu. She is 17 years old and she dances because she has a brother in grade 2 she has to take care of since her parents died. She just found out that she is about 2 months pregnant. Basnu told us that her boyfriend left her because he wanted to see other girls. A 17 year old is taking care of herself, little brother and baby- I cant put words to what that does to my heart. As I sat there with her she was eager to hold our hands and just talk. Once again I was reminded of God’s justice and had to continue to preach the gospel to myself. He is faithful and his justice will come through for her.  It is so very overwhelming to think about a young girl trying to survive on her own in a culture that doesn’t care to pay attention to her.

As I go home, I have so much I want to take with me and not allow myself to forget. I don’t want to go home and feel like I am living a mundane life. I want to take hold of every moment and every opportunity like I did in Nepal. That is my biggest prayer request right now. I have a lot of opportunities and decisions to make as I go home as well. Pray that I seek out the choices that will most glorify God and how He can use me most.

This team. Oh this team. Please keep them in your prayers as we are all going to have a hard time adjusting and processing things. Its going to be so much harder because we will all be processing alone for the most part. I cant imagine this trip without any one of them. I ask too that you would pray for our leader, Sarah. She lives in Nepal and will head home for in about 3 weeks to see some family. Please pray that Jesus would continue to provide for her and show her exactly where He wants her. We will all leave eachother once we get to D.C. Please pray for our goodbyes- a lot of tears have already been shed.

And to you. I cant explain enough how simply incredible it has been to receive all the encouragements and prayers you have sent. I have been blown away by the body of Christ and how they respnd when they send their own into the world. Nothing can unite people the way Jesus does. He is so good.

I love you all and I am so eager to come home and share with you face to face all that God has done. This trip is now full circle and this season is at the end. Praise Jesus for all He has done. Praise Him for all He is going to do.