Chapeng Village Nepal

This was one of the most amazing weeks of my entire life- I learnt so much more about myself, I did things I could not have done without the help my Lord, and I got to share the overview of the Bible to the Chapeng people of Nepal. These people use to be nomads living in the jungle of Nepal-and the government forced them out of the jungle and told them they had to find somewhere else to live-they settled in different areas-very remote areas far away from any big cities-many on the top of mountains and in the forested mountains if Nepal between Pokhara and Kathmandu. These people are low cast and are not valued by the government and they have been forced to live on there own with no help from the government-they taught themselves how to farm and how to live. We had the opportunity to go to one of the villages with “Pastor” (who is a pastor, I just don’t know his name). He is an amazing man and I look up to him a lot. He is 41 years old, married with three children and has started up 13 churches in Nepal and India and one of the churches was with the Chapeng people in the village we went to. He started up the church three years ago and now they have over 150 believers that attend that church.

So this was my first trekking experience-and I never have viewed myself as a hiker but I did it. We got up early at 5am, left by 6, were on the bus till noon. Then we jumped into the back of a truck and went off-roading for 1.5 hours—down a gravel road beside the river-many times we went through the river back and forth. The back of the truck was filled with many local Nepalis who were traveling to their villages. I have never held on so tight-and I have bruises to show for this. After the truck ride we got out and started to hike around 3pm and it was gorgeous-through the rice patty fields, up past small dirt houses, grinding mills, past many cows, and children herding the goats back to their home. It was incredibly peaceful and tranquil-being in the mountains was amazing and the sights are breathtaking. The locals sitting on the top of their dirt houses looking over their fields, the children playing with the animals chasing after the stray dogs that are everyone. By 530 is started getting really dark and that made it even more challenging-thank goodness for a headlamp-and the moon was almost full which helped us all throughout the night. After a few more hours we reached the top and then made our way back down the other side of the mountain. I will be honest and say that I have never done anything like this—physically and mentally it was really hard-and doing this all in the pitch black—hoping that my footing would be right and that I would not fall down the mountain. In my weakness the Lord was my strength-it was only with Him that I could do this. It was such a relief and joy to reach the bottom of the mountain and when we got down there-there were 8 sets of eyes that were waiting for us—they were children from the village that had met us to help carry our bags during the last part of our journey. They had huge smiles on their faces and on their feet they had sandals—and I could barely hike it in shoes-I could not imagine sandals-going through the river, up stream, up a mountain, along the small bridge between the rice patty fields—that were incredibly slippery. We finally arrived at the village around 10pm-and we were greeted by many of the villagers and they served us Dal Baight which is traditional Nepali food-that we ate for every meal while we were in the village.

We slept in the church which is a really large building- with dirt floor and walls, no doors and no windows-and during the night the goats and chickens liked to visit us. We were there for 5 days and I enjoyed every moment of it-the people were incredibly hospitable and cared for us-bringing out lemon grass tea every morning and feeding us way to much food (and they watched us eat so we always had to eat it all which sometimes was quite difficult). The children in the village we the sweetest-with huge smiles on their face and loved to be around us. There was one lady’s story that I would like to share with you-she is probably in her early 60’s and she came to our seminar every day and she was there with a huge smile and so much joy when she worshiped. She tried to communicate with us-but because we don’t understand each other we are creative in communication. I found out that she walked over two hours to the seminar each day—two hours there and two hours back---BUT on top of that she didn’t walk but she hopped. She only has one leg and relies on a stick to help her make it up and down the mountain! This lady is so hungry for the word of God that while we were there she hopped over 12 hours two and from seminar. I find it hard sometimes to get out of bed and drive my 10 minutes to church---But this lady dedicated so much time and energy to hear more about the Bible. I thought that this was really powerful and encouraging to see her willingness to learn more about the word of God and the importance of the Bible.

Also the pastor of the church is only 21 years old and he got married at 16 and has a 5 year old daughter. 21 year old pastor—pretty crazy but he is so dedicated to the church and he has taught so many of the children to read and write-and there literacy was much higher then expected. Each day we spent hours singing and dancing with the people, praising the Lord and praying for one another. They have such a heart for community-and they really are an amazing example of what community is. One really touching part of the service was offering and watching the people that are working so hard to feed their family coming in with a huge sack of rice and placing it in the front of the church—along with many others. And then people bringing their 10 rupees for offering—which would be equivalent to about 20 cents-and that is a huge sacrifice for them and they have so much joy as they are giving. Also some of the women told me that they had a women’s society and they wanting a picture of us so that they could pray for us, and that they could remember us. I was just so humbled-looking at these people that really don’t have much, that are farming to survive, that they would want to pray for me—that they would take time to pray for me, when there children are sick and they don’t know if they will have enough food during the winter. God just really was constantly humbling me and was showing me that these people are content and are joyful with what they have-they have known no different and they really are doing what the bible says. They are living in community—spreading the gospel with all the people around them. The village started with three believers and now three years later the whole entire village are Christians!!! Praise God!!! I really could go on and on but I will not. I just really want to say that this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life to live with these people—to be in the mountains of Nepal, away from any kind of technology. And just able to share the Bible overview with them—and to see the smiles on their faces as they learnt more about Jesus, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and how they can rejoice in the second coming and just to see them embrace the fact that they need to share the gospel—and to see them realizing that if the Lord would have come three years earlier they would not be with him in heaven—and to embrace the time they have on the earth now and to share the gospel to all the people around them.

I hope this brings you enjoy and just a taste of what God is doing in Nepal. I cannot believe that I only have three weeks left here. It is bittersweet but these next few weeks will be busy.

Some prayer requests:

-Jiye and I sick and sore from the hiking—just pray that our bodies will heal up quickly

-Next week I teach Ruth at a Bible School—just for wisdom in my teaching

-Prayer for the guys on my team-Aaron and Matt will be going to another village next week.

-Continual love for the people here

-Pray that we can communicate easily as most of the people we interact with and teach are strictly oral communicators.