Last week, we went to into the Himalayan Mountains together with our children. We took two flights to get as high up as we could without having to hike. We flew to Pokhara then to Jomsom. From Jomsom, we hiked up to a village called Kagbeni. Bo carried Sophia and Summer carried Isabella. During the trek, Sophia kept saying she did not like the mountains and that she wanted to go home, but once we got there, she quite complaining and enjoyed herself. It took us four hours to hike because the wind was horrible. The typical weather conditions for this area of the mountains is around 11:00 AM the wind gets really hard and lasts into the night. It is very windy, so it is hard to trek. We stayed in the guest house of our landlord’s family. We had so many immediate connections with the family because we knew his family in Kathmandu.
Our daily routine was to walk around the village trying to find a person of peace that would be willing to talk to us and listen to the Good News of Jesus Christ. We were clearly rejected by one girl, but she still enjoyed our company and invited us back the next day for Tibetan food.
The family we were staying with invited us to a dowry ceremony for their family. This was exciting because that was an open door to meeting people. This was something I have never experienced before. We were sitting in a small stone house, with food being cooked over a fire in the home. The bride’s family had traveled several hours from another village to meet the groom’s family. The bride’s family is required to give gold, silver, and clothes to the groom’s family. As this was taking place, there was a man recording everything given and all the attendants were standing in a circle around this mound of gifts being given. It reminded me of when Abraham sent his servant to his country to find a wife for his son Isaac. Genesis 24:10 says, “Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand, and arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.” Then in Gen. 24:22 he gave Rebekah a gold ring and two bracelets. Later upon acceptance of the proposal in Gen. 24:53 it says, “The servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother.” It was really neat to see that this culture of a wedding is still present today amongst the Tibetan culture. Due to the circumstances, there were no opportunities to share at the party, but it did open up doors a few days later to meet with some of the people that we had met at the party.
There were times when we were giving a nap to Izzy so we had time to sit with the family and share. They were willing to listen, but not willing to accept. On our second to last day we took some Gospel books and cd’s and dvd’s to an open square in the town and we played the Story of Jesus out loud on a recorder allowing an opportunity for people to come as questions and take whatever material they wanted to take. Through this came one family who we met the day after and asked if they had watched the dvd. They said yes and that they were interested in learning more and invited us into their small one room home. They heard the gospel for the first time through the grace of God giving Bo the language skills to share with them. We think they truly understood and want to know him so we are sending one of our national believers to meet them.
The last two days it began to rain, which it should not have been doing at this time of year, so we did not come prepared for rain. We had planned to take a jeep back down to Jomson instead of hiking, but because of the rain several landslides had occurred and the jeeps could not pass. Therefore, we had to hike in the cold rain with the girls. But because God is gracious, he knew that our two porters who carried our bags needed to hear the gospel. The family we were staying with sent their two friends to carry our bags while we carried the girls. These two guys were Tibetan, unlike most porters who are Nepali. This gave Bo a chance to share with them as we hike back down. God also held off the wind, which in this land, no wind is like the arctic having a warm day. Because there was no wind, it only took us two hours to hike back. Amazing!
To close our story, I want to thank FBC Moss Bluff for purchasing the back carrier for Sophia. This was an incredible opportunity for our family to have some time to spend with our people group in their village, outside of the city. Thank you.
