Pokhara

So we are sitting in our favorite internet cafe right now next to the hotel, and my dgroup (small group) just had dinner together which is always fun. Now i'm eating a 500 mL (~ a pint) of strawberry ice cream, aka heaven in a container. It's nice to come back to the hotel after a long day of ministry and get ice cream, which is way more available here then in KTM. yum:)

We have been doing a lot of village ministry here, but we have also been doing a lot more other forms of ministry, too. Yesterday we had the annual Day of Serving, where we went out into Pokhara and just asked if there was any way we could help. It was suprisingly difficult to get people to accept our offers for volunteer work. Most everybody thought we wanted a job for money. Side note: the Nepali government came and told everyone in Pokhara that the streets are going to be widened, so everything in the overlaying area must get torn down. The hotel that we are staying at had to remove part of the front desk lobby area, others are being forced to move locations, and the sidewalks all have to be torn up by the people who own the land that is being confiscated. So some groups did physical labor, like tearing up the sidewalks, while others helped sort things into boxes for shopkeepers who are relocating. My group went to help a really disorganized bookstore by alphabetizing their books and dusting them off. Suprising how helpful little acts of service can have such a big effect.

Today we went out to a church-affiliated ministry called the Rainbow Ministry. It's a hang-out place for both Christian and non-Christian kids ages 2-15 to come and chill, play field hockey, swing and play on the jungle gym, and learn Bible lessons. Our team of 37 helped divide approx. 175 kids into 4 groups and rotate them through craft time, songs, story-telling, and games. I was a part of the craft team, and we helped the kids make animal masks out of paper plates, which they then took to storytelling time to participate in the stories of Noah's ark and Daniel and the lions den. We were only working with the supplies we happened to have on hand, and since the majority of our team had a surplus of paper plates, we decided to use those with the crayons Rainbow Ministry had on hand. Games had a fun time. They tried to teach the "red light green light" but they didn't get the concept, understandable given that I have only seen 1 stop light the entire 3 weeks that I've been here.

It's crazy to think that today marks 3 weeks. We only have 1 more week of ministry, then we have a week of debrief that helps us process everything that we have learned and done this summer and prepare to take our ministry back home. Really applies our tagline for the summer "A summer of service for a lifetime of ministry"

On that note, a few prayer requests. I've had to sit out of the last few street performances because my knee has been bothering me so much. I bought a brace here, and I'm taking meds, but they just don't want me injuring it further. Understandable with how much walking we do. It's crazy- we only eat carbs basically here, and we burn through it so fast that we constantly are hitting up the corner grocery store for snacks (like ice cream! and mars bars and white chocolate toblerone;) )
Also, Pokhara is a much more forest-y, nature filled area so everybody who has allergies is basically dying. I thankfully found some allergy meds, but still be praying for us as the group of 10 of us are suffering big time.
Being on such a packed schedule is really wearing us down. We typically wake up around 7 am here and lights out is around 11. Everyone is super tired and worn down, so pray for strength and energy.
As we are now through hump week, it's more difficult to stay here mentally and push through our last week of ministry. Pray that we won't get homesick and we will be strong enough to stay present mentally.
Pray that God opens the hearts of the Nepali people that we will be interacting with.

Only 2 weeks left- so crazy to think about! God has done so much both in me personally, but also in the people of Nepal. Thank you so much for your emails and comments- it's super encouraging to hear from people back home!

Now in Pokhara!

Our time in KTM is now over. We have moved on to Pokhara, a lovely relaxing lakeside area. We will be back in KTM for debriefing before we leave. We definitely enjoyed our time in KTM. The kareoke bar that was right by hotel got shut down so on Friday the 13th we actually got to sleep instead of being blasted by Poker Face and Boom Boom Pow. On Saturday we got to lead Sunday School for the church in KTM. Even though it's on Saturday, they still call it Sunday School. They sit in height order front to back with the girls on the left and boys on the right, just like the adult church. First they sang a few songs, then we got to jump in and do our street performances songs. I don't know how much you guys have seen on the Reign Ministries website, but performing Cray Button in the ankle length skirt that we are required to wear to church was fun, near impossible. Normally for street ministry we wear our Royal Servants tshirts and black wind pants. They smell veryyyy fresh after wearing them every day for several days straight.

After church some of the girls went out to go get traditional kutas and saris with Bethany and one of her friends from last year. They got to pick out the fabric, then take it to a tailor and pick out the cut and style of the tunic. Super fun with literally millions of combinations between the 500 different fabrics they had. All for around 1000 rupees! I can't wait to see them.

On Sunday we had a great time hiking the Nagarkot Ridge that surrounds KTM. In 4 hrs we covered almost 9 miles of every terrain imaginable- clay, bricks, dirt, sand, rivers, up cliffs, down mountains. Super crazy but I semi injured myself when I slipped on some clay. My ankles ended up by my shoulders some how and I basically belly flopped onto the clay. Screwed over my knee, but I'm taking meds so I feel somewhat better. It was crazy- we walked almost 14 miles on Sunday walking to the bus (1 mi) and back then walking around.

Our standard meal is peanut butter sandwhichs and hot cereal (malt-o-meal, oatmeal, porridge) with hot tea. Lunch is typically PB&J. It doesn't really fill you up. We always have awesome dinners. Everywhere in Nepal there are tons of momo places- Momo Cave, Momo Palace, Momo king. I loveeeeee momo- its the dumplings stuff. My favorite place in KTM was Momo Cave. It's legit a cave- 5 ft doorways, a sketch alley, and up some stairs. This adorable little 7 year old takes your order. He's super crazy and he totally has a 13 year old girl attitude some times.I love it- i can get buffalo chow mein, buffalo momo, and a fanta (my favorite drink here) all for 145 rupees.

One element of our ministry that we do a lot here is called intentional shopping- shopping with the purpose of meeting the shop owners and talking about Christ with them. We end up normally talking for like an hour and getting milk tea together, meeting their families. It's a lot of fun, and it was sad to say goodbye to them.
Our laundry here is really awesome- you just drop off your bag full of laundry and get a receipt. Come back the next day, pay 50 rupees a kilo (typically 3 kilos for a week of laundry) and you get your stuff back pressed and folded. It's awesome and not stressful at all, unless they lose some;)

Pokhara is really amazing. Our hotel is called the Lake View Resort, and the moment we set foot here we thought we were at a 5 star hotel. It's gorgeous. The best view of the lake, the bathrooms are actually 6 feet by 6 feet. The grounds are beautifully groomed. We actually have a bedroom on the first floor, a blessing after having to climb 68 steps to the 6th floor at high altitudes at the Khangsar Guest House. It's amazing and much less loud here. Quite calming.

I got ice cream yesterday for the first time! It was delicious Vanilla. 500 mL was only 140 rupees! It's a splurge worth taking. That, with my white chocolate toblerone, is my weekly splurge on myself. Soooooo good!

Continue to keep us in your prayers. We have hit hump week- week 3 out of 5 overseas- and a lot of the team is starting to feel worn down & tired. No sickness for me or the rest of the team  right now. Pray that my knee and my 2 team mates with dislocated knee caps knees heal well. Pray that God will open the hearts of the shopkeepers and villagers here, and that we will have the right words to say. Pray that we are able to mentally stay in Nepal without getting too homesick. Pray that we won't be discouraged by the language barrier which is more prevalent now that we are more rural location.

18 more days in Nepal- it's going to fly by! Much Love <3

Girl vs. Water

It's really hard to avoid ingesting the water here. Between the rain, showering, and dishes not being washed in hot enough water to kill bacteria, it's really rough. Somewhere along the way, I had some little bit of it. I don't really know where, but what I do know is that it made me realllllllyyy sick. Wednesday morning I woke up and I had absolutely no energy. I was completely drained. Instead of going to morning ministry, I slept in for another couple of hours. I got to go out in the afternoon, but it all went downhill from there.

By Wednesday night I had a 103 degree fever and a lot of flu-like symptoms. I then basically slept for 40 hours straight, with the exception of taking meds or checking my temperature. My fever finally broke last night, praise God. I've spent most of today just resting and trying to get my strength back because I haven't had anything to eat in the past 2 days.

Being sick in a foreign country is no fun. Because we don't have any ice here, I just had wash cloths and towels that we ran under the shower water to try and cool me down, but those had to be re-run almost every 15 minutes because I was so hot. Even though it was easier to sleep because I was sick, we had 2 parades come through yesterday who, although they were not as awesome as my Macy's band, were definitely as loud and as impossible to sleep through. We did manage to find a fan in the guest house, but the electricity was out (as it is quite often in Nepal) for almost 5 hours yesterday. The leaders did a great job of taking care of me though. They did everything in their power to keep me out of the Nepali hospital, and it worked. They stayed with me the whole day and all night and were continually checking on me and making sure I got everything that I needed. They did a great job:)

Please keep me in your prayers as I recover that I will be back up to speed quickly and that I won't relapse bc being sick is seriously the worst.

Anyways, for the 8 hrs that I was awake on Wednesday, I got to go with my team to the Peace Rehabilitation Center, a Christian home for girls who are victims of sex slavery. Even though these girls have lived through horrible things, the joy of Christ still radiated from within them. Even though I was not operating at 100% capacity, I still enjoyed watching the other girls on my team talk, dance, and sing with the girls. One of the things that the PRC teaches them is useful skills to support themselves with, such as making jewelry or knitting. They sell what they make to support the PRC, so I bought a really gorgeous bracelet from them.

It's kind of a bummer though, because my team went to visit the leper colony today, and I wasn't able to go with them. There's no way I'd be able to make the trek through the rice paddy and up the mountain when this morning I couldn't even take 10 steps to the bathroom without someone supporting me. Part of the Royal Servants schedule is to do a daily quiet time. Every day we get assigned 3 chapters of the Bible to read. We have read through Nehemiah and James, and as my team was leaving today, a verse we read earlier stuck in my head. James 1:2-3 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that testing of your faith produces steadfastness." While I was looking forward to going to the leper colony, I can still find peace in the fact that God wanted me in the hotel today for a reason.

So more general description of Nepal. The guest house that we are staying in is super nice. Granted, it's no Four Seasons, or even a Hampton Inn, but it's great for a little while. It's slightly more run down than these pictures make it look, but each room does have its own bathroom with hot running water, and most of the toilets work. And while the occasional door handle does fall off, the windows work just fine as entry and exit until they can get them fixed :) it also has a fairly good restaurant at the bottom, and there is a convenience store right outside, which is nice. http://www.khangsarguesthouse.com/

The food is super amazing here. I missed 2 dinner meals (the meal we eat out) because i've been sick, and I can't wait to start going out again. It's great because it's super fresh. Most of the time they go out and get the ingredients after you order. Fried Buffalo momo with curry sauce- yum! new favorite meal here.

Please continue to keep my team in your prayers.

• My health & the health of my teammates
• Strength to push through busy days on 8 hrs of sleep
• A continued love and compassion for each other
• For the hearts of the people we meet to be accepting of what we have to share

We leave Kathmandu for Pokhara on July 16th (happy birthday Mares!). It's a 6 hour bus ride on a super sketch road so pray that none of us are sick that day especially!

Thanks so much for reading! Feel free to leave comments or email me! I love hearing from everybody back home:)

Namaste! Finally in Nepal!

 Namaste! Ke Cha? (Hi! What's up?)
I can't believe that I am finally here in Nepal! Our travel days were pretty brutal. We left training camp in Wisconsin at 6:30 pm on Monday and we got to our hotel in Nepal in late afternoon on July 4th. We had a 7 hr flight from Chicago O'Hare to London Heathrow. 2 turned 4 hr layover because they lost a wheelchair passenger and we had to wait for them to find him before we could leave. 8 hr flight from London to Delhi, India. That flight was very different. All announcements were bilingual. The elderly travelers were served their meals first as a sign of respect. The food was Indian food. As we left we were coated in coconut incense air freshner to cleanse us. 6 hr layover- slept on the floor. 2 hr flight from Delhi to Kathmandu (aka KTM- its shorter to type and i'm rushed for time).
The moment we looked our the window and saw  Nepal we were speechless. It is incredibly gorgeous here. It is very lush outside the city, and even inside the city is very colorful, albeight covered with  trash. KTM is definitely a city. On our second day here we visited a Buddist temple/ tourist site nicknamed the  Monkey Temple because it is so overrun by them. They were all very active which made for great pictures. You have to be careful not to provoke them or they will attack. One of my friends got a flying hug from one of them and then he nibbled on her skirt. We were pretty shocked to see how big KTM is. From the top of the mountain where the temple is you can look out and see what looks like millions of houses. We also visited a Hindu temple the next day were they were holding cremation ceremonies and smoking lotsssss of hashish (pot). We also went into the business district to see the Kumari, a young girl believed to be the incarnation of the temple of Shiva. She is 7 years old and for the past 4 years she has appeared in this window every hour so people can try to make eye contact with her for good luck. its very somber. While we were in the business district, some of the people on my team and I chased down cotton candy vendors who looked to be about 6 years old. It was delicious, natural sugar cane and it turned our tongues NEON pink. The Nepalese do church on Saturday so the next day we got to go to the largest evangelical church in Nepal, also the home church of our 3 translators. It was amazing to be able to worship with them. One of the songs also had English lyrics that we recognized from the tune of the piano and drum set. They also provided us headphones with a translator on the other end for the sermon which was amazing. Everyone removes their shoes and sits on the floor during the service. They also use flags as a form of worship. They had squatty potties (a dirt hole in the ground)- no western toilets for us! Another great thing about visiting these places is that we are allowed to leave the 2 block radius around our room. Everywhere we go we go in groups of 5 with at least 1 college age Staff Discipler. Everywhere you look in the city there is some kind of animal. I almost stepped on a dead cat twice! There are also an abundance of dogs, chickens, and cows. The roads here are ridiculous- no sidewalks. Everyone walks in the street, and everyone drives wherever they fit, and they can really squeeze into some tight spaces. Along with the cars there are rickshaws (bikes with carriage-like things for passengers), small taxis, and large buses. Lots of pedestrians too. And the trash just gets thrown on the curb which leaves a pleasant aroma of incense, food, and decomposing waste. It's also really loud here. They really like to use their horns, not in a "you cut me off" way but more of a "hey how's it goin" kinda deal. Its never quiet here. Even in the morning, you can here horns, dogs, bells, people, and lots of music. This one store that we walk by on our way to where the bus picks us up always has Adele playing, nice touch of home. Because we are staying in the tourist district there are tons of shops. The conversion rate is great too- 87 rupees for 1 dollar. Every night we go out to dinner on a budget of 100 rupees each- crazy. We love to eat momo (pot sticker like dumplings with fried curried filling like buffalo (my favorite), veggies, or chicken), tukba (soup), dahl fry (spicy corn chowder), nan (fresh pita bread), and some type of non-water liquid. You can't drink any water here that hasn't been boiled so we drink a lot of tea. The rest of the team likes the cocacola's too, but because they are sooooo sweet with real sugar they practically rot my teeth out so i don't get them.  Yesterday we got to visit an orphanage for children who's parents are in prison. In Nepal, the children can come live with the parents in prison but then they can't go to school, so they prefer to go here instead. There were 15 boys and 1 girl, all under age 16. We had a great time playing soccer, making balloon animals, and swapping dance moves with them. Most of them spoke English because in the more developed parts of KTM it is part of the curriculum. Today we did our first street evangelism. What a typical street evangelism looks like is us prayer walking for 10 minutes, shouting "Naatch Herna Ownoose" (Come watch our drama!" through the streets of the village, making a big riot gathering in the performance venue, then we go through and each skill group does 2 of their routines. Afterwards we disperse through the crowd and talk to the people about Jesus. Not trying to force it down their throat, but just sharing what we know. In today's case, we had to rely heavily on our translators bc very few of the approx. 500 people that gathered knew English. We were very excited to find a small church in the village today who invited us in for milk tea, a team favorite. A huge blessing. In our downtime, we like to go explore and go shopping. I have done a lot of bartering in the past couple days for souvenirs and clothing. The typical pair of gypsy-style Nepali pants is only 350 rupees- a great deal & super comfy. Lots of fun colors too:)
Please keep our team in your prayers too! Because it is monsoon season, it rains every day for anywhere from a 30 minute downpour to a 7 hour rainstorm. This rain is unlike anything i've ever seen before. Bc we are constantly wet, several of my family members have colds. We all beat jet lag in record time, but the daily grind is starting to get to us. We are in bet with a forced lights out typically at 10 pm with a strict wakeup time at 7 am. Our days are so busy though that we get very tired. A bunch of people are also very homesick or overwhelmed by the intense culture shock. 2 of our 11 dance skill group members have managed to dislocate their knees during dancing, which can make performances a little rough on the edges. Pray for their quick healing and lack of pain, as we have only 23 packs of ice left for the rest of the summer with no place to buy more.  We also have a lot of memorization to do this summer- Bible verses, teachings, and tracts to present. This can get really stressful- our first test is on Tuesday. Please keep that in your prayers. We are all getting along really well though which is great! God has really blessed us with a great team. Pray that we will continue to have an absence of sickness on our team. The food seems to be agreeing with us very well, which is a huge blessing. The language barrier becomes more and more evident as we venture out of KTM, which at times can be frustrating and discouraging.

I can't imagine being anywhere but here right now. Nepal has grown on me very quickly. I am healthy, extremely happy, and very blessed to be here! I can't believe that 2 weeks have already flown by and we only have 4 more weeks left here. Thank you so much for reading. I can't wait to show you guys my pictures- i have almost 300 from the past 2 weeks. I love all of my family and supporters so much. Dhanya Bad (Thank you!) & God Bless You!

Shout out to my lovely sister Mariclare- i don't know if I'm gonna have internet again before your birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you a bunch little sis:)

News and Notes from Training Camp

This past week at Training Camp has flown by.  One of my Nepal "family members" put it perfectly when he said the days seem like they take weeks, but each week seems like it happen in the blink of an eye.  There is a certain level of secrecy about training camp in order to give each new member the full experience, but it's worth it.

From the very moment I arrived at the church, I was welcomed with open arms.  Each new team is called a family because we really are one.  We eat, sleep, learn, and do life as a family.  Each of our activities is designed to help us bond.  Looking back, I can hardly believe that I've known my family for only a week.  But this week can also be tough.  Training camp used to be called Boot Camp, and I can see why.  At first we learn to detox from the distractions that we brought with us.  Then we learn to release our burdens and accept the forgiveness and love that God freely offers.  We also play a lot of fun and crazy games.  Each day with meet in our D-groups, which for me consists of a Moody Bible Institute student named Kayla (she is great!) and 2 other high schoolers, Moriah and Emilee.

Another one of my family's daily activities is building a rock wall.  When you look through the pictures of Training Camp on the Reign Ministries website and see a brick wall about 2 ft high, 2 ft wide, and an eighth of a mile long, know that we built it ourselves with boulders we dug out of the ground with our bare hands. Talk about team building. It was a great source of joy, and also it was a great spot to do my quiet times this past week.

We also do a worship time together daily, led by a vocalist, guitar, and bongo drummer. The whole camp (roughly 500 people) gets together and just has an awesome time under the Big Top tent. During worship, we sing a song called "Your Love Never Fails." I love it a lot because it's a prayer and really connects with what I'm learning this week. You should YouTube it and hear it yourself. The lyrics go like this: Nothing can separate even if I ran away, Your love never fails, I know I still make mistakes, but You have new mercies for me every day, your love never fails, You stay the same through the ages, Your love never changes, There may be pain in the night, But joy comes in the morning. And when the oceans rage, I don't have to be afraid, because I know that you love me, and your love never fails. The wind is strong, And the water is deep, But I'm not alone here in the open seas, Cause your love never fails. The chasm is far too wide, I never thought I would reach the other side, But your love never fails. You make all things work together for my good.

Beyond just getting us ready for our trips, Royal Servants also does a great job of getting us ready to go home. One of their sayings is "A summer of service for a lifetime of ministry." It's really evident in how they are training us. Not only can I say the entire "Connecting With God" pamphlet from Campus Crusade word-perfect, I have numerous other studies that I can use to help new Christians grow in their faith. We have also learned our skill groups that we will use to draw crowds in Nepal. I am on the dance group with nine other people. We have learned four dances to songs, including a song by The Afters called "Never Going Back To Okay", another song called "Cray Button", Toby Mac's "Me Without You", and David Guetta's "Without You." It was intense but super fun. We've practiced walking in double file lines. We can function in the dark without our head lamps. We made a mock bus and got our time to board it down to 18 seconds - great for 37 people. We talked about ministry, food, water, culture, and life. We are all prepared, super-psyched, and ready to go. Our flight leaves out of Chicago at 6:30 pm on Monday. We will arrive in Nepal the morning of July 4th! I am so excited :) Please keep my team in your prayers. We are getting antsy and crazy. Pray for patience and endurance. Pray for good bonding and sleep on the plane. Thanks so much!

Training camp visit!

As a parent, I have to say that training camp is awesome.  It is obvious from your first impression that camp is well thought out, deliberate in its training and somehow they make it fun as well.  It was wonderful to visit with Penny at the end of camp.  She was sooooo happy and ready to go.  We were able to spend about six hours with her touring the camp, catching up, watching their skits and closing with a worship service. What a week.  Cultural and security training, exercise, discipline, teamwork development, worship and quiet times.  It was amazing to see how much Penny had grown in just a week.  We are so proud of her. 

And now she's off to Nepal with her team, 30+ young people and leaders.  In a few hours she will arrive after 20 hours of travel.  May the Lord bless them and their labors.  Hallelujah!