God continues to meet us and our team members as we step out in obedience. Often He is working in us on a personal level and as a vessel for what He wants to do in someone else's life. Here is just a sampling of what impacted some of our team.
Julia, a wife and mother with two children in college, shares about her encounter with a teacher:
"The Lord healed many people physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Praise God!! In the village of Taragana, Biswanath, a junior high school teacher, accepted Christ! He then stood up and preached to his neighbor, who promptly accepted Jesus at that moment! When our team returned for a discipleship meeting, Biswanath explained that he told his principal about Jesus and that the principal was so excited to hear this Good News that he coming to Biswanath's home that afternoon to be discipled. It is amazing to see the multiplication process in action from believer to new believer and so on!
We encountered many who had never heard the Gospel, and this experience taught me that we must continue to GO! The Lord has so blessed us here in America that without those who give generously many would not have had the opportunity to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Thank you so much for your hearts that made room for people you haven't even met, in a country you probably won't visit, to pray faithfully for their souls."
Byron brought his family of four to serve together, and here he shares a lesson God was teaching him through this work in Nepal:
"There were so many dramatic, powerful and amazing experiences;
it often felt like we were living through the book of Acts, which really helped me to
settle on what impacted me the most--hearing God speak! Several months before
the trip I was given a teaching series about “Hearing From God”. I started the
uncomfortable process of being still, being quite and listening for God to
speak. However, with a mind that has
random ideas like a bouncy ball, an unpredictable work schedule, two busy boys
and a wife who has never heard of down time, I only started to scratch the
surface before the trip.
While on the trip, God had an amazing habit of putting me
into situations where I was outside of my comfort zone with no experience or
knowledge to pull from in order to move forward. In other words, if He did not say
or do something, NOTHING would happen! It is really amazing how when I allow
God to place me in situations where He must show up, He does! I was recently
told that the most important scale by which to measure the effectiveness of a
mission trip isn’t the amount of souls saved or bodies healed. Those are God’s
responsibility and that fruit is in His time. The most important measure of a
mission trip is “are you closer to Jesus, do you know Him better than you did
at the start”? So for me, hearing God speak was the most powerful
experience of my trip and left the largest mark on my life as a follower of Jesus.
God still speaks; all I have to do is be
quite and listen!"