Adventures with YWAM

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Joel Lang
5 years ago
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1 Adventures with YWAM Newsletter; December February 2018 Hello once again! I am pleased to tell you that my team and I all made it back in one piece from Nepal! It was an incredible trip and it was such an honor to see all the things God did and how much the students learned and grew. So many things happened, so I will summarize it to the best of my ability, but I hope I can tell you about it in person and more in depth. I suppose I will start where I left off with the last newsletter, when the teaching phase of the school had just ended and it was time to head off to Nepal. So we arrived in Kathmandu with no problems, then took a seven hour bus ride to the city of Pokhara to the west. Now Pokhara lies in the foothills of the Himalayas, and from there we had a spectacular view of the Annapurna mountain range. While we were in Pokhara, we stayed at the YWAM base there. For ministry, we did a number of things. Sometimes we would share testimonies, messages, and perform skits. Other times we would do more practical things, such as harvesting crops and ripping giant stones out of the ground and leveling it to prepare it for crops. We also walked throughout the city, to Buddhist monasteries, and to a refugee camp to pray for those areas and speak to the people. We were able to talk to several people and learn more about the place we were in, as well as pray for them and share about Jesus on occasion.

Unfortunately Nepal is a Hindu and partially Buddhist nation, so it is illegal to convert someone to Christianity, and if caught we could be kicked out of the country.

2 Unfortunately Nepal is a Hindu and partially Buddhist nation, so it is illegal to convert someone to Christianity, and if caught we could be kicked out of the country. Due to that we had to be careful, but luckily God gave us opportunities to share our faith. We were also involved in some children's ministry, where we led them in songs, did skits for them, and also just had a great time with them. We were able to join the staff at that base in many celebrations, such as Christmas, a big picnic for children, and New Year's. These were a ton of fun, eating delicious goat intestines and chicken feet along with lots of dancing! There was also a DTS team from Ukraine who also joined in many of the things we did. One evening while we were praying together as a team, as we did every evening, God spoke to us. Nearly everyone in the team felt that God was saying that we needed to go up into the high mountains and do ministry there. To be sure, we prayed again, and the result was the same. So that evening we decided to change our plans and go up to the area of Mustang, which is valley right smack dab in the middle of the Annapurnas. However, as the team leader, I began to get a little anxious. We didn't know how to get there, where we would stay, what we would do there, had no translator, or if we even had enough money for the trip. But we felt very strongly that this was God's will, so we began to prepare. We bought permits, packed warm clothes, and prayed. Every evening God spoke to us about the trip, and we recorded what He said. As the days passed, things began to fall into place. One of the Nepali staff at the Pokhara base had nothing to do for his upcoming break, so he decided to come with us! And with his help we were able to figure out how to get to Mustang, the night before we were to leave. Then the day came for us to embark on this faith trip. We hopped on a tightly packed jeep and drove for twelve hours on cliffsides, through jungle, and through almost desert-like areas. On the way, our Nepali friend was able to contact a pastor in Mustang, who then arranged a place to stay for us! So after an entire day of extremely tight, bumpy, and sketchy roads, we arrived at the main city of Mustang, Jomsom. Then we got to the guest house, which was not only quite good quality, but completely affordable! We were able to sleep well (except it was quite chilly) and in the morning we met with the local pastor. When we spoke to him, he already had our entire week

planned! It was hard to believe that just a couple days earlier we had no idea what we were going to do, or even if there were any Christians in Mustang.

3 planned! It was hard to believe that just a couple days earlier we had no idea what we were going to do, or even if there were any Christians in Mustang. Soon enough, we had the opportunity to visit the local church, preach and share testimonies, and meet some of the people. The rest of time, we mostly prayed. We hiked all over, to villages, temples, and a lake, all for the purpose of praying. It seemed as though God had brought us all this way to pray, and so pray we did. At this time God began to answer the prayers we prayed before coming. Everything that God told us before we came happened, for example God told us we would see a lake, even though there is no lake on the map of Mustang. Lo and behold, one day after some hours of walking, we arrived at a lake, the only lake in the area, and prayed there. This was just an example of many of the ways God showed himself. After our time in the mountains, it was time to return home. I left by plane en route to Kathmandu to pick up a student who had to come later than the rest of the team due to visa problems. Once I had returned with him, we had some time at Pokhara to debrief and look back ove the trip so far, focusing on what God had done so far and encouraging one another. The next day, we left Pokhara to go to another YWAM base in another city to the east, Damauli. In Damauli, we spent every day going to house fellowships, preaching and sharing testimonies. On many occasions we had the opportunity to prayer for sick people, and many of them got better! We also helped the Damauli base prepare for a DTS that they were about to run, by praying for the students and making welcome cards. We also ate a lot of tasty exotic fruit that was like a grapefruit but bigger and sweeter, called pamelos (I highly recommend it). We were only in Damauli for about a week, and once our time was up, we headed off to a far more remote area of Nepal. This area is called Bulingtar, which took seven hours of fairly terrifying mountain roads to reach. We also brought with us a Nepali woman called Tara Didi,

4 who helped us so much with cooking and translation. Once we arrived in Bulingtar, we could see that the word remote was a perfect way to describe it. It was comprised of homes made of wood and clay spread throughout the valley, complete with water buffalos and goats. Every day we had to boil drinking water and bathe and wash clothes at a community pipe with water coming out of it. We didn't mind the conditions, and found that having no internet took away a lot of distraction. As for ministry, we preached and preached and preached. We shared messages and testimonies all over the area, at churches, house fellowships, and open-air programs where many Hindus had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. We also performed many evangelical dramas, as well as dramas where we just made fools of ourselves and had fun, which the Nepalis loved. Many villages were far away, so we would hike for up to four hours and then stay night at someone's house. The people there, as well as in most of Nepal, are extremely hospitable and will often give you nearly all they have without hesitation, which was really inspiring. There was even a time where we got the opportunity to perform skits and share a testimony at a school in front of hundreds of kids! It was a ton of fun, and it was so cool to see how open the school was toward us. We also were able to serve practically, like digging post holes for fences, chopping wood and cutting down trees, helping a neighbor build a rice field, and digging 31 large holes to plant banana trees! Most days several village kids would come by the church we stayed at, initially to see the gora (white people). Nearly every day we played with them, both with games, songs, and drawing pictures. All of us forged very strong relationships in Bulingtar, with believers, non-believers, and children alike. Some days we also walked thoughout the villages, praying wherever we went.

5 Towards the end of our time in Bulingtar, the whole team began to get very sick. I was the first, and the first night I threw up sixteen times or more. I also had diarrhea and intense pain, and soon after every other member of the team began to experience this as well. At first we thought it was food poisoning, but as we prayed we realised that this had perhaps more of a spiritual cause. There was a lot of witchcraft in the area, and we were exposed to it on several occasions. However, through lots of prayer, we all became well again, and this experience of supporting each other while sick brought us much closer together as a team. Once we were all healed, three and a half weeks had passed, and it was time to leave for some time of debriefing in Kathmandu. We said our goodbyes, which was harder than expected, and we once again took a treacherous bus ride to Nepal's capital. When we arrived in Kathmandu, we stayed in a guest house near the airport. We actually made some friends within the guest house, especially a Christian man working in the Nepali government. During our time there, we looked back and reflected upn our entire trip to see what God did, how He used us, and how each of us had grown. The rest of the time we explored the city, shopped, and ate lots of delicious naan and paneer (also recommend). After five days, it was time to head back to Sweden. All the traveling went really smoothly, and the cushioned chairs on the plane was just wonderful, especially after sitting cross-legged for over two months. In no time, we made it back to Restenas, and now we are having two last weeks of teaching the students how to return home effectively after such an intense experience, as well as helping them find their next step after the school. I'm sorry if this newsletter was a little long, but I couldn't help it! God did so much, the students and staff alike grew so much, and altogether it was just an awesome time. If you have the patience, I would love to tell you so much more in person! Thank all of so much for praying for me, giving so generously, and just being amazing people in my life! May God richly bless you all! Whats Happening at Restenas Restenas is currently putting together a huge campaign to inform people about what we do here. Flyers and brochures are being sent to nearly every church in Sweden, as well as reaching out overseas. The Mobile Discipleship Training School (MDTS) unfortuneatley was cancelled due to not enough applicants. We will host several church groups in the upcoming couple of months. Prayer Points For the next school, both myself and another man, Jacob Collin, will be the leaders. This is a big step for me, so please pray for me and for many students to come to the next school.

6 That God will teach me and help me to grow as a leader and a discipler. That I always trust in Him and obey Him in all things. Thank you all so much for supporting me through prayer and finances! If you have any questions or are interested in supporting me, you can contact me via my ; jdoberg@hotmail.com

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