Nepal!

It was confirmed yesterday by our leaders, the university, the government, and our contacts in Kathmandu, that we are headed to Nepal.

Yippee!! Thank you for praying!

T-minus FOUR days until take-off.

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Nepal Update

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people:
‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.’
Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?’
And he said:
‘Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is a desolate waste,
and the LORD removes people far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.’
The holy seed is its stump.”
(Isaiah 6:8-13 ESV)

The commissioning of Isaiah takes on new meaning the last 36 hours, as our team was informed that it is unlikely we will be able to proceed into Nepal. We were set to leave 10 days from today. But, alas, the Lord has made clear, that our destination is unknown. The political turmoil throughout Nepal the last few days has made it unsafe for our group to enter the country. The Office of World Missions is looking into re-routing us to Thailand, Bangladesh, Burma… It is all very unclear at this point. There is also the chance that with the passing of bills in the last two days, the striking and rioting in the streets of Kathmandu may calm down for a couple of months, allowing us to enter the country.

Your prayers are appreciated. Our team is fully submerged in prayer, whether we are in Azusa, Saratoga, Lodi, Thousand Oaks… Each of us has felt helpless and out of control, as the plans we have made for the last 7 months have unraveled in front of us. But, we have been forced to rely solely on the Lord and His desire for our team.

Pray that He sends us where He desires, and that we are quick to say “Here am I, send me”. Wherever that may be. In ten days.

Yikes.

Selah

I want to remember this time period.

This time spent in a treehouse-like apartment on Alosta, across the street from the campus that has become home over the last two years. This four weeks of four girls each preparing for great change: marriage, Nepal, Turkey, the internship of a lifetime… Long, hot days spent fitting in hours at the pool, half-off Starbucks drinks, Bananagrams, kitchen experiments to rival Bobby Flay, and tan-lines. A time when we all swapped fantastic books, packed the kitchen full of super-foods, made smoothies for meals, and threw cover-ups over bikinis to walk to the newly installed Yogurtland. When friends came and went, staying a night here and there, and when we housed the Tanzania mission team before they took off, making our apartment their headquarters for planning and prayer. When the moped was our favorite form of transportation, and riding in flip-flops to Costco for soft serve was totally worth the helmet-hair. The time when Monday nights were reserved for Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelorette, to be viewed with my roommate’s mom in Glendora after a home-cooked meal, with fancy schmancy lattes in hand. When board games and movies were paired with wine, and funny accents emerged and laughs abounded. Where alarm clocks were unnecessary, the Brita was always filtering, the sun was shining brightly, our hair smelled like coconut, our skin of tanning oil, and our home like Ralph Lauren perfume.

I want to remember this piece of life just as much as I want to remember this past year. The year where I crashed and I burned frequently, followed by small periods of joy and of learning. The year when forty-six 18 and 19 year olds taught me more about myself than I had learned over the last 21. The year when I was forced to play “bad cop” for a few, acted as “mom” for more, and was “sister” and “friend” to young women I want at my wedding. The year where I learned it’s okay to open up, to let myself be pursued and taken out. The year where casual dating became fun, but was made aware of just how fragile the human heart is. The year that I realized that God will bring people in and out of my life, and bring me into and out of the lives of others, for as long as I shall live. Nothing is concrete, nothing is unfailing, except for the Creator of my soul. A year where I have never been more sure of the fact that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, but a year where I have been constantly reminded that I reside in the palm of a loving God, who hears my prayers, knows my heart, and has walked with me through sadness. A year that I fell in love with the wilderness, found beauty in photography, and admitted that I don’t always know what’s best. In fact, I usually don’t.

This four and a half weeks between the graduation I didn’t get to walk in and my departure for Nepal, has been and will be, far from what I expected it to resemble. In reading through the same Psalms I scoured on Walkabout in August of 2011, I was intrigued by the term “selah”. It was a word I had studied in an Old Testament course last year, our professor saying that there was uncertainty as to the exact meaning of the Hebrew-rooted term. Some say it means “to measure or weigh in the balances”, others “to praise”, and yet others “to lift up”. Some believe it is a musical cue or direction written in for the instrumentalists and singers who performed the Psalms during the time of the Israelites. Each time “selah” appeared, the musicians would pause, to take a breath, sing a cappella, or let the instruments play without the accompaniment of voices.

Walkabout was a period of “selah” before the school year began.

A “selah” is what this time is as well. A pause between one crazy time and another, where I am taking a breath, and letting the instruments play on unaccompanied.

Fundraising!

My Nepal team is still in need of some serious fundraising help!

If you would be interested in helping support us financially, the link is below!

Here!

Thanks!!

Watch This

Rhoman. We skyped with him the other night in one of our team meetings, asking him many questions and just listening to his stories. He made us so excited.

If you’re interested, here’s a little bit of a video on Nepal and exactly the place and ministry we will be working with.

I am afraid, that I’ll catch that fire. And never be the same.

But hey, that would be okay.

Right?

Nepal

I guess I haven’t really mentioned that I am headed to Nepal this summer! For six weeks, from near the end of May through the first week of July, me and nine of my buddies will be in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal. I am sure I will be updating this blog with more updates as we get closer to our trip, but the gist of the trip is as follows:

- 6 weeks
- 100+ degrees
- Tiny Hands International
- working with street children
- working with sex-trafficking victims
- support parents of children’s homes
- 10 young adults trying our hardest to serve Him and bless those we encounter

If you can pray for these ten faces when you think to, as we grow closer to each other and Jesus over the next few months leading up to our trip, that would be amazing (:

Nepal 2012