Friday, March 13th

Blog for Friday, March 13^th

I forgot to mention that there are only 50 participants in the LISS. The other 50 were coming from the Terai where the road blocks are so they never made it to the seminar. Pastor Devi and Steve Thorson are waiting until Tuesday to make a decision about East Nepal as there are differing stories in the news regarding the strike settlement. With a road strike here you CANNOT get through the roads. There is talk it may settle soon but then there is also talk of a Central Nepal road strike which would mean we couldn’t make it BACK to Kathmandu for our flight home.

The alternative to East Nepal is doing the Lord Teach Us to Pray in Bhaktapur, just east of Kathmandu. It is an ancient city with ancient temples (I’ll try to find a photo) but there is a United Methodist church there, too. Apparently, people here will come even if it’s scheduled at the last minute! It makes me cry for hunger like that at home – for us in the US to be DESPARATE for more of him and not just comfortable with where we are – not just content to “schedule it in” when it’s convenient to us but so DESPARATE we would drop EVERYTHING to sit and learn more, be touched by Him more and just to worship Him together. Oh, Lord – give us that deep a hunger for you!

Also, to clarify the church set-up; we take off our shoes upon entering the building and women sit on one side while men are on the other. Our lunch was served on the fourth floor (no elevator) which is where the Western toilets were, too (so it was worth the walk for some of us!) The bathroom was labeled “For Guest Use Only”

We continued the seminar today with two additional translators. Pastor Devi translated some, our guitarist translated and a young man we had yesterday. He had studied at seminary in India and was an excellent translator!! He even gave extra “teaching” where needed for the Nepalis to understand what we were trying to communicate.

Peg started off with Spirit of Adoption (yes, she got her talks printed!). It was to be followed with a playing of The Father’s Love Letter in Hindi but no battery operated CD player and no electricity. Fortunately, before we left the US, the Lord told me (Peg) to take some printed copies in Hindi and the translator read it to them. Becky said that was probably better because he was able to read the Hindi with a Nepali accent and emphasis.

Sue followed with Spirit of Love and had Pam hand out stones following her talk to remind them they are living stones for the Lord. Then Sue had the translator translate “Oh How He Loves You and Me” and she and Pam sang while Pam signed it for them.

Parker led them in a prayer of deliverance following his talk on the Spirit of Power and all participated in that. There was a powerful time of praying for the pastors and anointing them with oil. Our men went up and Pam led them in anointing the pastors heads, ears, eyes, mouth and hands. The Nepali men stood behind with their hands extended. They didn’t touch the pastors but we’re not sure if they didn’t understand the direction or if that’s not acceptable in church.

Kim followed on Spirit of Prayer. She had a meaningful time when trying to explain her prayer language to them (which of course can’t be translated!). She asked a young woman to come up and she prayed for her in her prayer language. The young woman was very touched and drawn to tears from the experience.

Rich gave the Spirit of Unity, emphasizing how important that is in the church and emphasized the importance of reconciliation.

Pam followed with Spirit of Guidance using a compass and walking stick as object lessons – it was very effective for them. She even demonstrated how she would fall if she didn’t have a walking stick or staff to guide her.

Frank followed with Spirit of Authority. He included an illustration from a former trip to Nepal involving a water buffalo and the authority a little old lady took in moving it out of our way! Following his presentation we prayed for God to come and take control of out of control situations in their lives.

Following Parker’s talk on The Promise of the Father an opportunity was offered for those who wanted to receive the Holy Spirit to stand. Immediately 3 women stood in the back and within a few seconds all were standing. A powerful time of prayer followed with much weeping, shaking and touches from the Lord. It is hard to describe in words the power felt in those moments.

Pastor Devi missed that opportunity but later in the day, Kim had some words of prophecy for him. We arranged a time during worship for her to give them to him personally. He appeared to receive them very well and that was confirmed today in worship (Saturday) when he shared them with the congregation and thanked her publically for sharing that with him.