Saturday March 14th

Before I post what happened on Saturday there are a few things I forgot to mention! When they welcomed us on Thursday they presented us with fresh marigold necklaces (kind of like Hawaiian leis). They were a vibrant orange, smelled good and some came with free worms! I think I forgot to mention that you take your shoes off before entering the sanctuary and they sit on the floor. They had chairs for us but the women sat on the left facing front and the men on the right.

There are 40 UM churches in Nepal now and the church is very evangelistic. Many come to Christ due to a healing. Also, most UM churches are in East Nepal with the largest of them being 400 members. We cannot fly into the closest airport to the location due to runway repairs going on so we will fly into another and drive 2 ½ hours to the hotel then another 12 or so kilometers to the church.

When we visited the shopping area of Thamel Frank was offered marijuana twice – and turned it down both times! You could definitely smell it in the air!!

Saturday is their worship day. At 7am there were 5 baptisms of new believers. Worship began at 10am and Frank began preaching at 11:45. We worshiped for an hour, there was offering, prayer and several young men shared testimonies (not related to the LISS). Pastor Devi shared testimony regarding a prophetic word Kim had for him the day before and was very enthusiastic about it being not just for him but for all the pastors.

There were about 25 children in Sunday School with Pam and Sue (Becky translated) and they were very well behaved. They listened to stories, made paper chains to show we’re all different (different colors) and were given ARM t-shirts. Sue was impressed with how well they worked together in small groups without any pushing or complaining!

Frank’s sermon was on the Life of a Lump of Clay. At the end of his sermon he asked them to offer up their lives as bowls, forming a bowl shape with their hands as they held them out. He then prayed over them that God would fill their bowls with gifts of the Spirit.

The service ended at 1:00 pm and we broke for lunch. Each day they fed us dahl (lentil sauce) bat (rice), fried potatoes and maybe green beans along with bottled water. Following lunch on Friday and Saturday we walked down the street for some soda (warm!) and snacks.

We continued the LISS in the afternoon with Frank sharing on Kingdom Encounters. He asked people who were sick or in pain to stand then asked those who were around them to lay hands on them (and for team members to circulate among also laying hands on people) commanding sickness and pain to leave. After a time of loud prayer he asked people to try doing something that they couldn’t do before because of pain and then asked how many were pain free. Several raised their hands. So then we prayed some more for people who weren’t all the way there yet. Kim had another word about repenting and turning away from old ways and old beliefs. Many came forward to the altar and knelt weeping so we extended hands, laid hands on and prayed more. Then we had prayer team ministry with two teams of women and two of men asking people to come up for any need. Most came up for physical healing – many headache and stomach problems. We had to add another team so Frank and Peggi formed a team. Each team had a translator. There were also some deliverances.

We then had a “blessing tunnel” with team members forming a tunnel and participants going through while we spoke words of blessing over them. The participants came through with their hands out in a receiving manner. Men on the team were careful to touch only men and women only women to respect local cultural practices. We also had a gift for each person there and presented those to them at the end of the tunnel. We gave each one a remembrance band from ARM that had one of the words of our purpose on them – filled, gifted, empowered or led.

We thought the seminar was over but Pastor Devi had some of the women present us with beautiful Nepali scarves. Frank then asked us to kneel while the Nepalis prayed for us. It took us another 15-20 minutes to leave as everyone wanted to say “Ji mace” (spelling??) pronounced “Jime-a-see” which means literally “King Messiah” or “Jesus is Victory”!!

When Frank asked Pastor Devi (the district superintendent over all UM churches in Nepal) how he felt it went, he responded “excellent”! He invited us back to teach more on the Holy Spirit!

We went back to the guest house and then walked over ½ mile to the “La Soon” restaurant for dinner. There was no electricity so we ate by candlelight. Food was cooked on a gas stove and was wonderful – most of us had beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes. We walked back to the guest house in the dark - another experience!