NEPAL IS A COUNTRY RIGHT???
While we were in Shimla we prayed about where to go next, and the answer was without a doubt Nepal. First, I had to learn that Nepal was in fact a country, and not a city on it’s own. Yes, my Geography is not up to date about countries in Asia. It turns out that everyone who wants to climb Mount Everest comes to Nepal, so there were many tourists to reach... tourists in search of something more, and in fact, we really have the answer. And we know the perfect tourguide – because He knows everything!
We were blessed with flight tickets to go, so our “Hidden World team” which currently had 12 members, all flew into Nepal. But as we arrived, God closed the doors to the orphanedge we were heading. We spent three days waiting on the Lord, just worshiping in the mornings and walking in the streets of Kathmandu in the afternoons. After day three, breakthrough came as we met Brizillians in Kathmandu who owned a guesthouse and they invited us to stay with them. Once again, I really love the Brazillian culture which is so warm and open! It is something that is really not that common in Asia. After we arrived in the guesthouse, we had 5 different ministries to choose from, and in the end three differrent ministries were chosen: Iris ministry in Kathmandu, the Brazil people had an orphanedge, and 5 of us chose to go to Tibet to a missionary working there.
The idea of going to Tibet seemed crazy, but as we began to understand the urgency about going, we realised that God needed to do a miracle for us to get there. On the first of October, Tibet closed to all tourists – meaning we had a very small door open, for it was only 10 days before that date when we began applying. Getting the permit was impossible to get in the short time we had, and as a group we needed R50 000. This is much more than anyone of us could afford... but once again, for God nothing is impossible. 3 days later we had all the funds, and two days after that we had the permits. Yes, we were definitally going to Tibet... as tourists... for the first time this year. Well, tourists with a different type of mission.
While we waited for God to be our perfect tourguide, we joined Iris ministries for a week, where we saw incredible healings and things that I never thought was possible. I have heard about gemstones appearing while people were worshiping, but I’ve never seen anything like it. And for them, these things happen on a regular basis. I don’t know what is regular anymore, but it was amazing to see how God spoils His kids sometimes, just because He can. What an amazing Daddy we have!!!
Nepal turned out to be an amazing blessing and suprize, and it was amazing to spend some more time with Brazillians! But the most amazing testimony of my year was yet to come...
THE TESTIMONY OF TIBET
Well, once again I must learn to say “never say never” for I never thought I would see the inside of China... But God, well, He had other plans. The depth and size of God’s love is something we have yet to understand. Why He would send 5 of His servants to China just to encourage one of His children, I would never be able to understand, but all I know is that once more, there is no limit to what He would do.
So we entered the China border with not much more than an adress in Lhasa and a Chinese man that was very quick to tell us that we are not allowed to take photos. We spent the first two days on the road, constantly being overwhelmed by amazing mountains and fighting motion and altitude sicknesses, and the only food that was in our budget was dry noodles. Yes, we were humbled even though we were on tour. Our tourguide couldn’t understand why we did’t have any knowledge about Buddha... well, we ended up telling him about our God in the middle of a Buddhist monastery. We learnt a lot about the Tibetan culture, and even though they are propably the most friendly nation you will ever see, they are so opressed by the Chinese that they almost have to fake their happiness. They literally have checkpoints every 10 minutes so the Chinese would know where they are, and they walk miles and miles around the temples to earn favor from their gods so they could have a better next life. Dogs are monks that didn’t live good lives, so in Tibet dogs are monks, and in Nepal they are Gods... which ever way, dogs have a good life in China. But to see old people who should really be sitting down in a retirement homw jumping up and down before a statue... It is one of the saddest pictures I have ever seen!
We finally arrived in Lhasa and abundance of culture welcomed us. We found the missionary, or rather, the “M” as they call themselves, and in the coffee shop we also met another South African “M” who haven’t spoken Afrikaans in years. What a blessing! We prayed for the families and shared our whole testimony with them – which takes about 2 hours if we speak fast, and got shocked by the statistics... we met 8 of the 22 Christians in Lhasa. Only 22... in such a big city? This was a whole new ball-game in the missionary field, for these people could be persecuted for only saying “HS”.
We also walked around the temple 7 times, with the hope of walls falling down, but spiritually there was definetally walls falling down. I don’t even want to know what would happen in Tibet if those walls really did fall down, but it was fun to boldly proclaim Jesus as we walked because we were leaving the next day! On each beautiful mountain the Buddhists place prayer flags, which seems inocent and pretty untill you understand what they imply, the poor people, they don’t even know how wrong they are. Why have we never heard stories about Tibet before? People, this is a country we need to pray for every day, and yes, after this month we can testify that there is so much power in prayer. It was such a privaledge to see Mount Everest, and I really want to thank everyone who interceded for us in prayer. Good really made mountains move, He made Everest move, and there is still so much work to be done in Tibet.
