Jai messee! (Praise the Lord!)

We had an amazing day today!   After a great night’s sleep, we enjoyed some breakfast at the hotel.  We were all dressed in our “Sunday’s best” for church today.  We took a group photo for your enjoyment.  The plan for today was that we were going to join a church in Nepal for worship and then also be part of a new church building dedication.  Our meetings with the church leaders were to start in the afternoon.  Well, we should know by now, that nothing ever goes as planned here.

Some of the church leaders joined us at the hotel for breakfast and we all filled up two vehicles for our 2-1/2 hour ride to the church.  However, half way there they decided to stop for a bathroom break and some tea.  We were laughing because we ended up with a late start from the hotel and the time we stopped for tea was actually the time we were supposed to be at our final destination!  But, our hosts didn’t seem to mind.  And we are learning that it is best to just “go with the flow” and enjoy the ride. When we finally arrived at the church that was to be dedicated, we found out that this would be our final stop.  Originally, we were going to stop here and then go on to another church for their worship service.  God was certainly going before us!  We were meant to be at this worship service today. 

It was a wonderful thing to be part of.  The people all greeted us with “Jai messee” which means “praise the Lord!”  Ken had the honor of doing the ribbon cutting for the dedication ceremony.  Then, we were seated in the front of their building and they all filed in.  We were introduced and welcomed by each receiving a rose.  A leader at the church shared how this church was a church plant and started in 2000 with four baptized and now they have baptized 275.  There are four sister churches nearby.  There are 11 families in this village who worship in this church.  In 2004, one of the believing families donated land for this church building.  It took them two days to build the structure.  They will continue to add to it—right now it is just straw and bamboo.  They will mix a mud mixture to pack and dry on the walls and roof.  The families who worship here hope to invite more locals so their church will continue to grow.  Other families are also going to donate more of the surrounding land to expand the church.

They sang some songs and then both Ken and Chris shared a message.  There was time spent praying your own prayers, out loud, together.  It was such a powerful thing to be part of!  After the service, they each took the time to greet us as they left the building.  We spent some time visiting with the people and children.  Several of the people requested prayer, so there was a time for that as well.  The church then served us lunch before our 2-1/2 hour drive back to the hotel.  So we boarded the vans for another adventurous ride dodging water buffalo, goats, cows, bicyclists, people, other vehicles… you name it, we almost ran into it! The best might have been the goats strapped to the roof of the bus in front of us…didn’t seem to phase the goats, after all they were probably safer up there then on road.

After returning to the hotel, we went to the BIC Church office building to begin our meetings with the church leaders from this area.  We had thought we were going to be able to visit the SPICE hostel again today, but, again, plans are always changing here.  We met with the church leaders and were encouraged to be open to God’s leading during these next few days of the conference. 

Please pray for our meetings tomorrow, Sunday.  Please pray for open minds and hearts that the leaders would hear what God has for them.  Please pray for Joleen, as she will be sharing tomorrow as well.  Also pray that we will have an opportunity to share and visit with the SPICE children sometime tomorrow.