Nepal Dispatch 1

I sit here a little behind my eyes, forcing myself to act and react. Jet-lagged and just finished with my first day of evangelism in Kathmandu - my first day of evangelism ever. Door to door on the far side of the world.

I don't even like door to door evangelists.

But that's beside the point today, as I am beside myself wondering who this is that carries my body through the day. He is me, a new version, soon to be released. I am beta testing myself.

I got locked on the roof this morning after watching the sun rise over the Kathmandu valley. I might still be there but for Mala happening into the hotel. He unlocked the door and told me about his work for Campus Crusade in Nepal. He was friendly, and he speaks English tolerably well if you're patient.

But despite his best efforts he didn't end up as my translator. Tilak did.

Tilak is 31, looks 25, is married to a woman that God gave to him in a vision and has one son. If you ask his profession he says 'evangelist.'

We bussed to the suburb where we would be working, talking about these things. There came that moment - after the kamikaze bus ride and the Nepali prayer and the compulsory unloading and reloading of the bus - when the gate of the church swung open and we were commissioned upon the world. No more formula or theory or abstraction, just people talking to people about those things that most concern people.

They're Hindu, these proud Nepali people, and though they call it dead tradition they will cling to it in favor of Living Water. But we talked happily, learning of each other, me sitting in their world, in front oftheir tiny storefronts and repair shops, smelling the smells of their existence.

Over forty people repeated the salvation prayers of our group yesterday. I can't comprehend the ways in which their lives must change if they continue on this new, narrow path. Christ changing their hearts, families whispering, perhaps yelling, hundreds of gods falling out of their exalted places. The best things are often the hardest.

The Nepali pastors and translators that we work with sing joyful songs on our bus rides and echo each other's 'halleluiah's and 'praise God's with vigor. They are radiant. They give me great hope.