We spent the first night in Kathmandu. The children who live in Mountain Child's Children's Home came to welcome us that evening. We had an amaznig praise and worship time with them, and then had time to play with them and get to know them a little. Some of the children have such amazing stories. All of the kids at the home (called the RANCH, Remote Area of Nepal Children's Home) were taken from villages where they were in situations of immediate danger. One child contracted an eye infection while living in the village. Having no doctors, her parents brought her to the local witch doctor. The witch doctor, deciding that she had a demon in her, poured boiling water over her face to exercise it. Another boy has a father who remarried after his mother passed away. In their culture, when a man remarries, his children become slaves to his new wife. He was living in a cage when a group from Mountain Child came to his village and brought him back to the RANCH. Many other children would have otherwise been sold into the sex trade industry if we hadn't brought them to the home. All of the kids had such amazing stories and amazing passions for their faith. They all called me Stacie Auntie, and I had a few letters from them waiting for me from them before we left to go treking the next morning.
The next morning we started treking into the Himalayas. We hiked into areas of the mountains that have no electricity and no water. They cook over fires in the middle of thier homes. In the villages, we stayed in peoples homes. They literally cleared out their rooms so that we would have a place to stay. We were able to share the Gospel with people who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ before. It was completely overwhelming, and it was hard to figure out where to even start. We had an amazing local guide named Ram who translated for us. Everyone spoke Nepali in addition to their own regional dialect. Ram was great at filling in all the things that we were missing when we shared. We also passed out really basic medications and did first aide for the people who needed it. When we left the villages, many times they gave us all flowers, and danced as we left. A few times they asked us to stay longer and and tell more stories.
Everywhere we went, I gave the kids little glittery heart stickers. They absolutely loved them. Often times after I gave a child a sticker, they would dissappear for a couple of minutes, only to return with a crowd of children looking for the person giving out the stiky shiny things. The kids were so adorable. It was heartbreaking seeing the sores and illnesses that they had, and not being able to do more. Half of the children in the Himalayas will die by the time they are 8 because of contaminated water. There is so much more work to do in this area of the world.The treking was amazing. We spent hours hiking though jungle terrain. Everyone got some leaches. I was lucky and only ended up with four. The other hiking team averaged about 100 leaches each. The views that we had were breathtaking. I have so many pictures that it is almost rediculous. Most of the time the higher peaks were covered by clouds, but there was a short window a couple of mornings where we could see the snow-capped mountains peaking above the clouds.
I could go on telling stories for pages and pages, but think I will stop here. Maybe I will continue telling more specific stories and sharing pictures. Those of you with facebook can check out the pictures that I have posted there. The program that I went with is called Mountain Child. It was started by my pastor 13 years ago. You can check out their website at http://www.mountainchild.org/. The website doesn't mention anything about it's ministry because it is illegal to evangelize in Nepal, so he has to keep it on the Downlow.
Happy Birthday Leeann!
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