2023 Mission Helper Trip to Nepal
The official blog of the 2023 CLC Mission Helper Trip to Nepal.
Monday, August 14, 2023
Extremely Belated Reflection on MHT 2023
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Fwd: July 3, 2023
Today we are not teaching about Jesus; we 're not on a safari taking pictures of God's wonderful creation. We are feeling very close to our living God as we travel in the rain, through construction in the hills. We can almost see the angels along the bus as it lurches left, plunges right and continues to bounce along.
When we look out windows we see stands of beautiful fruits and vegetables, newly constructed houses, lush rice paddies and a variety of motorized transportation : God is providing daily bread to the Nepalis.
We know Jesus died for them also; yet the vast majority ( more than 96%) have not heard the Gospel message. They trust the dead idols seen all around.
A wasted day ? Indeed not! I am a day closer to heaven. God is speaking to me, increasing
my faith, bolstering my trust and telling me « Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature. »
Elinor Gbedey
Fwd: July 4, 2023
Do you remember what you did on the Fourth of July? I will never forget what I did on the Fourth in 2023. I didn't celebrate America's independence; rather I had a memorable celebration of the freedom from sin given to us by Jesus.
Our team got to go 4 hours from Tulisper, Dang into the mountains in Nepal. I am sure all four of us plus the translator were praying without ceasing as our Jeep did hairpin turns, honking as we approached blind spots and sometimes went quite close to a precipice in order to avoid fallen rocks.
After passing changing styles of housing, transportation and farming techniques we arrived at the lovely, well lit village church. Later we learned that they had outgrown their original church-Praise God!
Attendance was great and the message of Jesus the Savior of all was well received. After the lesson we all took a lot of pictures and many Nepali asked us to pray with them.
We were happy to note that our driver, probably Hindu, came in and stayed for the entire lesson.
Pictures: our Jeep and driver, the church, mountains with clouds below us, ranges of mountains, rice paddies and terrace farming
Elinor Gbedey
Sent from my iPhone
July 10. Fellowship-a bonus for us
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
7/8/23 Mission Helper Blog Post
Wrote this the day of, but forgot to post it...haha.
This is coming from someone who hasn't ever had an affinity towards choir or singing at all really… today we got to sing in front of the congregation here in Kathmandu, Nepal. We sang hymn 54 (Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah) then hymn 36 (Now Thank We All Our God) and then hymn 200 (I Know That My Redeemer Lives). Getting to sing those wonderful lyrics, even if they're not fully understood, was a blessing I'll never forget. Let me tell ya… something about singing with a group of good-sounding people, in front of smiling and inspiring faces… really made me excited for choir at ILC this fall. And to add to that, I got to listen to my dad give a sermon this morning too. It had been a while, so it was a nice finishing touch to the morning of worship!
Got to try some ice cream at a place called "silk" today. It was lovely. We didn't do any teaching today unfortunately but tomorrow we leave to teach in an area about 3-4 hours away. Keeping you all in my prayers :)
Lamentations 3:22-23
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
In Christ,
-Lydia Ohlmann
Monday, July 10, 2023
Teaching in Trisuli - July 10
Today we are teaching the Good News in Trisuli! We traveled to Trisuli yesterday from Kathmandu. We didn't have Riley with us, however, because she got pretty sick. She stayed behind in Kathmandu with Missionary Ohlmann and rested. She ended up getting some antibiotics and is doing much better today. Thank the Great Physician!
We split up into our three groups again for teaching. Thankfully none of us had to travel very far from the hotel. We were blessed with the opportunity to teach to a lot of children who had probably never heard of their Savior today. My group (Sam Radermacher, Ben Haslett, Lydia Ohlmann) taught at a little public school with about 28 kids. It is important for me to remember at such a huge witnessing opportunity that it isn't my responsibility to create faith in these children's hearts, but the work of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Sam Rodebaugh had a great devotion tonight discussing those very thoughts. He emphasized how it is not our power at all, but the power of the One we preach about that does the work. And even when we leave here, God will always remain and continue His work.
After teaching, we left immediately to get back to Riley as soon as possible in Kathmandu. As I said before, we got back to find out she is doing much better. That left relaxing, supper, and hymn singing to finish up the evening.
I thought of this verse of TLH 496 a lot while preparing to teach:
If you cannot speak like angels,
If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus,
You can say He died for all.
If you cannot rouse the wicked,
With the judgment's dread alarms,
You can lead the little children
To the Savior's waiting arms.
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Psalm 100
Saturday Church - Sam Radermacher
Here in Nepal, church services are held on Saturday instead of Sunday. This morning, we were graciously welcomed by Pastor Bhitrokoti and his congregation. We learned some wonderful new Nepali hymns, as well as some with rather familiar melodies (How Great Thou Art & Give Thanks). We gave the gathered group a recap of all the traveling and teaching we have done so far, and even sang a few of our own familiar English hymns as a choir for them in return.
Pastor Sam Rodebaugh and Pastor Todd Ohlmann preached today while Raju translated, and Dwight gave a brief overview of all the lessons we have been teaching: Jesus is True God, Jesus is True Man, Jesus is our Savior, and Jesus is for everyone.
After the service concluded, we were blessed with the opportunity to mingle with the members and share in the common gratitude of being joined together here in fellowship. How great our God is indeed!
Danyabad Jesu! (Thank you Jesus!)
Mission helper blog: teaching in Dang, Nepal
A little late with this post, but this was written the night of July 4th :) …
Today started out with a nice breakfast at the hotel my team and I stayed at. This time we were separated from the rest of the group because the other two groups had another 2 hours of bus riding to get to their teaching destinations. The rain created a bit of a stream that had to be crossed by foot towards the end of our trip. I'm grateful we didn't have a long journey after because I found some pretty cool and decently large rocks!
A lot of the kids there understood English and could speak some. My dad, Missionary Ohlmann, even got the chance to ask the group some questions since he knew they were a little more familiar with how that works. This church had a drum set, guitar, microphone, and amp, which made the music much sweeter and more fun. Some of the teenage girls, very pretty and wholesome, came up after we were done teaching, and I remembered to take a picture with them! (See picture at the bottom)
Rajan had mentioned on our way that this church was one that was in the process of joining the Himalayan Church of the Lutheran Confession of Nepal. All I can say is that I hope the words we spoke to them encouraged them in their faith and that the congregation continues to work with the HCLCN.
Blessings!
-Lydia Ohlmann
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Today we are teaching the Good News in Trisuli! We traveled to Trisuli yesterday from Kathmandu. We didn't have Riley with us, however, ...
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We had a long bus ride yesterday, about 13 hours. We dropped one group off about 2 hours before we reached our hotel so they could teach at ...
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I wrote most of this blog at the end of the MHT but didn't quite finish it and never posted it. Although it is extremely late, this blog...