We left our hotel at the Jungle Wildlife Camp at 8-8:30 sharp. After about an hour and a half of bus and tuk tuk my group (Sam Rodebaugh, Riley Naumann, Beth Sorensen, and Raju Bitrakoti) reached the bank of a river. It was rainy today but we were able to cross the river and hiked about 45 minutes to the church. We were blessed to be able to teach over 100 kids and adults today. Sam and I also had the amazing opportunity to pray over some of the members of the congregation who had physical ailments. They fed us afterwards then we made the trek back to our tuk tuks. The rain let up a little so I was able to get some pictures of the amazing scenery on our hike. We packed 8 people into our little tuk tuk on the way back to town where we met up with the other groups and made our way back to Chitwan and our hotel. We all got dinner together in Chitwan and then Raju and his family took us to the Tharu Cultural Center where we watched some traditional Nepali dances (and they even got a bunch of us to join in during the last dance). It was a great experience and a chance to bond more with the Christian friends on this trip. During the trip I've often thought about Isaiah's vision of the LORD in which he is called to be a prophet. Isaiah declares "Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips." I've often felt this unworthiness while on this trip, under qualified to be teaching in a foreign country. The angel in Isaiah's vision cleansed his lips with a coal, and the LORD said his iniquities were taken away. In the same way our iniquities have been purged by Christ, so now we can get up and say "here am I send me!"
In Christ,
Ethan Sydow