Extremely Belated Reflection on MHT 2023

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 serves as a sort of recap and reflection of our time in Nepal, drawing from some evening devotions we did together as well as conversations I had with some of the other Mission helpers. I tried to the best of my knowledge credit people who gave me some of the inspirations for this post, but if I forgot anyone, it wasn't on purpose, and I sincerely apologize.

In my first blog I spoke of an opportunity that Pastor Sam Rodebaugh and I had to pray over some members of the congregation we were at that had various physical issues. I also wrote about how I felt, in the moment, unprepared to pray over someone. There was a creeping thought of "Who am I? I can't help these people with their problems." I think part of that realization is important. I can't help these people. This is something I talked with Pastor Sam about. He pointed out the obvious problem with that thinking. Of course YOU cannot help them with their problems, that's why we pray. We have the privilege of a very real God who has a very real love for us (that sentence is almost word for word from one of Sam's devotions). When we pray we acknowledge that God is the Great Physician and the One who knows the plan for each and every one of our lives. Sam also pointed me to James 5, and gave a devotion on this text later in the trip, to address the power and importance of prayer. Part of that text is "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit (v16-18)." We are exactly like Elijah, sinful people who need a Savior. He prayed for something seemingly impossible and God granted His prayer. For me this is a great reminder to "pray without ceasing" like it says in the Bible. A reminder to put every burden or anxiety, no matter how big, small, or impossible it might seem directly on the shoulders of our Savior and Father in prayer. Nepal is a country where many of the things we take for granted like safe travel, good roads, or predictable weather are replaced with windy cliff-side roads, landslides, and sudden monsoons. The importance of prayer suddenly comes much more into focus in this sort of environment. We prayed daily for safe travel and good weather, and the LORD thankfully blessed us with safe passage and good weather. On one occasion a landslide occurred on the same road we had travelled only hours after we had passed. Raju told us we would have been stopped on that road for 28 hours. But instead we made it to our destination that evening and were able to go and teach the next morning. These are the kind of things that we simply have no control over. We can't hold back the rain or catch the rocks tumbling towards the roads. What we can do is pray to our All-Powerful Heavenly Father and then have the peace of mind knowing that He is in control and "that all things work together for good to those who love God." 

TLBWYA,

Ethan Sydow

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

We pray that the seeds we plant be blessed by God and bring forth fruits. 

WE also benefit from our fellowship 

Elinor 

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

Pics from Trisuli

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.

Psalm 100

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."

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!)

Sent from my iPhone

Girls from the congregation

Sent from my iPhone

Walkin’ through the stream

Sent from my iPhone

Mission helper blog: teaching in Dang, Nepal

7/4/23

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

July 6th

July 7th

July 7th

July 6th & 7th

July 6th- Today was a day off in Pokhara, a very touristy place. We started off with breakfast at our hotel. Then we got to ride a cable car and see the beautiful views of the city, and even a tiny peak of the mountains. Some rode the cable car down while others of us got to paraglide back down. It was a breathtaking way to take in God's amazing creation here. It was a new experience for us all and I think we all enjoyed it. The Lord granted us a great day for spending time outside. We walked around the city looking at shops and then headed to dinner.

July 7th- Today we had another long bus ride which was about 10 hours, but before departed Pokhara we all caught a good view of the mountains from our hotel roof! The bus we had today had very spacious, comfortable chairs which made for a nice ride. After we arrived, we walked to a mall to have dinner. I think most of us got pizza, which was delicious! It was also my birthday today, so before bed I was surprised with a cake! I feel very blessed to be here with Christian friends, and I continue to be amazed by God's handiwork each day. His love is evident! 

Psalm 121--- I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

In Christ,

Lauren Gurgel

July 4 pictures

July 4 Blog

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 one of the schools in that area. We are meeting back with them this morning (July 5). We were planning on having our two groups that were still together go to both churches to teach, but because of the weather and the conditions of the roads, Raju thought they might not get back in time for the second lesson. So Josh, Lauren, Elinor, and Dwight went for the long ride in the morning to a village about 2 hours away. That drive turned into about 4 hours and from what I heard it was quite a ride. Thankfully they made it to the village safely and were able to teach about 65 children. My group of Sam, Beth, Riley, and I then taught in Tulsipur, where we were staying, at about 4 PM. As Raju guessed in the morning their group was not going to make it back in time for our lesson. So that meant the pastor in Tulsipur was going to translate for us. Thankfully he knew English well and did a great job translating our lesson to the children. A lot of the children in Tulsipur also already knew some English which helped as well. We taught about 150 children, which was great because it was more than we had expected. After my lesson I needed to run back to the hotel to get more of the bracelets we are handing out to the children. I got to ride on the back of a motorcycle through Tulsipur including a super secret, not so secret, shortcut across a walking bridge. I made it back just in time with the extra bracelets to finish passing them out to the children. We got a lot of time to play and take pictures with the kids after our lesson, and the other group got back in time to eat with us and the congregation at the church. We got back to the hotel and got ready to leave early in the morning to rejoin the other group where they were staying. As I'm writing this we have met up with the other group and are thankful to be back together for breakfast before we settle in for our long bus ride to Pokhara. Please remember to keep our group in your prayers as we travel across Nepal to continue to proclaim the Good News to our brothers and sisters here.
Romans 8:31-32 "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
TLBWYA,
Ethan Sydow

CLC MHT NEPAL 2023 JULY 4 Benjamin Haslett

My team departed from the hotel at 10:15 A.M. We had morning devotion as we traveled to the Nepalian wayside church. Travel involved riding in an SUV for approximately 20 minutes. We had to get out and walk across a river. After walking across the river we made a very short walk to the church. Shortly after arriving at the church we were welcomed with applause and given beautiful Nepalian scarfs as gifts. Afterwards the worship service started. The Mission Helpers then each got up and presented their respective Bible lessons. Afterwards the worship service was closed with a nepali hymn and a prayer. Once the service was done, we went next door and were given the traditional Nepali meal of chicken and rice which was very good. We rode back in the same SUV that took us from the hotel to the river. The river had at this point dried up enough to allow vehicles to cross it. We stopped on the way back at a small shop and picked up Indian style desserts. We then went back to the hotel and spent the remainder of the day there.