Nepal Mission Recap

A young Bible college student in Nepal texts us a question that most people are afraid to say out loud: if God’s grace is sufficient, why do dishonest people look successful while faithful people feel left behind? We start there, because that question exposes how easily we let the world define “winning” and how quickly we start measuring God’s love with money, comfort, or status.

We walk through a better definition of success: peace that holds, joy that lasts, forgiveness, acceptance, adoption, hope, character, and endurance. Then we open two anchor texts, 2 Corinthians 8:9 and 2 Corinthians 9:8, and talk about what “rich” really means in the New Testament. Grace is Jesus sharing his life with us, and God’s sufficiency is not a paycheck for good behavior. It’s strength, presence, and abundance for every good work, even when circumstances stay hard.

From there we tell the story of our Nepal mission trip and the spiritual life retreat “Strong Grace for Weak People,” including what we taught through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph: faith, abiding, surrender, and suffering. We share what it’s like to meet pastors we’ve discipled over Zoom, serve 160+ leaders, and see the global church up close. And yes, we also tell the Poon Hill story: fog, a simple prayer, and a view that feels like a gift.

If you care about Christian discipleship, missions in Nepal, and a practical theology of God’s grace that doesn’t drift into prosperity talk, this conversation will recalibrate you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels “behind,” and leave a review with your own definition of success.

Transcript

A Question About Success And Grace

SPEAKER_03 0:01

We went to Nepal. This is a young man named Sunil. Sunil. I got a message from Sunil Tuesday morning after our mission trip. And he's one of the students from the Bible college. And he this is his text. Okay, I'm gonna read it to you. Sir, they all call me Sir or Reverend San. That's what they call me all the time. So he says, Sir, I feel like asking you a question, may I ask? God's grace is sufficient for us, but why is it that in this world only dishonest people seem to be successful while we are still left behind? One of my Hindu friends says to me, Sunil, how many times do you go to fellowship a week? I told him I go more than three times, and each fellowship lasts about two hours. He said, You are losing six hours a week. If you used your time elsewhere, you would become successful. Now, when I look at him, he has his own office, but I'm still in the same place. Why is that? Is God's grace less for me? If it is abundant, then why am I still behind? Then he sent another text. He said, I 100% confirm that God's grace is sufficient for me, but why Hindus, unchristian, and unbelievers people are successful? I'm just reading his verbatim. This question every day coming in my mind. Do you get what he's saying? I mean, doesn't that make sense? Have you not wondered the same thing sometimes? And then this is how I responded to him on Tuesday. I said, Great question. We have to ask how we are going to define the word success. You have peace, joy, forgiveness, acceptance, adoption, God's presence, love, hope, character, and endurance.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

They have money. Which one is success?

SPEAKER_03 2:17

So Sunil responded to me this way. He said, So I have this success with an exclamation point. He's like, if we don't have joy and peace, then money is nothing. And I said, You're gonna be tempted to define it, how the world defines it, but I want you to let God define it for you. And I sent him this verse. And I want you guys to know these verses. 2 Corinthians 8.9 and 2 Corinthians 9.8. You can remember that, and both these verses like go together, but I this is the the verses that we're gonna remember for today, okay? 2 Corinthians 8.9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,

Defining Real Riches In Christ

SPEAKER_03 3:05

that you through his poverty might become rich. Now, is it talking about being rich with money? Absolutely not. And if there's pastors that you're listening to that are teaching you that, just know they are charlatans and liars and thieves, and they are not teaching the truth of God. Now, God will bless you, or he may not, has no determination on what he thinks about you. Nothing. He will give you what he chooses to give you. We've been born in America, we are very, very blessed. You're gonna see things today, you're gonna see poverty and things that will maybe make you feel bad about being. You don't have to feel bad about being God chose you to be born here, to live here for special reasons. So we'll talk about that. But grace is that Jesus died to transfer his life to you. He is rich in life, he is life. So when it comes to joy, peace, patience, kindness, all the things that were given through grace, it's all just Jesus' life that he is sharing with you. He was the happiest person to ever live, he was the most peace at peace, he was the most full of joy, he was the most everything, he has it all, he's the source of it all, and he's giving it to you. You can be rich in his life. Not because you earned it or deserve it, but because of grace, and that is such a beautiful thing. Now the next verse is 2 Corinthians 9.8, okay? So 8-9-9-8, don't get them confused, but remember both of them, okay? God is able to make all grace. How much grace? All of it, right? Abound towards you, so that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work. I'm gonna read that again the way I think Paul wrote it. God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, could have an abundance for every good work. Could he be any more clear about what he's saying? Could could Paul have written any more adjectives to talk about how wonderful and incredible the grace of Jesus is, the the life that Jesus wants to share with you. God, Paul could not have been any more explicit. This is not about you earning it, it is all a free gift, the life of Jesus given to us. And what's it for? It's for every good work. Jesus shares his life, not for you to spend your life on yourself, but to share, do good works, spending your life for others. Glorifying God as we sang his praises this morning, singing in the shower, singing on the toilet, singing in private, singing amongst your friends, sing to the Lord. And then live in your life to serve those around you. All right, so there is that. So Sunil ended, he said this. He says, It means success is not determined money or material things. That's what he wrote. Then he says, Yes, now I clearly understand success is not material things. Whatever you are doing, if you are happy in this work, you are successful, right, sir? Now I am taking testimony of different students, pastors, and leaders, because I like to do that, because though this through this work, lots of people are knowing our Heavenly Father God. Even if I haven't getting any amount of money, but I still feel good joy and peace. Sure, sir, Heavenly Father will provide me when right, time will come. I love rap. I love reading exactly how he wrote it because I get what he's saying, right? It's you can understand what he's saying. He totally gets it. So we went out to teach a conference to this group called Strong Grace for Weak People. Strong Grace for Weak People. And I loved that topic. And in that topic, we taught through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and how God's grace was strong for them even in their weakness.

Strong Grace For Weak People

SPEAKER_03 7:35

But we could say it today, it's also rich grace for poor people. God wants to give his rich grace to us, poor people. And we're all poor spiritually. Blessed are the poor in spirit, right? God says, and for uh he will give them the grace that they need. Okay, so the first uh topic we're gonna we're we're gonna say we went, okay. So this is this is a map of of how we got there. So we went Brownsville to Dallas to Chicago to India, which that dots a little wrong, to uh to to New Delhi, to Kathmandu, and then we ended up a few days later going to Pokhara. That's a long journey. It was really, really long. So we left on 5 a.m. on Wednesday and um got there at 11 p.m. on Friday. So what was the purpose of this trip? Why did this trip matter? Uh, three things I'll tell you about. One to provide a spiritual life retreat conference. So we put on a spiritual life retreat conference for the Evangelical Christian Bible College in Nepal. This is a Bible college that I've been teaching for the past three years. I teach classes there on Zoom. And uh and this, see, says Strong Grace, that was our this is our t-shirt that they made for the the thing. And uh so it's for the Bible college,

Why We Went To Nepal

SPEAKER_03 8:55

their graduates, their staff, and then a bunch of local pastors there. Uh a second reason we went was to personally connect with more pastors that I've been discipling uh that were in Pakistan and India. So I was able to sneak them over to Nepal. So we got them tickets, and so the Pakistani guys, they can't go from Pakistan to Nepal. So they had to go Pakistan to Dubai to Nepal, and and but we were able to make that happen. So four guys from Pakistan that I've been discipling and teaching, you'll get to know them. And then one guy from India, and they're able to just head over. It's pretty easy for the Indian guys to get over to Nepal. But I needed to spend time with these guys to see how, you know, to really get to know them, see them in person, because I've spent a lot of time with them on Zoom, but it's just different to know someone in person, to be able to hug them and see in their eyes how God's grace has been impacting their lives. And then the third thing is that we took a little team from here, me and Tom and Simon, and we were gonna grow in selflessness and humility and faith through this trip. That and we were gonna endure hardship and trials together, uh, building each other up through love. And I think that uh each of us really needed that. And so those are the three main purposes of why we were going on this. So now I'm gonna show you this video that uh that the class made here. Uh well, there's hey, there's our we're leaving right there. That was when we were happy in Dallas before we left. And let's see, there was our high-quality airplane that we were flying. There's a lot more pictures that are worse than that. Um, so okay, so here's we're flying over there. This is over Saudi Arabia, but that blue part and the that's actually the Strait of Hormuz. We we flew right over the Strait of Hormuz. I was like, wow, that's crazy. Because it's in the news, obviously, these days. Uh, so that's there, and then this is when we landed there. Um, and those are the four guys from Nepal and uh promote on the far left. He's our our guide here. So we we were hungry and tired after landing after 30 hours. Okay, this is a video the college made uh just so you can kind of get an idea uh of from their perspective what this what this retreat was like. So here we're we're taking off. Uh this is going journeying from Kathmandu to the the place where we're doing our our uh retreat. So it was at this hotel, and kind of we were on the upper top level of like the seventh floor of this hotel, big open area, so they did worship. And uh he's the president of the Bible college, so he was our guy that was in charge. There's a hey, do you recognize their shirts? Yeah, those are our Pakistani friends that love our shirts. We took some shirts for them, and uh uh that's my translator, Bushan. He was awesome. He did a great job translating. Um, so you can see we're we're teaching, we're we're teaching about grace, and then they do fun dances. Uh they're very into dancing. Do you guys want to start a dance thing on Sundays? We all do we want to do this dance? We could do it. After each session, we had discussion questions. I like discussion questions, as you can tell. Uh, I made them do discussion questions and then prayer, and then they would come up and share what God um had done in their lives. Then we got up at four in the morning to go to the top of this mountain where there's this giant golden elephant, three-headed elephant golden thing. It's a Hindu statue thing on top of this mountain. We went out there and we sang praise songs and we prayed. Uh came back down and and then they did another uh special dance, and uh that's Pramode. He's he's our Sherpa. And uh there's their worship leaders and everyone singing another special dance, which is pretty cool. Like traditional dance. Oh, there's Pastor Simon. You're gonna get to know him. He's awesome. He went with us on our trek at the end of the trip. He's the first graduate of the Bible college. He now pastors five churches on the west in the rural areas of Nepal, uh, and the east, sorry, east side over by um that guy's name is Brian Williams. He's born in India. His dad was a British guy. So his name is Brian Williams. He speaks Indi, he's from India. Um so everyone's sharing about what God's teaching them through the thing, and then it wraps up with a closing thing. And then hey, we do a a boating outing. Um some people did paddle boating and these are some of the leaders, and then they had lots of worship leaders, and the kids are actually super talented.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Um they have a whole choir and had awesome drums and everything. And then I I told them that they had to prepare a drama.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

I'm totally gonna make you guys do this someday. So I told them they had to do a drama of what was Paul's thorn in the side. And they did, we had 16 dramas presented at the end, and they were awesome, they were funny, they were powerful, they were meaningful. Uh, you're gonna see this is one of the dramas, a guy's pretending to be a demon dancing in rap hip hop, and there's Paul and he's and there's Tom being cast in the air by a disgusting demon. This one was really funny, we'll talk about it in a minute, but uh and then we prayed to end the time together. The dramas were pretty uh uh uh m memorable, pretty amazing. And then this is the bus on the way home. And let me tell you, the roads in Nepal are terrible. They're very, very, very bumpy. They're very, very, very bumpy. They're very bumpy. That's the definition, that's the only adjective I can really use. Uh someday they'll have all their their roads built, but uh they don't yet. So hopefully they could be a really great tourist place if they had nice roads everywhere. Um, it's really super beautiful. Okay, so what were our expectations and our fears as we were getting ready to go on this on this trip? Well, you know, we were I knew that we would see God's provision, right? So, number one, I was I was kind of always thinking about our loved ones back home. So we knew we would miss everybody here in the church. I knew I was gonna miss Dana tremendously. Um, so that was our first thing that that was kind

Retreat Highlights Worship And Dramas

SPEAKER_03 16:05

of a fear that I had is like, oh, I'm gonna miss you know, our family. Um, our health, you know, we're going into a different place. Everyone's like, do not drink the water. So we had lots of bottles of water and stuff. Uh, but and then this was a typical food, you know. So you see this as an American, you're like, what is that? Uh, but we actually got really used to the food, and uh luckily none of us really got sick. Um, I mean, we had some things, but uh the food was was actually pretty good. So this would be called Dalbat. Um, so it's they have this phrase Dalbat power 24 hour. That's because the Sherpasm when you're hiking, you just eat this and it says it gives you energy for 24 hours a day. Um, so that's that. And um we had to see God provide for us with finances. You know, we had we had to raise a lot of money, and God provided a lot of money to take this trip, over $19,000. Uh, I'll tell you what all that went to uh here as we go. Uh, but that was something we really had to trust the Lord in. Um, safety, you know, we were in another country and we're traveling to the other side of the world, had to trust God with safety. Uh, we wanted uh we wanted uh my expectation was that we would hear about the impact that God was making over there. And so that brings me to this picture here. So the first day we got there, we we had this little meeting, and this was a little dinner that we had. It was a meeting, not a dinner actually. And um uh the the these are pastors that I've been uh discipling over there and that couldn't make it to the retreat that we had we were having that week. And so they wanted to come and just get to know me, get to meet me in person, and it was it was incredibly humbling and powerful for me. So you're talking highlights of the trip for me. This meeting was one of the deepest, most impactful things that I've ever experienced. Because all these people went around the circle and talked about how God had used the learning about grace in their lives and in their churches. And it it humbled me greatly, you know, and that's the reason I went that was to see firsthand how God, but to see it and to hear it, it was really, really powerful. So this this picture speaks to that. And then uh the second impact that we really wanted to see God make was through the spiritual life retreat. Uh, so you guys kind of seen this, but I love that everyone wears these shirts that say strong grace for weak people. And then the the last like kind of expectation we have is maybe that we would have a perspective change, that we would see something different, that we would learn something different. And um, so as we just are living this life, like walking through these streets and seeing world life like this, it was very it did change our perspective about a lot of things. So um the the church was there, you know. I I I think what I want to share next is that the church over there is the same church that you guys are. Like all these same people had the same love, the same hugs, the same exact spirit that you guys have. Like that when I when I when I when I get hugged by you, when when I'm praying for you, when you're praying for me, everything that we're experiencing here and seeing here, it was the same church. Uh, I think we're just an extension of each other, we're just different parts of the same body, and we we support each other. And so what we did over there was we supported this church in a really big, powerful way that they're still talking about, and I'm still getting messages about how it impacted them. And so I want you to feel this. I want you to feel that you guys, uh, because you supported, had a had a big impact

Fears Provision And Perspective Shift

SPEAKER_03 20:10

in the church over there, and that they pray for you guys now too. And so that if God is building this connection between us. Um, so you know, we saw some major so we went now, we saw we saw some major moments that God did some major things while we were over there. Um, first, God's grace in his word changed lives, okay? Um we saw the church uh here, turn that down for me real quick. Uh, this is them leading worship. This is a church we went to on the first day that we got there, and I got to teach that church about uh God's grace. And so everything I teach, you know, I'm I'm always gonna teach about God's grace. So we taught this church about God's grace. This is the church that's actually built below the Bible college, so the Bible college is on top of it. So we had a lot of people there. Um, and uh so it was a neat uh opportunity. And they at this church they um gave us traditional Nepali hats. Um, Tom's did not fit on his head. It was not even close, and it was really comical watching them try to put it on. They were even laughing, they were like, this man's a giant. And but it we were very honored by them. It was really special. Um and then we and then you know, we taught about God's grace at the at the conference. So uh, you know, in that first message, I was teaching them about being freed from legalism, okay, being freed from this idea that you have to measure up to God's standards. No, we are given God's grace that lifts us up into his presence without uh following uh The law, but he enables us to keep uh to live righteous lives by his presence, not by rules. And so we started with that, and then we we taught through Abraham's life, which we learned about faith. That's how you have to receive this righteousness and walk in this righteousness is by faith, trusting in God. There's no other way. Then we learned about Isaac in the second section, which was about abiding. Isaac learned how to abide with Jesus, which is another way that we walk in his grace, is by abiding in him. You don't have to try to impress God, you just simply abide, trusting in him. Then we learned about Jacob, which Jacob had to wrestle with God. And so, and then God changed his name to Israel. And that was a big lesson about surrender. You have to fully surrender to Jesus. So after you enter a relationship with him by faith, and then you're abiding with a little while, Jesus will come to you someday and say, Listen, I need every part of you. You can't hold something back. You can't hold back your reputation, you can't hold, you can't hide things from me. Every part of your heart, soul, and life must be governed by God or Israel. And Jacob came to that point, and it's a point in our lives that we all have to uh learn. And so that's that was our third session. And then Joseph was our fourth session where we learned about suffering, uh, which we'll talk about when we talk about our plane ride home. There was a lot of suffering involved in our plane ride home. Um the second major impact that I want to just highlight for you guys is that God showed us his power and his grace physically. Uh, you know, we had safe travels, we had safe flights for the most part, we had roads and sickness that we didn't really, you know, it there was a lot of things. Uh, my knees are not great, uh, especially walking downhill. And for three days we walked uphill on this trek, and then for one day we had to walk downhill. And it was God got me through, you know, He got I got some poles, and um, I had hiked Mount Fuji in 2017 and coming down, my knees totally obliterated and they swelled up like this big, and it was just terrible and the most pain I've ever felt. So I was really scared and worried that that would happen on this, but I only had just a little bit of pain, praise the Lord, and they only swelled just a little bit and only my right knee. So way to go. I was really, really thankful that God showed up uh physically for us. Um, so I want to show you a couple pictures of that. There's me teaching this thing, and oh, this was in the um when they were doing the dramas, so this guy was Paul, and the person behind him was a demon, and they were using guitar sticks to mess with his brain. So they they were it was symbolic of them putting like bad thoughts in him, but it was so funny because they were just like kept annoying and him. He kept just being like, Stop it! Like you couldn't tell if it was real life if he was annoyed,

Teaching Grace Through The Patriarchs

SPEAKER_03 24:55

or it was really funny. He was a very funny actor. Um, and then oh, look who that is. Okay, so Tom did a a wonderful skit. Uh, I've discovered his talent is absolutely acting. Um he could be a comedian for sure. Um, he was it was it was really good and really funny. In fact, the entire audience was crying. They were laughing so hard. I mean, it was they were screaming and laughing because as he was pretending to be Paul, then this he kept this was Reza, the guy from Pakistan. He came in and attacked him, and uh then WWE picked him up and um slammed him down, which was epic, and everyone was screaming and laughing and thought it was about the funniest thing ever. So, yeah, like I said, we then we went on this this uh hike, you know, and you don't have to hear all this stuff for this, but I'm just basically narrating a bit of like we started this hike and we spended we spent uh three and a half days on this trek. This is the very, very beginning, and I'm already out of breath. You can see I'm wearing my backpack here. Well, within about 200 feet, promotes like, let me take your backpack. And so he took my backpack for the end. He this guy did two backpacks. He is a beast, a Himalayan yeti of man and muscle. So uh yeah, he he was a godsend. So this was the crew that went on our trek at the end of the trip. Um, Simon promote is the second one, uh, another Simon, but we call him Samson, Tom, Jerry, Simon, and Rewinder. All right, uh pause. Let's see. I'm gonna go back. We're not gonna do that. I'll need sound on that next one. Um, okay, so um we went on the hike. That was really cool. Now, the next moment of God's power I want to tell you about is when we went up, we got to the very top of this hike to a place called Poon Hill. And in this, it's supposed to have this incredible view. And we got up there and we're gonna look at the sunset up there, it's supposed to be amazing. And when we got up there, it was completely socked in with fog, as foggy as you could be. And we've just hiked like eight hours, so we're a little disappointed, right? Okay, let's go ahead and share this. Uh uh, got sound on.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Let's do this video. This is before.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

How was our journey?

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Not very much.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

Let's see how what happens. So pause and okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

So do you see how cloudy it is? Okay, so I'm gonna tell you what happened, and I'm not gonna lie. I'm not even gonna exaggerate. We just said a simple prayer. I was like, okay, Jesus, we need you to move all these clouds. And then I did this. I went, I did it like four or five times. I was just kind of playing, but I was I literally said, Jesus, I need you to move these clouds. I'm not exaggerating, but within two minutes, the clouds started moving away. Okay, and within five minutes, the sun had broken through, and we could see the mountains, and within ten minutes, well, let me show you.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

It looked like that. And literally, it was a it was a silly simple prayer.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

And that's uh the one actually on the left is is the seventh tallest mountain in the world. It's called Anupura. Um the one way on the right is called Fishtail. You could see that one from Pokero where we were. This one in the middle has a name, I forget what it is. It's actually not as tall as the one right there, and then all the way on the left, there's another one. Uh, this isn't even as clear as it got, it got even clearer. So the one way over on the left is the is the tenth tallest mountain in the world. Starts with a G or something or an M. Um beautiful, right? Like absolutely incredible. So I was like, I could not believe I I could believe it though, because Jesus is just that good. Uh I mean it got so clear that we could see as far as we wanted. Like it was unbelievable. Okay, so I'm just gonna let you kind of enjoy these videos and pictures because they were they were truly amazing. Um again, we're just kind of flabbergasted at how all the clouds just where did the clouds go? Like, I was just couldn't believe it. I was so amazed. And we were the only people there. Our eight people were the only people. There was no other human beings. The next morning, there was over 150 people up there, and they were all foggy the entire time.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

And then there's some good still shots. That mountain has the highest death to summit ratio.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

People summoned that one right there, on a printer one. Okay, so now I didn't even tell you the most amazing part that God showed us right there. Okay, as soon as we were there about an hour, hour and a half,

Trek Stories And Strength For Weak Knees

SPEAKER_03 31:25

as we were um uh just amazed at the view, okay. And then we turn around and I said, Okay, guys, it's time to go. We started, we started coming down, and um as we kind of stepped down the those little steps, uh Simon turns around and he says, Whoa, and we all turn back, and I kid you not, complete fog, not a s you couldn't see a single thing. And that's when I really freaked out, and I was like, okay, that made it, sealed it, that this was God's just just God's power. God did it, and I just give him the glory. It was not a coincidence. I a hundred percent am gonna say that is not a coincidence, that is God's power. So beautiful, and uh so you know what? We came back different. This was our our trip back, which was full of adventure. So we we flew from Pokhara to Kathmandu uh to New Delhi. We took off from New Delhi. We were supposed to be on a on a 19-hour flight, uh, which turned into a 30-hour flight uh because we stopped in Vienna, Austria for gas, then took off again, got all the way to Iceland, then had to turn around and go back to Norway because of a medical emergency. They literally got a zero doctor on board. They we that happened, and uh, so a doctor came and and and said that they had so this lady got taken off in Norway, and then we just sat there for three hours again. So 30 hours between on one plane, it was brutal. I feel like we almost died, but we made it home. So, what did Nepal teach us about God? I'm gonna have Tom and Simon come up here real quick for just a second.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

And uh they got a microphone there we go. And I'll I'll show you mine. What did God teach us? What did Nepal teach us about God?

SPEAKER_03 33:35

You know, really it was uh make grace the center of everything and he'll take care of everything. Uh I I feel like I learned that. Number second, the second thing I really learned is that he provides everything that we need. Um, you know, he provided for flights, the cut the food, uh, the conference, which we we paid for the entire hotel and all 160 plus people to come there for three days and learn the word of God. We we supplied that. God supplied that. Uh the buses

The Poon Hill Prayer And Clear Skies

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to get there, all the transportation, all of that was provided. And it, like I said, it was over $19,000. Now, 15 of that was provided by two donors up in Colorado. Uh, that's how the trip got started. Is someone came to me and said, Would you you do you need to go and see this ministry? And I said yes. And then I had this idea that I could bring the guys from Pakistan and and India to join me because I'll never be able to go to Pakistan, probably. And um and it worked out, and and God provided that money. And then the rest was provided by people just donating, mainly from this church. And so um, we praise God for that provision and showing us that He will provide when He opens the door. I wasn't planning, I didn't wasn't planning on going to Nepal, it just all happened, and all this stuff happened, and I can't believe it happened. It it's kind of amazing that it all happened. So we just want to praise, I praise God for providing everything that was needed. So that's what God taught me, uh uh what Nepal taught me about God. Um, Simon, what did God teach you?

SPEAKER_05 35:16

Well, what did you first question?

SPEAKER_03 35:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:19

What was the first question?

SPEAKER_03 35:21

What did Nepal teach us about God?

SPEAKER_05 35:24

Um I realized that anyone can have God's spirit, and we all have the same spirit. Um and uh I really admired promote and Pastor Simon's spirit and their faith. And uh I thought to myself, I want to be like them, and like because to me it seemed like they were just truly and fully surrendered to the Lord, and that's something I want to do. So I thought they had an attractive spirit. And uh I also learned about the importance of prayer and um how I need more of that in my life, and so I'm committed to praying more.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Well, that's a good answer, man. That's good. Um one thing that that I really learned um in Nepal, struggling with this ulcer thing, so you know, it's a lot of times in a lot of physical pain, but I realized that you know, you you study your Bible, you pray, and you do, you know, you do these things internally, you have this internal conversation with God, but I realize that sometimes God makes it easy. Sometimes God puts a person or people in your life that just that that these people or person just stirs you up God's grace. And like it just everything you fail to reckon or recognize, you know, in yourself or just through prayer, God just puts a person or people in your life just to remind you of that. Where it's like there's no denying that you know his God's heart for you. So that was pretty amazing to witness that and to feel that from uh people in my life. So that's what God reminded me that no matter what happens, you know, He's I take one step towards Him, he He's gonna take a thousand steps towards me.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

So that's it. That's beautiful. Thank you. Uh the next question I just want to cover is like, what did it reveal about ourselves? I think as we we kind of learned about ourselves while we were there, uh, and I think for me it revealed that our my flesh, our flesh is always in the way, but God helps us to deny our flesh through love. Um, you know, I could feel my wife's love from across the world, and that kept it kept me grounded. Every time I would talk with her, it would really mean something to me, and I would kind of have more energy for the next day. And and then I was always thinking, okay, I can't just die. I gotta get home to my wife, right? Uh and and then the love that other people would have for me and promote when he would carry my this guy, is the most loving human being. Like he he would carry my backpack, and he and I was like, Are you sure it's so heavy? I should have bought the extra toothbrush. You know, it's like, and and he's just like, it's not even heavy for me. This is light, bro. And I knew, but he did, he carried it for me, and he just everyone was just loving on me. And so it taught me I need love. That's we all need love. And guys, we gotta love each other so much. We gotta love each other more, and I need it, and and and um, and you need it, and so that's gonna be uh a mission thing is to just continue to love each other. Um okay, what did what did uh the trip teach you about yourself a little bit?

SPEAKER_05 38:53

May have that been that answer already, but um for me, I guess it was just uh self-reflection because I was um I was able to be around Promote and Pastor Simon, and like I said, like I really admired them and uh you know I was comparing them to myself, but not in a bad way, just um like the next step, like they're at the next step where I want to be, and I want to rely on God more to help me through everything that I'm going through and

Flight Home Lessons And Team Reflections

SPEAKER_05 39:25

to um continue to fatigue Him and have all those natural blessings just fall upon me. And so, yeah, just like self-reflection, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Awesome.

unknown 39:37

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

I I think that the main thing that God taught me about myself, I guess moving forward is that I need I'm I'm gonna be more uh vulnerable with people. So you know, when you do that, you're taking a risk because if they hear about your past or hear about what you're really feeling, you're afraid that hey, they could, you know, use that information to hurt you or something. But I realize that you know you uh you know it that's what it takes to have a genuine connection with people, to give it people a chance to pour into you, and it takes to be intimate with them and to be actually be vulnerable so instead of being so um on the surface with others and keeping them at a safe distance. Um that's what Sean helped me to realize, and I'm gonna try to walk in.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

So thank you. So, what should our church learn from this? We're part of a much bigger family. And we have a unique role to play. Uh, God has put us here, you know. You might not be called to be a full-time missionary across the world, but God has called you here, and you can be fully surrendered to God here, and we can support this ministry or other ministries with our resources through selfless generosity. You know, God can call you to support financially these these uh ministries. And so, you know, there if you want to support our church, we're always gonna be pouring out and teaching God's grace. And you know how to support our church. There's a box in the back, there's a website that you can go to to support our church. Uh, these ministries specifically, you can go to simplegrace.life, which is my personal ministry website, and you can support that ministry if you choose. Um, I'm definitely looking to expand the ministry of teaching about grace. I want to translate uh the book into other languages. Right now it's being translated into Punjabi and uh doing we're starting new work in in India, and we're doing crazy new work in Pakistan with all the work that we accomplished here and the relationship building that we we did and the work in Nepal. Uh all that can be supported at simplegrace.life. I really am asking you to pray that uh about how you could support that. Um, how can you engage right now? You can pray that these students have the wisdom and and fully surrender to God's call in their life. Um you can uh pray uh that we exemplify full surrender to them. We live in America. It should be easier for us to surrender everything than the hardships that they have to go through. We went and visited the dorm rooms, and the dorm rooms for 56 students are not bigger than this room. 56 students. There's a little courtyard in the front, and just rooms on the outside, and they were all very, very small, and there was a lot of bunks in each room, and the leaders are there, the employees and all the students, boys on this side, girls on this side. It is packed in there tight, and they don't have running water, they have a bathroom that's just a hole in the ground. It's there's a lot that could be done to bless this college. They would like to build a college, and these are things that we would love to assist them in and see God do in their life. So we have a missions page on our website. Uh, if you go to resources under our website, there's click on missions. There's specific missions you can support that that are connected to this, uh, but the main ones is just support the church if you like. You can dedicate it to missions if you want your money to go to missions, or you know, uh simplegrace.life. We need support there as well. Um last question for you guys. If you could ask these guys to pray for one thing in Nepal, what would you ask them to pray for?

SPEAKER_05 43:49

The bathrooms. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

Um He had a hard time. No, it they're always wet.

SPEAKER_05 44:00

The floor was just always wet. That was that was the thing that was bugging me a little bit. It's okay. Um, I would um ask you guys to pray that um more people would have the chance to hear about Jesus because um I know the college was mainly for like um the poorer communities, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:20

Yeah, so the college they have a caste system there, and the college is for the low caste. So the low caste kids are able to come to the college. Um, and if they desire to come, they're allowed to go, I think for free. I think they get a scholarship. Um, so it's 90% uh people from a low caste. That's what the college is designed for.

SPEAKER_05 44:40

Yeah, so just that more people, like especially in the really big and busy city of Kathmandu, would be able to have a chance to hear about Jesus and uh and Pokhara. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

Um when I prepared this answer, there's a man over there, he's one of the um the founders of the college, his name's uh Dr. Benjamin, and he is like just watching

How To Support And Pray Going Forward

SPEAKER_00 45:05

him work. I mean, he what he did for us and the way he orchestrated everything, he works, he's like a one-man army, and his his smile never dropped from his face. And and he he he worked and hiked and and and uh but if you could y'all could pray for him and support him, his name's Dr. Benjamin. I try to tag in a bunch of stuff, but he's an amazing man. But it you could tell he's carrying uh like it looks like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he's just uh really had an impact on me. So so uh yeah, that's that's one thing I would ask for you all to pray for him. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

Amen. Okay. All right, guys. Well, that is our our um time of sharing. Uh so I would love to ask, answer any other questions that you have uh if you take me out to lunch. Uh anytime, send me a message, take me out to coffee. Uh, I would love to sit down if you have more questions. You want to get involved, you want to go on the next trip, all those things are totally cool. We we hope to continue developing this ministry. But thank you guys for your support and your prayers, and most of all, your love. It's wonderful to come home and know that I'm gonna be hugged and supported. I came home and nearly cut my finger off, and and everybody was supporting me and and loving me. And I just thank you guys so much for for all your help. Um, now we're gonna continue serving the Lord here on this island. We're gonna build up his kingdom here. We're gonna we're gonna seek the word and study the word and and uh we're gonna surrender our lives here so that we can continue to be used to make an impact overseas and around the world and on this island and Port Isabel and as far as the Lord wants to send us. Amen. Okay, would you guys all stand with me? Do you want to sing a song? Let's sing a song. Thank you, Sarah.