Nepal and Bhutan Mission Trip 2007

Monday April 16, 2007--We are departing this morning for the country of Bhutan. This country is closed to the gospel. However, we will be going in as tourists and will be traveling and "site seeing" with a fellow believer, who has a tour business. This is the means by which the Lord is using him to get believers in the country to do the work of the Lord. At a cost of $210.00 dollars a day per person this seems to be quite an expensive trip. The Lord in His abundant grace has supplied for the cost. Obviously, He puts no price tag on the worth of one soul or many for that matter. The country is absolutely beautiful. It is a very mountaneous country and reminds me somewhat of the state of Colorado. What a majestic display of the glory of God in His creation.

As we arrived we were, by the grace of God we were able to get through the lines of inspection without them opening our bags. We have packed well over a thousand tracts and other literature pertaining to salvation. The night before we hid them in socks, between our sciffies and anywhere else. I believe God blinded the eyes and hearts of those people to have no desire to check out the luggage. Praise God. As we entered the first town we took some time over "tea" to get to know Karma and find out what it was that he had planned for us. After a while, we tested the waters in the town we flew in to, Thimpu. The first tract I handed out to a person was a great blessing. He came back to me and spoke english and he wanted to know more about what the tract meant. He had heard about Jesus only in a history book and mentioned "good Friday" and the crucifixion. He didn't know why Christ died or what He stood for or came to do. We were able to go through the gospel with him and he was very receptive and open.

We have found that one must start at the beginning with these people, meaning the story of Creation, the Fall of man, the law of God, the cross of Christ. I asked "Sering" what he thought about what we had said. He said, "I think I might believe this" and then asked to have some tracts for his friends. What an opening gesture of God's faithfulness. It reminded me of the story of the "women at the well" in John 4. We continued to hand out tracts with very little resistance and the people of Bhutan seem very nice and receptive.

After a couple of hours, we met up with Karma again and proceeded to go to "Longo Fellowship" to meet with a small group of believers. What a great experience as they were so open and excited to see us. We were able to encourage them to fight the fight of faith regardless of what circumstances they were facing. It seemed odd for us to be speaking this when they have suffered much more persecution for being followers of Christ than I have. I was very humbled to see these families who have decided to all live together for support and love toward one another. Seeing many toothbrushes in the bathroom in one cup was a visual that I will never forget.

Many of these brothers and sisters have been persecuted for their faith. Some have had their insurance taken away, their children have not been allowed in school, and many have been false accused of things they didn't do. One of the things we noticed is that they needed good gospel literature and Bibles. We are going to make that need known and will attempt to help in that matter. From there we drove on to another fellowship. They get together in a meeting room that is disguised as best it can be and is the size of approx. 8x8. What joy these people have and great love for one another. Truly they model Christian love. This has completed our first day and what a day it was. The Lord gave us great favor and now it is time to get a little rest before we go into town again for distribution of gospel literature. We want to saturate busy places so as to make the gospel unavoidable and read by as many as possible. May the Lord bless our futile attempts.

John 7:37-38 "On the last day , that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and CRIED out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Tuesday April 17, 2007--We have had an incredible two days in Bhutan. At present over 700 tracts have gone out, numerous one on one conversations about God's way of salvation. The highlite of today would be the opportunity the Lord gave us when we went into a storefront and handed out tracts to two young ladies. I told them I had some good news from a far country which would be water to their soul. After they took them, I had no idea if they even understood me. One of the ladies said, "are you a Christian?" I said yes, and we are here to speak of the good news, She said she was and that opened up quite a dialogue. The other young lady was not a Christian, but through her friend had heard about Jesus. Her problem was that she saw Jesus as one of many gods. I went through the gospel with her, from Creation to the Cross showing her that Jesus Christ is the one true God and only He can offer eternal life. She said she wanted to "follow Jesus" and that she was willing to forsak eher false gods. Her name is 'Pabrita." Susna, the other young girl was going to help her in her walk with the Lord. We gave her many materials to pass out and use and were greatly encouraged to see her excitement.

We continued to hand out tracts and materials throughout the day and also into the evening. We were being watched in the evening by a gentlemen from Bhutan. Every where we went he was there. The government will hire spies to watch the "whiteys" or tourists, to make sure they are doing nothing illegal. I must say, I have never been faced with the idea of possibly going to jail, etc.. This tested my faith and at times the attack from the enemy was great. However, it is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit says the Lord. He gave us strength and boldness. At one point a police officer was following behind us looking for anything we may have left on benches, etc.. We came up to a taxit driver and gave him a tract and before you know it, many of the taxi drivers were coming up to receive this good news. With the police right behind us we had to make somewhat of a speedy departure. We watched as he went up to the drivers and checked the literature that they had received.

We ended the night with a conversation with a young well to do business man. He said his fiance was a Christian and gave us a ride home. We shared Christ with him and he knew that God was really trying to get his attention. His biggest hurdle was that he knew he would lose his family business as well as friends and family by following Jesus. This part of the world if one becomes a Christian you can be pretty assured that they have counted the cost and are willing to follow the Lord no matter what. We gave him a book from Mark Cahill, "One heart beat away." He said he would read it and was very thankful for our meeting him and sharing with him. What a way to end the night with this divine appoiintment. His name was Karka. We also meant two young teenage boys who were Christians and gave them some literature and encouraged them to share the good news.

God has allowed to do and go where I never thought possible. He is the God of the impossible.

Psalm 9:20 "Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men."

Thursday April 19, 2007--Yesterday, was somewhat of a blur as I suffered terribly from a headache and diarrhea. However, through that the work carried on and tracts and literature went out. This morning I feel much better and rejuvenated to continue on here in Bhutan. This country is so serene with the majestic creation of the Lord, yet is so spiritually dark with their buddists religion. We have visited a couple of monasteries. One while they were worshipping to their domonic gods. It was blackness is the only way to describe it. We were able to give out some tracts very secretly to some young boys who had been set apart to be monks by their demonic ancestors. As we traveled along the moutaneous roads we would get out an visit with those who were working  on the roads. At some places there were up to twenty or so people. Most of them understood Nepali, and Jesse preached to them in Nepali. It was awesome as once again we met two believers along the roadside and were able to give them literature and one of them, who didn't have a Bible, I gave her mine.

Last night we also fellowshipped with another group of believers. It really reminded me of the book of Acts where they gathered in homes to encourage, exhort and hear the wor dof the Lord. This Pastor's wife had spent six months in jail because she was falsely accused of drowning a child during a baptism service. One young ladt told the story of how her family was denied an opportunity to buy land because they were Christian. Persecution is real over here and the government hates Christians. One thing that really touched my heart was a young boy of about 12 was in fellowship for the first time and recently came to the Lord. His family were not believers, but by the grace of God, he was saved. What boldness to come by yourself at that age. We ended the day by rejoining the second home church we visited on Monday.

We spoke and taught on Biblical principles to use in sharing your faith. One young lady stood up and addressed us and said she had been praying that God would send someone to teach and encourage them in their faith and we were an answer to prayer. Talk about humbling. During that time I felt so un worthy (which I am) to be addressing these faithful believers who have suffered much for the cause of Christ and then to hear her say that. Who is this God that He is mindful of us and would choose to use us for His glory? He is the Lord strong and mighty!!!

We ended the night on a very difficult situation. As we were walking home after staurating the town with literature, we flagged down a vehicle and asked dirtections to our hotel and we didn't wuite now if were had gone to far. These guys, at least two of them appeared drunk, but were willing to help us. They told us it was just up aways and so we thanked them, gave them some tracts to read and kept walking. One of the guys got out and proceeded to walk with us. We told him we were o.k. and their response was that they were in their country now and we were to do things their way. The vehicle went ahead and stopped at the turn off to the hotel. As we got there the guy through out the gospel literature, cursed us and we responded back, which we shouldn't have done. Anyway, this set him off more and they eventually drove down to our hotel. They awoke the hotel owner and made quite a disturbance. The hotel owner told them to go home and they wouldn't and actually broke down the door of the entry way.

We saw this from our hotel room and went out and told them their problem was with us not the hotel owner. Jesse, took the tract from one of the drunk men and that set him off to try to attack Jesse and get the tract back, obviously for evidence. This encountered wuite a rucus and the other drunk man hit Jesse twice. I set him to the ground and eventually the other guy was released from Jesse, by a swift chop to the hand (Jesse knows karate). At that point I went to the hotel room and hid the remaining tracts outside. They were threatening to get the police and have us and Karma arrested for distributing illegal literature. Karma, was able to get them to finally leave and nothing else happened that evening. Needless to say it was an early morning.

Friday April 20, 2007--As we depart Bhutan I am somewhat concerned about the evening before and if anything will happen to Karma. I was thankful to be boarding the plane, but also thankful to have been able to do what the Lord called us to do. I will continual to pray for Karma, the believers, their churches and Bhutan. God is doing a work there and it was really powerful to see that although the country can say no to the gospel, that doesn't stop the all sovereign God from accomplishing his purposes. The flight went well and what a beautiful ending to this portion of the trip as we flew by the three largest mountains in the world, Mt. Everest being the largest. They were absolutlet majestic and stood out as great pillars created by a great and powerul Creator.