Leaving Nepal

Wow. It's over. I'm in the airport waiting to head out to Thailand! I can't believe it's already here, these past weeks feel like they flew now that I think about it. Even though the time felt slow during our time in Nepal, looking back it seems like just yesterday that we were in Perth talking about everything that we were going to do. And now it's almost over! Just 29 days till I'm back in Perth and then only 12 till I'm back home! I feel like I should be more excited to be home than I actually am.. I'm so excited to see my family and sleep in my own bed and cook and go back to work, but I'm not looking forward to leaving all of my amazing friends that I have made on this journey and to leave all the adventures that I have experienced.

Anyways these past two weeks were so much fun! We went to a district called Surkhet and it was my favorite place that I've been to so far in Nepal. We stayed at the YWAM base there and they took such great care of us! We each had our own, fairly comfy, bed and a big bathroom where we could take really nice bucket showers. Everyday they cooked us amazing food; at each meal we were excited to see what it would be because every time it was so good! Especially breakfast, we had delicious oatmeal one day which I had been missing a lot because I haven't had it since Perth, they also made us French toast which was incredible, especially when you dip it into your milk tea, one interesting breakfast food that we had was cornflakes with hot milk. It sounds pretty gross, but it actually was really tasty, it was actually better then cornflakes with cold milk. So yes, we were really well taken care of in Surkhet, the only thing we didn't have was wifi, which was actually a blessing. It's nice to not have the distraction of the internet all the time.

Ministry was awesome in Surkhet! We did a lot of open airs, which is where we draw a big crowd by singing a song or doing a dance or a drama and then we hit the people with the gospel. It's possibly one of my favorite things to do. In total, we preached the gospel to 440 people. It was so much fun, usually we would act out the story of Jonah, which it would narrate, and then afterwards someone would stand up and preach the gospel. I have really grown to love telling people about God's love for them, it seems like whenever I share it, I grow to love it more. We definitely planted a lot of seeds in Surkhet and I'm excited for the teams that come in the future to reap the harvest.

We were also able to use sports as ministry! That was so much fun because that has been our goal since the beginning, we are the sports dts after all. We played soccer almost everyday that we had ministry. There was a soccer "field" about a 7 minute walk from the base, it was just a huge dirt filed that had soccer goals on either side. The first and second time that we played we just played local people from the village and each time we beat them pretty badly. I don't think they liked that very much so on the third day we came to the field and there were lots of really talented looking soccer players all with cleats and socks and all their gear. I was pretty intimidated because I knew that it was going to be a really hard toe hour game ahead of us. I was right. It turned out that we were playing the best players from the Surkhet soccer clubs and it was our turn to lose badly. We still had lots of fun though and every time we played we attracted a huge crowd of spectators. So the last day we took advantage of the huge crowd and told them why we are here and we preached the gospel to them, it was a really good opportunity.

That was basically our trip in away, the bus ride to and from turned out to only be 14 hours instead of 25 which was a blessing I guess. It was definitely not like a Coach bus in the states, but I wasn't really expecting that. The bus probably would have been so much better if they didn't blast nepali music the whole time or play bizarre Hindi movies, but at least we had our own seats and wifi, so I'm not going to complain too much. H

Here are a few pictures from surkhet, there are many more but I don't have them yet.

This was the soccer field and my team before one of our games :)

This was on one of our ministry days, we went to pray for this family at their house and they served us tea, which is typical nepali culture.

This was at a restaurant after a night of youth fellowship, we ate lots and lots of momos and I got chicken butter masala with some naan bread, so delicious!

Well that's all for now. I'm about to board my flight! Be praying for our team, especially against sickness, I'm getting over some type of stomach thing right now and it's really hard to do any ministry when you're sick. Hopefully I'll be able to blog soon and tell you about Thailand!

Bon voyage!

Xo, Helen 

 

My adventure in a land far far Away

Wow, these past two weeks were the hardest weeks of my life, but they were incredibly worth it. Two weeks ago my Thailand team left for our adventure to this little village named Away. Away was far up in the mountains and we could only get there by foot. It took four days to get there, the first day we took a bus, the second day we took a jeep (which broke down twice in the middle of the mountains) and then we hiked for two days. We stayed in two random huts on the side of the road which was quite the experience, and I wasn't able to shower for twelve days straight. One of the reasons this trip was so hard for me was because the day we left I was incredibly sick with diarrhea and vomiting. I was hiking up mountains on an empty stomach and I was also pretty dehydrated. I definitely learned to trust God in so many new ways during this trip and I was constantly surrendering my rights to him, such as my right to a comfy bed, or cleanliness, or any comforts that I'm used to, but I knew that the work that God had for me in Away was worth it. Even when I was feeling like I couldn't hike up anymore mountains and when I was so homesick that I was in tears, God reminded me from his word that his "power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). That was really encouraging during that two day, uphill hike, because I knew that God was taking care of me.

In Away, we stayed with the pastor of the only church in the village. It's crazy how hospitable nepali people are, the pastor and his family gave up their house for us and cooked every meal for us and even did our dishes, they wouldn't allow us to do anything! While living in that house I truly realized how luxurious my house is at home, in fact while I was in Away I realized how good I had it here in Kathmandu. I thought that Kathmandu was hard living, but at least here I have a toilet and showers and a stove and a bed, while in Away I slept on the floor, went to the bathroom in the wilderness, I didn't shower once, and all of our food was cooked over an open fire. It was a good revelation though because it made me realize that I don't really need all the luxuries that I have, I can definitely survive on a lot less.

The food that the pastor cooked for us was usually pretty good! We got more protein in Away then we do here in Kathmandu, which was definitely a treat because my body really misses all the protein that I used to eat. We still had rice everyday, but they were almost always accompanied with dhal (sort of like a lentil soup) and egg. It really amazed me how everything was cooked over an open fire, but because of that, meals take forever to make. I feel like if I lived there and had a family there (which I'm not planning on doing), all I would do all day is cook and do laundry.

Ministry wise, God did some amazing things through us in Away. We saw fifteen people become Christians and we even saw an old man who was deaf in one ear regain his hearing! One day, after playing volleyball with some teenagers in the village, I shared the gospel with all of them and three of them decided to accept Jesus as their savior. Almost every morning there would be people at the pastors house asking for prayer from us which was really encouraging. The hardest part about evangelism in Away was that everyone had all these excuses. They would say that they wanted to become Christians, but because their parents and grandparents were Buddhist or Hindu they couldn't because then they would be shunned by their family. It was so frustrating. But God still used us and we planted a lot of seeds in that village. One day, when we were going to one of the surrounding villages, we stopped in front of a herd of about 65 goats. We just kind of stood there looking at each other and then the pastor told us that we were supposed to pray for the goats. We were a little confused as to what to pray for, but we did it anyway, that was probably the funniest day of ministry.

The view in away was incredible! We were right next to a snow capped mountain and at night the sky was full of stars, I had never seen anything like it in my life, it almost didn't even seem real. My friends and I would joke as we slept in little huts by the side of the road, we would say we were staying in an all star hotel because we could see ALL the stars. Sometimes our situations were so ridiculous that we just had to laugh, otherwise I think I would have cried. A lot. It rained one day in Away and on all the mountains around us it was snowing. It didn't snow in Away because we were only 7,000 feet above sea level and in order for it to snow it has to be around 8,000 I think. But the view was so awesome after the snow and the rain, all the dust was cleared away and the colors were so vivid! I couldn't believe I was seeing it in person because those types of views you only expect to see on the computer backgrounds or something, but I did see it and it was awesome.

Even though getting to Away and living there for a week was one of the hardest experiences of my life, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I learned so much on the journey about myself and about God, and I really grew as a person, especially in toughness I think. Four months ago I never pictured myself doing anything like this, and I didn't want to either, but I learned during lecture phase that it's usually not Barbour what I want, it's about what God wants and he is worth everything that I am.

Well we only have about two weeks left in Nepal and then my team is off to Thailand! I'm actually getting really excited for that part of my adventure, I'm ready for something different. Please be praying for my team! Especially for health, I have a cold at the moment but it's not that bad. We really need to stay healthy though so that we can keep doing evangelism and everything else! Also being sick away from home is not very fun, so keep us in your prayers! 

Here is one picture from the trip. I promise I will post more soon, but I'm trying to have my friend send them to me and it's taking a while. But I will post a blog that is all pictures soon!

This was the last day of our hike to Away, I think the village was just around that little mountain.

Nepal

Sorry I haven't updated you guys in so long! I can't believe I've been in Nepal for two weeks already, time is actually going by quite fast. 

Nepal is crazy! It's crazy to wake up every morning and watch the sun rise over the Himalayas, it's absolutely beautiful. Everything here is completely different than what I am used to. I guess I just was so caught up in western culture that I didn't realize that not everyone in the world lives like we do. I mean, I had read about it and seen pictures of the way other non-western cultures live, but you aren't able to grasp it until you actually live in it. One of the most shocking things that I had to get used to was the fact that there is trash everywhere! They don't have garbage cans anywhere, they just throw the trash on the ground or in ditches or in a river. I also had to get used to squaty potties and (cold) bucket showers. I think I've only taken 4 showers since being here, I know that sounds gross, but I've surrendered the right to be clean and to look good and honestly, life is much easier.

Ministry is going so well. The second day here we were in a village evangelizing and right before we were about to go home, a man just came right up to us and asked us if we could tell him about Jesus. We did of course and he became a Christian right there. It was incredible! The people here are really open to hearing about Jesus, but they are really attached to their Hindu culture and that is what's holding them back from accepting him. Be praying that those barriers are broken down! The people are also so friendly and generous. When we go to villages we are almost always invited to have tea or something to eat. It's crazy to think that these people have so little yet they are still willing to offer us what they have. Even when we went to a slum we were invited back by a Christian lady who lived there to have tea. Her "house" was maybe half the size of my bedroom at home. It made me realize how blessed I have been and it also made me decide to never complain again about anything, because I have no right to. Going to the slum was pretty eye opening. I was really not looking forward to it because it was so far out of my comfort zone, but now I'm actually pretty comfortable out of my comfort zone. Anyways first we played some soccer with some of the kids in the slum which was pretty fun, I think they thought we were giants.. (Everyone here is tiny). But then my friend Julie and I found some girls who were about my age and we started talking to them a little bit. One of the girls was clipping her toenails and Julie asked if she had any nail polish so we could paint their nails. She brought it over and before we knew it about ten little girls were flocking around us want their nails painted! The girls loved it so much, I could just see it on their faces. They asked if we could come back the next day and to my surprise, I actually wanted to! It was just so awesome sharing God's love in that way.

We have been really blessed though while being here so far. The base that we are staying at has wifi and they have beds for us which we weren't actually expecting. They have also been feeding us really well. It's a lot of rice and lentils, but we also get a lot of potato and cauliflower curry! That's like one of my favorite things at home! We has chicken at maybe three times a week, but we don't get much meat besides that which was kind of hard to get used to. I'm very thankful for what we get though, and I'm especially thankful for the tea every morning!  It's so yummy!

Everything is so cheap here! It's dangerous to go shopping because since everything is so cheap I buy a ton of things but then I end up still spending heaps if money. I bought a really nice inflatable sleeping pad and a couple of fleeces, a North Face and a Jack Wolfskin, and then a North Face thermal which I've worn for a week straight now, it's really warm :). I don't understand how shop owners make any money here because it seems like everyone has their own shop and they all sell the exact same thing, it's very thought provoking. 

I almost forgot to tell you guys about the bus system here! Almost every day we take the bus to our ministry location. The "bus" is basically a 13-15 seat van that 25-35 people are crammed into. Sometimes I sit there with 30 other people squished next to me and I think that there is no possible way that more people can fit on this bus, but somehow they manage to get like 5 more people inside, well some of them are hanging out the side I guess. Everyday is a new adventure, and it seems like everyday a new record is set as to how many people we fit inside a bus.

I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed these past two weeks in Nepal, it has made me appreciate everything that I have so much more. Each experience has grown me in some way; squaty potties have given me a deep appreciation for western toilets, holding beautiful babies in the villages we go to has really given me a heart for the people here, and sitting through 4 hour Nepalese church services has made me realize how much I miss my church back at home and how important it is to gather with other believers and worship God. But tomorrow I am off on a new adventure. My team leaves for Dhading tomorrow, and from what I've heard, it's going to be very different then here in Kathmandu. We're taking a four hour bus ride to a children's home in Dhading where we will be staying the night. The next day we will be starting a two day trek to an unreached village. We will stay in that village for five days and then trek back to the children's home and then take a bus back to Kathmandu. Basically I will not be showering for 11 days and I won't be doing laundry either. It's going to be an unforgettable experience, that's for sure. But I'm so excited to share the gospel to an unreached village! That is such an awesome opportunity! 

Well that's definitely not everything I've done since being here, but at least you get an idea of how I've been living and what I've been doing these past two weeks! Please be praying for my team as we leave tomorrow, pray that we make it safely and that nobody gets sick while we are there. Also pray that people will come to know Christ as we share the gospel with them! 

Okay, hopefully I can blog when I get back from Dhading. I really really miss everyone at home! Love you! See you in two and a half months :)

Here's a picture of my team in the mountains! Sorry there aren't more pictures, I have them but they're on my phone and I don't have wifi on my phone.

Xo, Helen 

How is it already the end?

Wow. It's week 11 already. I cannot believe how fast these past weeks have gone by! So much has happened it seems, but at the same time I feel like I just got here. It's so strange that Christmas is next week, it's been so hot over here that I don't even feel like Christmas is actually going to come! Seeing Christmas decorations and Christmas trees isn't right when it's 90+ degrees outside. I miss the snow a little bit, but I think I prefer going to the beach than shoveling a snow laden driveway.. For sure. 

Last week was an awesome week. The topic was evangelism which I have really grown to love since being here, and we had a sassy Brazilian woman named Anabel speaking. Her testimony was pretty crazy; she has spent several years in the Amazon ministering to the Indians there and now she is head of the YWAM base in East Timor. Her stories were so inspiring and convicting, she really challenged us to step out of our comfort zones and follow the call that God has for our lives. But the coolest part about last week was that all of our outreach funds came in! At the beginning of last week we needed about $10,000 by Wednesday. Every morning we spent 30 minutes as a group praying for those finances. God was faithful and by Wednesday, which is when all the money was supposed to be due, we were down to only $5,000. So Wednesday afternoon we met as a school in our classroom and for two hours before dinner we just worshipped and prayed that God would bring in all the money that we needed. I was so confidant that He was going to provide, so the whole time I was just so joyful and excited as we were worshipping him. It was so awesome, after about an hour of worship and prayer the money just started to come in. People were getting random emails from their friends saying that they wanted to help get us to outreach and people in our school started giving money to other people who didn't have all their finances. By dinner time we were down to $500, it was truly a miracle. It was such a good day because not only did we see God do an awesome miracle, but I also got to help someone make pies for a fundraiser which was so much fun because I haven't baked in so long, so that was a real joy :)

Last Thursday was our last night of evangelism before outreach. It was an exciting night because we had been learning about evangelism the entire week so I was pretty pumped. Me and my two partners were able to have three awesome conversations with people about the gospel and about God's love for them. They were so open to hearing it and I think we really planted some seeds. God did some really awesome things through other people in my school that night too, it's so much fun to see God working! I can't wait to see what he's going to do on outreach!

Speaking of outreach, today we met in our outreach teams and kind of went over what we would be doing during the three months in Nepal and Thailand. It was a lot of information so I don't remember all of it, but here's what I know: we will be together as our entire school in Kathmandu for three weeks and then our teams will be splitting up and going to three separate places in Nepal for two weeks and then my team will be returning to Kathmandu for another two weeks. My team will then be flying out to Bangkok and we will stay there for three days just adjusting to the culture and everything else, we will then be taking a train to the northern part of Thailand for about 23 days (the train ride will probably be 11+ hours..). After that we will travel back to Bangkok for a couple days and then back to Perth! It crazy, I feel like it will go so fast because of all the traveling. But I am so excited! I'm especially excited to use the squaty potties and eat all the yummy fried cockroaches.. Okay, I'm not too excited about that, but I am excited for all the adventures I'm going to have and all the pad Thai I'm going to eat! 

Oh, one more thing! Last night during our last soccer league game I scored the winning goal! It was so much fun!

Here are some pictures from these last couple of weeks!

This was during Carols by Candlelight, it was a beautiful night of singing and dancing

These are some of my wonderful friends :)

This is a gingerbread house, there was a contest!

Me and karoline and Kaitlin went to get our toes done last Saturday :) it was so much fun!

Okay, that's all for now. Next week is Christmas so it's going to be such a busy, fun, exciting time, but I will try to write at least one more post before I leave! I love and miss everyone at home! 

Merry Christmas :) 

Xo, Helen 

Time flies!

Wow! It's already the end of week eight! We have three weeks left of lecture phase and then we have one week to prepare for outreach and Christmas! I feel like I just got here but it's crazy the amount of stuff that I have learned and experienced so far. Two weeks ago our topic for the week was spiritual warfare. We learned that Spiritual warfare is always going on and that if you want to do anything for God then you are guaranteed to be apposed, but we have authority over satan and his lies because Jesus gave us that authority when he died for us on the cross. It was a  really good week. And last week our topic was on lordship, submission, and authority. It was very convicting because I realized that I have been holding on to a lot of stuff and not fully submitting my entire life under the lordship of Jesus Christ. So yes, last week was very eye opening and it probably was the fastest week yet because the lectures were so good that the time just flew by! Next week our topic is relationships, I'm really excited to see what God is going to teach me.

In other news, last week in our soccer league we played the other YWAM team and we won! It was so exciting because it was the only game that we really cared about winning. Now we have bragging rights :) it was a really good time though! And it was our first win, so that was exciting.

The base is being decorated for Christmas which is super exciting! Although it doesn't really feel like Christmas is coming because of the warm weather. Even though it is so hot outside I have been listening to Christmas music just to get into the Christmas spirit. A few of us watched elf last night which was really fun. But anyways, the base is really nice. There is a huge "Christmas tree" in the middle of the base and soon they are going to put stockings up for every person note he base! We get to fill each other's stockings with goodies, I'm so excited! 

This is them building the Christmas tree..

And this is the finished project! It lights up at night, but it isn't really the same as a real Christmas tree.

Last week the whole base went to the beach for dinner. It was a much needed break and it was so fun!

I also had the opportunity to bake someone's birthday "cake" last week! (It was actually a peach tart, not a cake). I had so much fun! I made the recipe up as I went along and the finished product looked good! I didn't actually get to taste it, but someone that did try it said it was so good, so that's good.

Last night I saw the first scary spider that I've seen in Australia, it was dark so I couldn't see the details of it, but what I saw was enough.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but you can kind of tell that it was incredibly scary!

Well that's all for now, I'll probably write again in a week or so. If you guys can please be praying for my school because a lot of people still need finances for outreach! I have all my finances by God's grace, but a lot of my friends still need money, so please pray that God will provide that for us! If you want to help by sending some money just Facebook me or email me and I can let you know how you can help :)

Okay, I love and miss all of you!

Xo, Helen

Two weeks worth

Wow it has been a while! Last weekend was really busy because we spent Saturday at the beach and then we had people over that night for ice cream and cookies and games at our house.  And on Sunday I had weekend duty which consisted mostly of preparing meals for Sunday and Monday. So that was kind of fun, but also very tiring. But last week was really good. We had teaching on the the fear of The Lord and it was very powerful. We learned that the fear of The Lord is respect and reverence for God's holiness and a hatred towards sin. Evangelism was also really really cool this week, my friend Julie and I walked around Northbridge praying for the people there and mostly for young teenage girls, that they would find their identity in Christ rather than guys, and then God led us to this girl who was waiting for a date outside of a club and we were able to talk to her for a while. It was crazy because before the night I felt so sick and so tired, but then during evangelism God gave me the strength to get through the night and I felt great! 

Okay I have lots of pictures now to share so bear with me.

This is from the beach last Saturday, we went to a different beach and it was actually nicer and even more beautiful then the other one we go to. ( I'm getting really spoiled)

This is my team that is going to Thailand with me! I'm so excited, these people are awesome!

This is one of my best friends! Her name is karoline and she's from Norway, she's actually helping me practice my Swedish. It's really fun because we can talk to each other and people don't know what we're saying :)

This was on Thursday before evangelism, I was so tired so I took a little nap on the couch. These guys thought it was pretty funny..

This was yesterday! The sports dts helped out for a sausage sizzle during one of Perth's biggest festivals. There were around 120,000 people there and it was so crowded! But we had lots of fun. I was made team leader for one of the shifts and it felt a little like I was on master chef, it was pretty exciting.

Last one. This is Kirsten and Felix, and this is right before I started writing this post! Exciting, I know :) 

Okay well that's all for now! I have been a little homesick lately so just keep praying for me please :) 

Xo, Helen 

Worship, intercession, and dancing.

This week has been so awesome. The teaching was on worship and intercession and we were taught by Hyung Myung Kim who is the leader of the school of worship in South Korea. The lectures were in Korean and then translated into English which was kind of hard at first, but I got used to it by the end of the week. And on Friday for application day we spent the morning worshipping and glorifying God, and interceding for the nations, it was an awesome time.

This week we had our first indoor soccer league game. We lost. But now that we know the rules I think we will do a lot better this week. We also had a base picnic on Wednesday which was so much fun! I love having fellowship all the time and meeting new people. Last night was the best night of the week though, one of the schools had a dance and invited everyone to come. It was an old school Danish dance because the leader of the school is Danish, so picture like Pride and Prejudice style dancing. My friends and I got all dressed up and fancy, I seriously felt like I was going to homecoming all over again, but it was so much more fun than homecoming. And they served cheesecake and cake at the dance so that's always a plus!

Yeah so that was so much fun.

By the way, we found out where we are going on outreach. We are all going to Nepal for six weeks and then we will be splitting into three groups and one will go to china, one will go to Malaysia, and one will go to Thailand. I will be with the group going to Thailand and I am so excited! We will be working with an orphanage and I'm sure doing so many other things. I cannot wait!

That's it for now! 

Xo, Helen