Thansing

Yes, I'm truly trying to play catch up! For that reason I encourage you to go read Jordan's post about our second day traveling out of valley to get the details (as well as her perspective, because she’s just wonderful) :) 

"The day started at 8am when Lauren and I woke to get ready for the day. We were supposed to meet the TLM staff vehicle at 8:30am about a half mile down the road. We’d just locked the gate behind us and realized neither of us had our umbrellas…you just don’t do that during monsoon. So at 8:31am..." (go read!)

So yeah…crazy day to say the least. When Jordan talked about the wet seats she wasn’t exaggerating. And yes, I choose to think that the stuff pouring out the top of the bus onto my lap was just brown colored water. It’s funny now…and all I could do was laugh then. Before this occurred I was thinking, “I can handle this. This morning was just ‘one of those mornings’…it happens”. When we reached the point in the road where we had to turn around, I was still thinking, “ok. No big deal.” After waiting for some time, in the rain, and then jumping back into the hospital vehicle to “go find the local bus” we were able to flag them down. Walking onto the already packed bus and having to find a seat, climbing over the huge sacs, and trying to keep in the upright-standing position all while speeding down the winding mountain road proved to be a challenge…but still nothing I couldn’t handle. This is just Nepal. I sat down. In the soaking-wet seat. All I could do was laugh. My brain was screaming, “you’ve got to be kidding me! What else could possibly happen. And then, the brown water began pouring out of the ceiling with every right hand turn…about every minute or so. If anyone knows me, they know my least favorite combination is wet and cold. I sat there, with disgusting water pouring on top of me, thinking to myself, “seriously? This is becoming slightly ridiculous. What else could possible happen today?” and I heard the words of a friend of mine- words that have stuck with me over the course of the last year: “offer it up”. So simple, yet so profound. Stop after stop. Obstacle after obstacle. Seemingly complete chaos, but God used these simple things to work in my heart. I began to step back and look at the whole thing from a different perspective, one that took me out of the focus and put Him in the center—right where He belongs. It was there in that soaking-wet seat, next to the completely content little boy, with water pouring onto my lap, and several more road blocks and vehicle break-downs that the Holy Spirit was shinning His light into my heart and exposing the little things in my character in order that they be refined to mirror His.

We finally arrived to our destination and the sweet, sweet woman we met there only added to the impact this day had on me. This is Maiya Dangol, the chairwoman of Anandaban’s self-care group in Thansing:

She greeted us with the biggest smile and hug, telling us to not worry about the bus issues, that we made it and that was all that mattered.

She came to sign some paper-work at the bank with Sulachana in order to be able to invest the group’s money. 

SER has to start from scratch with these groups because they don’t even understand the concept of a bank, writing a check, or how to invest the money they've been given. She brought her record book because she wanted us to see what she had done with the money they were given. She was so proud. 

She also wanted us to come and see her home (it's there in the background). 

Maiya and her husband are one of the recipients of the low-cost housing. So, there we went, balancing across the rice patties.

Maiya touched my heart so much. She's so full of life, so full of joy. Those few moments spent with her made the entire trip, every part of it, entirely worth it. As I think about all the events of the day, from beginning to end, I can’t help but think “How representative of life was that?” So often we travel down roads with an end goal in mind, but life proves to us that it is never really as simple as going from point A to point B. We have no control over the obstacles we face along the way. Some of them can be bypassed, some of them require a mid-course correction...but regardless of the obstacle it teaches something about ourselves and prepares us for the next obstacle that we will face later down the road. It seemed like each thing that arose made the next thing so much easier to accept. We had no idea what the day was going to look like when we left our umbrellas that morning. We didn’t know how we were going to get to our destination, we didn’t know the course or what we would face as we went. We didn’t get the whole picture in the beginning. So often in life we want to know everything about anything. We want the entire picture and it seems like God purposefully brings the fog in order that we have to step out in faith. 

It reminds me of something another dear friend of mine told me right before coming here to Nepal:

“God often sends us down a road to get to the end of that road while at other times we go down the road to get to the fork in the road. Truth is, we may never know which it is until we go down that road. Good news is... The journey is your friend”.

The journey is about growing, learning, and being refined on the road in between. Sometimes we need to just stop, look at the obstacle for what it really is, acknowledge the fact that there may be absolutely nothing that can be done to change it, and let it produce the good fruit of patience, long suffering, and endurance. Often it's the obstacles we face that make us who we are, those are the things that refine our character faster than smooth rides. I'm learning to just go with it. He’s been rooting my trust in Him even deeper. And there, in the place of offering it up to Him (no matter how small or big "it" may be), is peace that passes all understanding. Even in something as simple as a day trip into the hills.