Tuesday Photos... neighborhood shenanigans.

Check out Iesma's face! Hahaha!

The following photos were taken by Sandesh. Enjoy!

 

Flash Mob Friday: Small.

small.

I think it is ok to be small.

We have a phrase here in Nepal. "sano manche"

It literally means "small person."

Nobody wants to be small. Everyone wants to be a "big person."

The big people are important. The big people get looked up to. The big people have the job and the money and the name to go with it.

But I think that it is ok to be small.

I think that if everyone were "big," there would be no more room left in the world for loving and serving each other. I think that we would just spend all of our time and energy trying to stay big, and we would not have anything left for each other.

Stop.



Here's the deal: Every Friday, this lady, Lisa-Jo, invites people to write for five minutes (and only five minutes) on the topic of her choice. When the timer goes off, you have to post your completely messy writing on the internet. My friend, C, introduced me to 'Five Minute Fridays' and only having five minutes to write sounded completely terrifying- so I tried it.

Voices and Love.

Valentine's day just happened. For some of you, it happened hard. I celebrated by taking down our Christmas Tree. For those of you who had a less exciting Singles' Awareness Day, let the Voice of Truth fill your empty valentine's heart.

In light of V-Day, today at youth fellowship, the leaders got up and shared about God's love. One of the sisters shared about how God's love is unfathomable. Like, even if we tried to understand it, we couldn't. His love is so far beyond what we can see, hear, or think of.  (Isaiah 64:4, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Ephesians 1)

Then one of the brothers got up repeated over and over again how much God loves us.
God loves us.
God loves us.
God loves us.
With the same intensity that The Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves us. (John 15:9)
He loves us.
He loves us.
He loves us.


I walked home alone in the cold, sweet rain, meditating on everything that I had just heard. As I passed a flock of goats, I couldn't help but to feel God's love for me- which is kind of a big deal because although I know it is true, I haven't been feeling His love much lately. I had just spent less than an hour listening to people telling me how much God loves me and in that time it had already started to sink in.

God sure knows how to charm me! 

Earlier this week, I read this article online. It is a letter that a father wrote to his young daughter telling her how the world wants you to feel terrible about yourself. The whole point of marketing companies is to make you feel bad about yourself so that you will spend your money on their products trying to make yourself complete and happy.

A very good and wise father wrote his daughter a letter and in it he said, 

But words do have power and maybe, just maybe, the words of a father can begin to compete with the words of the world. Maybe a father’s words can deliver his daughter through this gauntlet of institutionalized shame and into a deep, unshakeable sense of her own worthiness and beauty.

Words do have power. As soon as I read this, I was like, "Oh snap. I have to stop using social media and reading anything other than the Bible and I should probably walk around with earplugs and look at the ground when I walk so that I don't see any advertisements..." 

Sometimes I go to extremes. 

But quite frankly, even if you put me in a cave with just a flashlight and a Bible, I would still hear the voices of the world and the Evil One because I have already been exposed. Even avoiding "the world" will not stop me from being exposed to lies (satan loves to twist the truth).   

Sometimes your friend gets all of the compliments and all you hear is, "You are not pretty enough."

Sometimes your co-worker gets the promotion and you hear, "You are not capable enough."

Sometimes your parents mean well, but all you hear is, "You are not quite good enough."

Sometimes your preacher talks about loving God more and all you hear is, "You will never be enough."

You are enough. 

You are pretty enough.

You are capable enough.

You are good enough.

You. Are. Enough. 

Not because of anything that you did, but because of everything that Christ did. Which means that your "enough-ness" will never change because it was never dependent upon you in the first place. Your "enough-ness" is dependent upon a Holy God who looked down from heaven and decided that he liked you enough to kill his Son so that He could be with you forever. 

If that's not enough, nothing will ever be enough. 

So the point of all of this?

Let the voice of the Father ring louder in your heart than those other voices. 

Read his thoughts often. Say them out loud. Thank Him for the truth. Tell others about the truth. Saturate yourself in the words of the Father so that there is no room in your heart for the lies that fight to come in. 

God loves you. 

God loves you. 

God loves you. 

Tuesday Photos: Meaghan's birthday edition

Meaghan's birthday was recently, so she corralled all her buddies to go for a hike. It was five glorious hours uphill and two painful hours downhill. The first three photos are from our friend, Mary, and the last four were taken by me. Thanks, Mary for the photos!

Cynthia, Estar, and Me walking up up up.

I jumped too late. Whoops!

I have squinty Asian eyes.

Buddhist prayer flags.

We had a picnic at the top.

Tuesday Photos: Chitwan Edition

 Hey Y'all.

Note: I am not a computer person. I hate computers. Right now I can't get this silly blog to cooperate with me, so forgive the formatting, unedited photos, and blah blah blah and just enjoy the moment... or something like that. 

Today I'm hanging out in the Southern part of Nepal where I just attended a really cool meeting with a bunch of Nepali men (and three women!) who are doing some really cool stuff. I wish I could tell you everything, but, well, this is the internet. 

We left yesterday morning with this sunset behind us. 

On the way, we stopped for lunch along with some Monks who were busy utilizing their smart phones. Look at the guy on the right... Busted!! 

The roads in Nepal may be dangerous, but what they are lacking in safety and structure, they make up for in beauty. 

This morning, before the meetings, I went for a run down by the river. 

I was running along and did not even see this RHINOCEROS chillin' in the river until the little Nepali lady stopped me and pointed it out. (Look, Mom, it was really far away... I'm fiiiiine.)   

Did I mention that I hate computers and why is this blue and all over the place?

After about nine hours of listening to and speaking Nepali, our brains were toast, so Cynthia and I went on an English speaking walk. We met an elephant on the road! Woot! And then some kids came to our hotel and started twirling fire. 

Welp, I'm super frustrated at this thing right now.

Hey, what's black and blue and read all over?

This blog.


Bahahahaha.

With that being said, and given the fact that Cynthia is correct in saying that I look like a grandma right now, I'm just going to act upon my appearance and call it a night. 

Holla!