Blessed

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Psalm 139:17

Praise the L-rd for His continued faithfulness! His love is refreshing. This has been an incredible week full of G-d's blessings and grace. One that has not gone by without making new friends, experiencing more culture, and celebrating the relationships that have been bonded through J-sus Chr-st.

As I sit here and reflect over the past four months that we have spent in this nation I can think of nothing to do but give praise to our Father for His presence, blessings, and grace. Today was a day for celebrating despite the mixed feelings of saying goodbye to people that have greatly impacted our lives over the short time we have been here. We leave in less than 36 hours and yet we are still being invited to homes to fellowship with them one last time.

On Sunday, Shane, Natasha, and I had the opportunity to make new friends from Maryland and Northern Ireland, and share with them about our experiences. Who knew that we would be able to invest in the lives of new people during our last week here? It was such a blessing to be able to do that.

As the week went on we began to have requests to fellowship with believers over meals. Before we knew it, we were packed, so many invitations to spend time with individual families. It was such a blessing to hear their stories, see their photos and learn more about them. We even discovered the Menn. game of Npl. among the Tamang tribe. Great memories.

We visited two temples with uncle. One famous buddhist temple commonly called the monkey temple and another temple with the idol of kali where hindus come to make sacrifices. We witnessed the prayer time of the buddhist monks and had opportunity to say our own prayers for them. At the hindu temple we witnessed a goat sacrifice and was also able to offer silent prayers for those who come and go through rituals for the sake of the ritual. During those days uncle shared with us his passion for prayer and the ways in which we can pray for these people. It was a powerful time spent with him, learning from him and being a witness to the anointing he has. It was an encouraging time.

Finally on Saturday we had the opportunity to share during fellowship. It was a blessed time, enjoyed by all. We each shared from our experiences over the last four months, Austin and I sang a Npali song, and I had the opportunity to give the message. I really enjoyed the stories that the team shared with the congregation - such unique and inspiring experiences. We have really been blessed by the people here. That evening we hosted a drop-in fellowship at the ch-rch. We enjoyed it immensely.

God has really blessed us with these opportunities this week and for that, we give him praise!

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

Isaiah 55:12a

Praises:

Fellowship with our friends

Safety in travels to various locations

Austins' 20th birthday

Time spent with our host family

Celebration of G-d's work in this nation

Requests:

For those who do not know the truth, that walls will be broken down and that when they hear the truth that they may come to believe

For our flight and travels on Monday - returning to India

For final farewells - both here and in India

Team unity

Continued desire for each of us to spend time with our Father - to not become distracted in these busy days

May you be richly blessed!

Jess