Trek Update!!

Wow--time is flying by for us! We are down to two weeks left here in Nepal! Some of you may know from our Facebook that we went on a trek last week.. It was one of our favorite things about outreach! Uriah and our friend Ezekiel planned and led an 8 day adventure from Kathmandu to probably the most breathtakingly beautiful place I have ever visited.. Kot Timal is a Village about 3 hours by bus east of Kathmandu. It was a really refreshing trip for us all. We hiked hard for 4 days, and rested hard for 2 days. Even just getting away from the noise and dust of Kathmandu was restful, and we got to have a lot of fun as a team just experiencing new things and seeing new places together. We felt so blessed to get this opportunity!

Some highlights from our trek:

-Hiking straight up a whole freaking mountain!!! (Phil. 4:13-my mantra! Proud that it wasn't cuss words like last time!)

-And hiking part way down.. That day was my favorite hiking day because we could enjoy the views and the hike since it was much easier and cooler. 

-Team bonding--no leaders, only students this time! And we got to know Atma and Ezekiel better! They were really great guides.

-Getting to spend time with a lot of Ezekiel's family, learning more of the Nepali and Tamang languages, laughing a lot, eating and praying together. 

-Experiencing village life with no running water and cooking over a fire.

-Sleeping above all the animals one night. And being woken up at all hours of the night by a rooster.

-Fresh chicken for dinner...

-Visiting an organic farm and eating fresh papaya.

-The day we washed our hair and bathed..the men built us a shower so we could have a little privacy. :)

-Uriah and Ezekiel almost got ran off a narrow path by raging bulls! They jumped up the mountain quickly and Uriah just grabbed what he could--which happened to be a thorn bush! They were both a little shook up, and Uriah had a few scratches, but they were ok otherwise. (Thank the Lord!)
-Camp fires every night!

-Attending a Nepali wedding..We even danced Nepali style to Nepali music. (I don't dance..ever.) 

-Holding baby goats. :)

-Riding on the TOP of the big bus with goats half of the way back to Kathmandu!

-The views.. God is an amazing creator!

We are all getting really excited to go see our family and friends, and had a hard time being motivated to do anything last week after our trek. This week is full of ministry, and next week we have our short team debrief in Pokhara before heading back to do school debrief in South Africa. But we know we have just a little more time here to love people and pray and we want to make it count and finish strong. If you pray for us please pray for that!

Also, please keep our Nepali friend in your prayers. She found out last month that she has a tumor in her neck and she has surgery scheduled for this Friday to have it removed..it is a pretty risky surgery with a long recovery time and she is trusting God, but still a little nervous. We are praying for healing!!

Thanks for keeping up with us thus far.. Enjoy some photos from the trek:

Atma (on the left) and Ezekiel (on the right) have become near and dear to Uriah's Heart!
They were our trekking guides for our Trek!

Right before our first Ascent!!

Beautiful Sunrise!! Taken from Ezekiel's Big Brother's house!

Love the way the yellow mustard seed plants mash with the green wheat!!

Breath Taking View!

Papaya Farm!!

We Couldn't Resist!!

Bridge Shot!

Some of Ezekiel's Family!!

Love This Place!!

Much love<3

Beautiful Nepal

Happy FEBRUARY! Does anybody know where January went?? So much has happened since our last update!

First off, Max and Cambria (two of our four school leaders) paid us a pastoral visit here in Nepal! They stayed a week and we all really enjoyed taking them with us to do ministry and showing them all of our favorite places.. They encouraged us to keep pursuing each other and Jesus and to finish strong! So that's our plan.

Uriah has started spending each morning leading a Bible study with a few men from our church, Fresh Fire. He also had another great opportunity to preach on Saturday. He spoke about faith and seriously killed it! :) He has also been hanging out a lot with his friend, Ezekiel. They do "treasure hunts" (ask God highlight someone to pray for) and spend time at the local snooker/pool rooms. He also has been playing badminton with some of the local kids in the area!

I have spent my time in various ways. One of my favorites: this week I was blessed to work with "Beauty for Ashes", a business that provides jobs for women rescued from human trafficking. The women make scarves and jewelry and bags to sell, and they get paid for their work so they can support themselves and their families. The two days that Anna and I went we joined them for morning devotions, then were put to work washing scarves, packaging orders, and coming up with new ideas for products. They even fed us Nepali food for lunch! We really enjoyed being a part of what God is doing there and hope to get to go back soon.

We have some exciting news from the home front: Two days ago, we got to celebrate the adoption of Uriah's and my 6 new siblings! (I think that grammar is correct.) They're such amazing kids and we have loved them since we met them. If you missed the story, you can click here. P.S. my parents are champs!

Finally, in our last update we mentioned Uriah and Josh were heading to Tibet, but they had to cancel due to closed borders. However, our team has a different exciting trip on the horizon, which I will share all about in the next blog. This is a teaser to keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next post.... ;)