The Stone Family Blog

Brook was my leader when Jordan and I were in Nepal.  She is an amazing person and his lived in Nepal for YEARS now! I admire her a lot and was thrilled when she sent this entry to my email. 

s I am a person who is serving God overseas in a very poor and suffering country, I am constantly reminded about allowing God to guide me in big AND small things every day; for the sake of my own sanity at times and for the Nepali people whom I love and serve. At times it is very easy to love the people of Nepal. They are beautiful, fascinating, so loving, and their faith amazes me every day. Even though they are a suffering people with very little hope provided them through life and their own nation, those Nepali people who know Jesus have a hope in God far exceeds mine at times.

However - it is not all fun and games, and that is where the "ask God to be in your day" part comes in. Almost on a daily basis I feel that my white skin, and the fact that I am an American makes me a target to get ripped off, and taken advantage of. In those moments I have to cling to God not to lose patience and continue to allow God to let me see these people through his eyes. I have experienced this in extreme ways like having drug addicts hold syringes to my side and threaten to inject me with HIV infected blood; these people are even my friends who I love and have served for years. And there are less extreme things that slowly get under your skin. For example: this week I was walking along the road and wanted to buy some mangoes as they are in currently in season. Thankfully I had a Nepali friend with me to help me out because I assumed I would get ripped off if I was alone (my Nepali friends ALWAYS get a kick out of how much I end up paying for the simplest things even when I think I just got a great price). So we chose our own delicious looking mangoes from the pile and the lady selling them put them in a bag and weighed them on a scale on the other side of her table. She closed up the bag and handed it to me. But before we walked away my friend decided to check in the bag just to be sure... I was shocked when we opened it up and found 3 half-rotten mangoes inside!! Not the same ones we had just chosen and handed to her. We patiently put the mangoes down and choose our own once again. My friend laughed and told me always to be watching! In my heart I was so disappointed! I love Nepali people so much and to be so blatantly cheated just hearts my heart sometimes. I just wanna be like, LORD - I feel like I serve and serve and this is what I end up with? 3 rotten mangoes and no thanks? haha.

Anyway - another part of this story is that throughout my time here in Nepal God has shown me over and over again that the key to loving these people as He loves them is to consistently be asking Him to show me how He sees them through his own eyes. Now Nepal is a very diverse country with the highest mountains in the world, low plains, hills, lush green places and completely desolate, remote areas as well. The city of Kathmandu where I live is chaotic, dusty, dirty and very overpopulated - making a perfect place to grate on your nerves if you allow it too. Well, a few years ago a friend of mine was trekking through one of the most remote and desolate areas of Nepal where women literally walk for 4-5 hours each morning over mountain passes just to gather a few bundles of sticks to cook their food for the day. My friend was kind of down about Nepal and was feeling tired and weary having worked here for many years. Suddenly she and her friends came through an area and in front of them was a beautiful crystal clear lake - so clear in fact that you could even see the tiniest pebbles laying in the bottom of it. As soon as my friend looked down into the lake the voice of God spoke to her and said, "Debbie, when I look at Nepal this is what I see! I don't see the dirt, and the corruption, and the chaos. I want you to remember every time you look at this nation and these people that I see their country and their hearts as if they were as crystal clear and pure as this lake!"

When I heard this story I was reminded that God's heart is always full of love for everyone - even for my enemies and those who persecute me; even for those whose hearts I would judge as filled with sin. Every time I struggle with living in a different culture and serving Jesus in very difficult situations at times - I think about this story. My prayer is that I would continue to see Nepal, the world, and all the people in it as Christ does each day! Lord give me more love!!