Below are some of the reflection questions which i posted to the team to reflect on in our Final Debrief at Nargarkot.
Nepal Mission trip Reflections 2013 (TRACkers)
1) What were your key highlights?
2) What was your struggles & challenges? And what did you learnt from it?
3) What was your one biggest take away?
4) Have your views of Missions change?
5) What's next? (In ones relationship with God)
1) What were your key highlights?
a) Experiencing God's Majestic Creation before ones eyes, how often one get to be so close with such beautiful snow cap mountains of the Himalayas. Seeing that rainbow at phulbari just highlighted God's promise & assurance to us. Out of all the different mission trips & countries I've been so far, I've never experience such beautiful majestic creations from God so up close for nearly 12 days straight!
Romans 1:20 " For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Just some of the other majestic view of God's creations in Nepal! From the amazing clouds, watching the sun rise each morning, seeing the beautiful terraces & this divine chance to see God's promise to us when we saw this beautiful rainbow after ministry at the village. We were abit down when it started to rain as we trekked down the hill. It reminded us that, God has a purpose for circumstances to happen, and if not for the slight rain, we will not have experience this rainbow so up close in the mountains thereafter as the rain stopped soon after! :)
Day 11- A few of us who bothered to brave the cold windy morning to catch the sun rise at Nargarkot!
One of the many beauties of Nepal to see God's creation before your eyes. The Majestic Snow Cap mountains of the Himalayas in the background, the mountains, clouds, valleys & grass that we saw each morning trekking up this mountain to the village.
b) Interacting with the different missionaries & pastors, Uncle Noel, GS, Jacq, Ps Saba & Grace has been such good host to us in the past 12 days. Learning so much from each & everyone of them. Each had their own personal stories & insights from their wealth of experiences. Learnt that "change" is constant in Nepal. And efficiency may not exactly be best compared to effectiveness. Also learnt much from my observation of these missionaries as parents to their kids. I really admire them so much, observing their moral values that they impart as parents to their kids even as busy missionaries on the field.
c) Interaction with this team. Had an amazing group of capable individuals with diverse personalities, spiritual gifts, working styles, all coming together from different methodist churches. And even Ps Saba mentioned to us that he was amazed that our team were actually a group of youths from different churches as we seemed to be so united. Enjoyed the daily devotions in the morning & the debriefs at night with them. All this allowed us to always be in constant awareness of God's presence with us throughout the day. Also enjoyed our sharings and the spiritual conversation with individuals throughout this trip.
Our TRACkers Mission Team at Nargarkot View point, probably the highest point we ever stood on this earth at about 1800m above sea level.
d) Sabbath day in the international church. I felt spiritually recharged just attending this International church in Kathmandu on Sunday. Where 200 plus NGOs & Missionaries from all over the world came together in one same building just worshipping God together! It was nice meeting my fellow church members who were on a medical mission from Wesley too.
The International Church that we attended on Sunday!
Ps Randell Day gave an amazing inspiring sermon on Colossians 3:12-17. On clothing on LOVE!
2) What was your struggles & challenges? And what did you learnt from it?
a) The language barrier. Not a big issue compared to my last mission trip to Cambodia, as the locals especially the college students know decent English to start a conversation with them.
b) The "dark" environment. Found it such a struggle to see how "dark" some of the places were. Like even on our r&r day when we went shopping at Thamal street. It was sad to see vices so openly, a young kid glue sniffing with an older delinquent. A kid who was crippled & apparently possibly being mistreated by a syndicate to beg for money. And all kind of spiritual forces in the different place that we were in, even at one of the guest house one night.
3) What was your one biggest take away?
Understanding the challenges of the missionaries & local pastors. Spending so much time with them, with their families, seeing how they actually lived out their faith in such a country with high political tensions, poverty & when "change" is constant. You will never know when a strike will happen & the when the country goes on a total stand still. All shops in the entire nation close down, no vehicles on the road. And everyone is on high alert. And this people faithfully still serve our Lord there!
Our last day with the staffs of Jars of Clay!
4) Have your views of Missions change?
Not much, but it has definitely sharpen my understanding alot more. For example the roles of the missionaries here, how they faithfully serve the Lord & are like catalyst for the work of God to be done here. Was aware that the Culture also affected some of the practices there, for example in the methodist church that we visited, the holy communion was only for those baptised although we methodist believe in an open table. But they had their own theological reasoning for that.
Phulbari Church Service, where Uncle Noel was preaching on Shining Forth!
Also found it really interesting how the Nepali believers have their special way of greeting one another of "Jai Masi" which means "Victory in The Lord" , compared to "Namaste" which is the general Nepali greeting of "greeting the god in you". So whenever one greeted us "Jaya Masi" we immediately can tell that they are fellow believers.
It also affirmed my view of one of the pros that I see in participating in short term missions. Besides supporting the missionaries & local pastors there. It's one of the best platforms for life to life discipleship to take place. And that's also one of the main reason why I decided to be part of this year batch of TRACkers as one of the mentors. Having the opportunity to walk through this journey of faith with them the past 8 weeks & spending 12 days &11 nights straight with them has been quite a journey for myself too. Seeing how each of them grew so much spiritually since day 1 of trackers & learning to be vulnerable with them allowing them to see my who I really are & just being like an older spiritual brother to them.
5) What's next? (In ones relationship with God)
We were very intentional about being aware of God's presence all the time. We constantly prompted & encouraged each other to look to God, sensing what His teaching us each day. The readings & discussions of His Word in the daily devotions really allowed one to really maintain our intimacy with Him. But the challenge after this mission trip is, how do we maintain or grow even deeper in our relationship with The Lord back at home. That's a challenge even for myself to have that constant spiritual discipline everyday to maintain what we did here.
Photo Journal of my 12 Days in Nepal:
Day 1! Arrival at kathmandu,Nepal!
Spend 4 days 3 nights in the mountainous area of phulburi, Nepal, as our TRACkers team spend 3 days of pure hard work helping in the process of laying the foundations for the extension of this church annex. Carrying cement, stones, & bricks after bricks up & down under the scorching hot sun. However we had an amazing time just interacting with the people there. :)
The short cut up to the church in Phulbari! God really had mercy on us as when we thought we were lost but we found the right path sometime later when we divinely met Uncle Noel & Ps Saba in their vehicle at this crossroad. And we actually got to the church in time and much faster compared to our usual route which we took abt 45mins to hike each day. We actually took 25mins to reach to the church!
The Phulbari Youth Fellowship! Had an amazing time of worship with them! This youths really have such deep hunger for the Lord!
Spent day 8 of our Mission trip in Nepal painting the fence for the Jars of Clay cafe! :)
The finished painting work of the fence at Jars of Clay!
Day 9- Our last day of ministry where we had an evangelistic music gig at Jars of Clay where about 70 people attended with 30 who are pre-believers! :)
Day 10- After a 2-3 hrs hike up Nagarkot mountain & experiencing the Himalayas up close, our team spent a night here as we look back & reflect the entire mission trip experience in Nepal & had our final debrief. :)
Day 12 - A last minute decision to play a really fun game of laser tag own by a missionary in Katmandu, Nepal just before we head back to Singapore today!
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