:: Reaching Nepal ::

On Monday we finished our time in Nepal and headed to Greece. The past few days have truly been a “holiday” for us. It has been nice to just relax and spend time together. Yesterday we walked up to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon. It is incredible to be in a place with so much history and imagine what it must have been like years and years ago.

Our time in Nepal ended well. We truly felt blessed to have the opportunity to officially say goodbye. There were many mixed emotions throughout our trip. We are so excited about the opportunities God has given us to serve Him in Louisville but there is still a part of us who knows we were ultimately created to live overseas. We are so thankful we can trust in God and follow Him knowing His ways are infinitely higher than anything we could ever imagine. He has given us a glimpse of that the past few years and we are confident He will continue to guide us.

Thank you so much for praying for the spiritual retreat we led. Several members of our team said it was exactly what they needed and we believe God used it to encourage them and bring further unity. Please continue to pray for Nathan’s friend, Mitsuru. Nathan had numerous conversations with him and it is so evident God is working in His life, yet he is still so far from understanding truth.

We taught English a few days at the old school where Sarah used to teach. We told them the story of Creation and the Fall. Please pray that the students begin to understand their need for a Savior through those stories.

We will be returning to Louisville on Sat. Our desire right now is to take these last few days to spend time together and invest in each other before we return to the busyness of our life in the States.

We just finished a retreat with our team in Kathmandu. We all went to a hotel in town for two nights to allow them to relax and spend time together. We facilitated sessions in the mornings and evenings for them to hear the Word and be refreshed spiritually. We also had a time for them to share about the things God is doing in their lives and pray for one another. Please pray for them as they continue to serve and minister in Nepal.

Yesterday Nathan started feeling bad so today we are taking a break to let him rest. Please pray that his health will be restored so he can continue to teach his class at the Bible college and enjoy the rest of our time here.

We are now staying with my old roommate on the side of town where I (Sarah) lived. I am excited about reconnecting with friends. We have already run into several of my old friends and English students. Please pray that we will be intentional and have Gospel-centered conversations as we spend time with people.

Thank you for your prayers during our time here. Our visit has been fun and encouraging for us but difficult as well. We love so many things about Nepal and the people here. While we are enjoying the time we get to spend here it will be difficult to say goodbye. We are so grateful God has given us this opportunity to come back and say goodbye to people and a place that is so important to both of us. It has been fun to reminisce in the place where we “fell in love.” We are so grateful to know you are praying for us while we are gone.

Sarah and I with our Tibetan friends who have been very faithful in ministry.

Tibetan believers drinking a cup of tea after church.

On Sunday Sarah and I visited a Tibetan church were there were 9 believers! Praise the Lord. After some conversations with the pastor we learned there are now 33 Tibetan believers in Kathmandu. We are thankful for this but there are still well over 50,000 Tibetans in Kathmandu without the Gospel.

This weekend we will leading a spiritual retreat for the missionaries here in Kathmandu. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom, that there will be growth and that we team will draw closer to God and to each other.

We are starting our fifth day here in Nepal and are in the full swing of things. The first few days we spent reconnecting with old friends. Our time with them has been very refreshing. It’s been nice to talk about life, ministry and the deep things of the Lord.

On Friday we met up with Mitsuru and talked for several hours. Mitsuru is a Japanese guy I (Nathan) was friends with in high school. He moved to my small town because his dad’s company opened a factory. In high school we developed a close friendship and I was able to share the gospel with him several times. Since then he has moved back to Japan but we talk every few years. Several years ago he wrote me telling me he was working on a master’s degree and he was doing it on Christianity in the Southern part of America. How crazy is that. A non-believer wanting to study Christianity! Sadly what he discovered studying Christianity in the South did not encourage him to believe. In his words he called Christians in the South, “Sunday Christians.” He said they believe with their mouth but not with their actions. About two years ago he called me and said he was starting his PhD work and wanted to come to Nepal and study religion. He has now come four times and each time some of my Christian friends have reached out to him and shared the gospel. As we met on Friday we talked about lots of things but we talked about faith quite a bit. He is still very far from coming to faith but it is evidentGod is active in bringing Mitsuru to Himself. I am in awe every time I think about how God has constantly brought Christian people into the life of this unbelieving man. Mitsuru’s thinking is extremely postmodern. Actually he is the most postmodern person I have ever met. To him truth cannot be known and right and wrong are not truly knowable. What may be true for me would not be true for him. It is a crazy thought process but to him and others it makes complete sense. Please faithfully pray for the salvation of Mitsuru. I have prayed for him for thirteen years and ask you to join me in that prayer.

On Saturday Sarah and I ministered in Nepali church and this morning we will be going to a Tibetan church to minister. God has given us the opportunity to share both places. Please pray that God would speak through us to communicate His Word as we strive to both encourage and challenge believers here. We are so grateful for the opportunity to both encourage and be encouraged while we are here. Everyone has been very gracious to us in welcoming us back and helping us feel loved. We hope to post pictures tomorrow.

Praise God! We are in Kathmandu and it is so good to be home!

We left Monday morning from Louisville and started on our great journey back to where our heart calls home. From Louisville we headed to Chicago and on from there to Brussels. After a few hours in Brussels we hopped on a plane and flew to Delhi where we spent the night sleeping in airport chairs! Finally on Wednesday morning we boarded our last flight and landed in Kathmandu.

Just being here has been good for our hearts. The sights, smells, the traffic, and the craziness of this city has brought us joy. We are so thankful for our lives here and are praying that God would use us for the few short weeks we are here.

We have had a chance to connect with several friends, some of my students, and our co-workers. Last night we ate dinner at the orphange and once again were overjoyed. Pray for us today as we seek to reconnect with more friends and speak the gospel to those around us. Pray specifically for my friend Mitsuru. He is an old friend from Japan who is not a believer but who is open to the gospel. He is now here in Nepal and I will be meeting with him this week. It is an amazing story that I will share with you in a few days.

We beg you to faithfully read our updates and pray for us daily. We will do our best to post new updates as much as possible.  Blessings.

Hey team, It has been a while since I have written but please do not think I don’t love you! Sarah and I have been doing well. School is finishing up for the semester and we are preparing to serve at a summer camp where Sarah will lead an outreach work program to the community and I will be teaching world religions and leading youth on hiking trips. Pray for our students and for our effectiveness as we seek to misniter.

We have a huge prayer need. We are seeking to make big decisions in the next few weeks and we want our prayer team to be praying. God has been leading in some new and exciting ways and we need wisdom as we follow Him. Thanks for praying and we would love to hear from you sometime.

It’s Feb. 6 and I just realized that it has been over a month since I last updated our website. Over the break Sarah and I took a class called “Leadership in a Cross-Cultural Context.” It was a good class and more than anything it showed me all the cultural mistakes I made in Nepal. It was a hard realization but I also know that the greatest mistake I can make is a mistake I don’t learn from. Working in a cross-cultural setting brings challenges that almost never go away. These cultural barriers are found on so many different levels and take a lifetime to over come, but a lifetime is what I hope to give.

The one thing I took away from the class was the idea of being a servant. I heard sermons, read books, and wrote papers on the idea but it wasn’t until taking this class that it began to sink in. Why do we serve others? To gain experiance? To work up the ladder? To learn a lesson? No, actually we serve for no other reason but to simply serve. When we serve others with no other motive except love we both glorify God and show others they have worth. In addition there is no greater earthy joy than serving others. Daily God is allowing me to process these thoughts further and my hope is that it radically transforms my life. 

As we look in John 13 at the story of Jesus washing His disciples feet we are faced with the question- will I choose the towel or the robe? The robe in Scripture is reserved for those with honor and prestige, but the towel is the symbol of a servant. What will it be? Will we seek honor or will we serve others with no strings attached. I challenge you as I have been challenged- take up the towel and serve those around you. Don’t just serve when the opportunity presents itself or in places you are comfortable. Make a life change and start living the life of servant. What does a servant seek to do?- humbly serve anywhere, in anyway they can. A life spent serving God and serving others is a life well spent. Christ Himself, God in flesh, said that He did not come to be served but to serve. These words should make us rearrange our lives. 

Happy Jesus’ Birthday!

I cannot believe that Christmas is almost here. It seems like just a few weeks ago Sarah and I arrived back in the States but this month marks a year since we returned. To recap the year- we spent much of the winter getting to know each other’s families, planning our wedding and visiting supporting churches. In March, we were married and then spent most of the summer back in Nepal as well as doing various mission trainings with ABWE. In August, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky to start a Masters program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and to raise the additional funds we need to return to the field.

Our first semester at seminary has been absolutely amazing. We came here with lots of questions we needed answered and are getting the tools we need to answer them.  While in Nepal we came to the conclusion that we may be one of the few sources Tibetan people have of hearing and understanding the Word of God. The more we realized this the more we became convinced of the necessity of receiving this seminary training before returning. With each class we take we receive more confirmation this was the right step and we look forward to applying what we are learning with our people.

Last month I was given a reminder of what a huge blessing it is to be called to reached and train others. One of the men I discipled in Nepal, Khadga Dhai, is now is the States trying to get into a medical residency program. He flew to Louisville and stayed with Sarah and me for 5 days so that he could attend a medical missions conference in the area. During that time, we were able to mutually encourage and challenge each other in our walks with God. God used my friend to remind me of the joy it is to disciple others. Please pray for Khadga Dhai as he seeks a residency program here in America and eventually as he returns to Nepal to do medical missions.  

Pre-field ministry is also going well. God has brought us several churches who have a real desire to be missions-centered, God glorifying churches. We would like to thank the following churches for allowing us to come and share our passion for the nations: Fellowship Baptist Church in Springfield, VA, Poplar Heights Baptist Church in Jackson, TN, Kal-Haven Community Church in Allegan, MI, and Westwood Baptist Church in Cleveland, TN. Each of you were a blessing to us and our hope is that we were a blessing to you as well.

Many of you have been asking when we think we might return to the field. To be honest, we are not sure. We had hoped to return very soon but still need to raise almost 50% of our support. What that means is that we will continue to be faithful in doing pre-field ministry and trust that God will provide the support we need when He is ready for us to return. We would like to congratulate our teammates, Daniel and Chrissy Winslow, as they will be leaving for Nepal early next year. They have worked very hard and are excited to start their new life and ministry in Kathmandu. Please be praying for them. We would also like to congratulate our friend Sujan Joshi on his new marriage. Sujan and Priti were married in London England and are both doctors who are preparing to serve in ministry. Sujan was one the men I discipled in Nepal and a very close friend. Please pray for Sujan and Priti as they start their life together.

Thank you all for your love and support. We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and to quote Paul’s words from Romans, “to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” (ESV)

This morning I picked up CJ Mahaney’s book the Cross Centered Life. I have heard several people talk about the impact this little book made on their lives. The focus of the book is to bring the Gospel back to the center of our churches and our personal lives. Mahaney says that “too many of us have stopped concentrating on the wonders of the cross.” Instead we focus on activities, our own merit, our emotions, or a host of other things that though they are not bad, they are not what is of utmost importance- the Gospel of Christ is.

The chapter that struck me was called “Breaking Free from the Rules of Legalism.” I think too often when we think of legalism we think of people who place crazy rules on themselves and others and call it godly but as Mahaney points out “legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God.” With this definition we can see that many of us have a tendency to be more legalistic than we thought. Many of us, including me, often feel less accepted if we don’t perform well.

One of the professors here at Southern, Thomas Schreiner, say it well when he said that “legalism has its origin in self-worship. If people are justified through their obedience to the law, then they merit praise, honor, and glory. Legalism, in other words, means the glory goes to people rather than God.”

I think the easiest way to distinguish between our trying to earn favor with God and our trying to be godly by become more like Him can be identified by defining the words justification and sanctification. Justification has to do with our status before God. When God saves us He transfers the perfect, sinless record of Jesus to us. The work of justification is God’s work alone. Sanctification however is the process of becoming more like Christ, the process of believers growing in holiness. The process begins the moment we are saved and ends the day Christ comes back for us. Mahaney says that “sanctification is about our own choices and behavior. It involves work. Empowered by God’s Spirit, we strive. We fight sin. We study the Scripture and pray, even when we don’t feel like it. We flee temptation. We press on; we run hard in the pursuit of holiness. And as we become more and more sanctified, the power of the gospel conforms us more and more closely, with ever increasing clarity, to the image of Jesus Christ.”

Therefore we can distinguish justification and sanctification by saying that justification is being declared righteous and sanctification is being made righteous. Justification is our position before God and sanctification is our practice. Justification is Christ’s work for us and sanctification is Christ’s work within us. Justification is immediate and complete upon conversion and sanctification is a process.

Mahaney sums up this distinction that we all need to make by stating the mistake legalist makes, “He confuses his own ongoing participation in the process of sanctification with God’s finished work in justification…Our participation in the process of sanctification comes only after we’ve been totally accepted and made right before God through faith in Jesus.”

We must seek to find our joy and fulfillment in life by living a life that is centered on the cross, the finished work of Jesus. We must not focus on what can do but on what He has done. The Gospel must be the central point of our lives.

Sarah and I have been missing our home in Nepal. God knew this, of course, and in His goodness he brought Nepal to us. On back to back Fridays we have had dinner with Nepali people!. The first Friday we were invited by our American friends who had also worked in Nepal to have a “Momo” party with their Nepali friends. We ate and had fellowship with over 10 different Nepali people. Many of these people had been in the states for years. The next Friday we were invited to have dinner at a local pastor’s home. There are a growing number of Nepali-Bhutanese refugees that are begin brought to the Louisville area and this pastor’s church is seeking to reach out to them. So Sarah and I went to the pastor’ house and had a wonderful time playing games, teaching them how to eat American food, and singing songs. We were also given the opportunity to share the story of creation and the fall. It was a wonderful chance to share how mankind’s once perfect relationship with God is now severed by sin. Pray with us that we have more meetings with the Nepali community and that our opportunities to share the Word of God will continue to grow.