Winds of the Himalaya -Part 15a

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Out of the Mouths of Babes

Abbie warming up by the kitchen stove. Ilam tea gardens

At 11:45 pm on December 16 a team of teens, young adults, a couple of older ladies, and five-year-old Abbie boarded a flight out of Kenai, Alaska for the first leg of our journey to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. While Abbie’s parents had made this journey a few times it was a first for my granddaughter. My first visit had been in March of the same year. The moment was filled with indescribable anticipation and joy as I had carried in my heart a call to Tibet, the “rooftop of the world,” for many years and since travel there was not feasible due to political conditions I had decided that her southern neighbor, Nepal, was my best option.

📷 from postcard

On the 19th we landed exhausted in Kathmandu, a city I had dreamed of since watching the movie The Night Train to Kathmandu a decade or so earlier, and at 3:00 am checked into the Student Guest House in Thamel, the tourist sector of the city. A short sleep, breakfast at 11:00 am, and we began our work of prayer walking through some of the key strongholds of the area. By the time we returned to the guest house many were already feeling sick and disoriented due to the spiritual oppression we were facing. The following day we continued praying through the city and the backlash continued.

Durbar Square
Boudhanath Stupa
residence of Kumari Devi,
the living goddess
priest sacrificing to Kali at
Swayambhu, the Monkey Temple
Yama, the Tibetan
lord of death.

Part of the team left by bus in the afternoon and at 9:00 am on the 21st the rest of us began our twelve hour road trip (also marked by spiritual resistance in the form of accident and sickness) to Damak in far southeastern Nepal.  Our purpose was to visit five of the seven Bhutanese refugee camps in the area.  The Bhutanese were of Nepali descent and had been violently forced out of Bhutan due to their refusal to to adopt Bhutanese dress and religion and likely because they occupied some of the most fertile land of the country.  Though their ancestry was Nepali their heart was Bhutanese and they longed with tears to return home.  At one point during our stay I had overheard the term Bhutana ama and understood it to mean mother Bhutan. Later I used the term in prayer over a large crowd and there was a noticeable stir and smiles of appreciation for my understanding of their heart’s longing. 

Damak school ‘bus’

The 22nd began with a rickshaw ride and prayer through the town and then we headed out to visit three camps. At one of the camps we were swarmed by literally hundreds of children, approximately 2000 according to one of our Nepali team members. They had never seen white skin before and word spread fast! They had of course also never seen a white child so they were enthralled with Abbie, each one struggling to press in closer for a look. Abbie’s dad is a large man and he was carrying Abbie but the kids kept pinching her legs which was frightening her a bit so he lifted her up onto his shoulders out of reach. The mob continued to follow us through the rather large camp calling her a baby doll and asking, “where do the batteries go?” The air rang with excited little voices as the crowd of children pressed in so tight that the entire group moved almost as if it were one entity. I remember nervously thinking that if someone were to fall they would be trampled. I also remembered in the Gospels the phrase “the crowds pressed in around him” and thought, “This is how Jesus must have felt!” We could hardly stop laughing in amazement to be in the middle of such a surreal moment in time!

On the 23rd we visited another large camp in order to present at a school assembly with approximately 1700 students plus teachers in attendance. Many students believed our message and the headmaster was fascinated, eager to know more. Abbie’s mom gave him her Bible which he proudly brought to show me and I explained to him the structure of the book and advised him to begin reading the Gospel of John. That night God gave Arjun two dreams about Jesus and the next day he told us that the Bible is the most amazing thing he had ever read, and that he is in charge of 98,000 people to whom he wants to teach the Truth. We felt like he would be a Moses to his people. In the ensuing years Abbie’s mom occasionally got emails from the camp assuring her that they were still following Jesus.

Arjun and his wife in the rear

That evening several of us drove up a mountain to pray over the village of Dharan. Although it was steaming hot in the plains it was quite chilly on the mountain so Abbie and her mom, still sick, stayed in the car to pray. We prayed through the tiny village and noticed that there were no tea shops but only beer venders. When we prayed before the temple I asked why there was a bell in front. “The people ring it when they come to pray so the god will know they are here,” I was told. Then we all walked over to a long bluff to pray over the valley and the Yakkha people who live in the region. While we were praying two of us saw an enormous beam of light shining from east to west through the valley and we prayed for the light of the Son to shine over the region. We prayed against fear, darkness, bondage, alcoholism, and false religion. After that I saw the illuminated forms of two giant angels, about half the size of the mountain that was behind them, hovering over the valley. When we finished praying and returned to the car we shared notes and discovered that five-year-old Abbie, led by the Holy Spirit, had been praying exactly the same things that we on the mountainside had prayed.

Ilam tea gardens
Trekking up to the tea gardens, Abbie was a great hiker!
Abbie singing and playing around with children in a village on the border with India
These ladies need some joy. 😉
football in Chitwan
My friend is in a years long fight against a brain tumor. Will you pray with me for his healing?

There is so much more to tell as it was a huge trip. We visited so many people, prayed for so many needs, talked with a man who had had a dream that we were coming, met two leaders who had been imprisoned 11 months and 14 months for their faith, presented several school assemblies, and played with so many children. They wanted so much more; time was our only restraint. We trekked to a village in the local tea gardens where we visited a Christian family. We climbed up a mountain on the border and prayed over India. We prayed around the palace in Kathmandu for the royal family and the government. We encouraged believers in the Chitwan jungle region of southern Nepal, visited an elephant sanctuary, and headed north to the border with Tibet. Back in Kathmandu we shared gifts and prayer in a home for formerly trafficked women and girls. Finally we debriefed for a day in Thailand, and arrived home January 8. It was perhaps the fullest, most eventful three weeks of my life.

Abbie and her new friends

While I have only mentioned five-year-old Abbie individually a few times she was with us through everything, ministering right along with the rest of the team. She not only drew attention because South Asians love children but she prayed prophetically, she trekked like a trooper, she gave out gifts and handed out scripture when they were refused from the hands of adults, she spoke encouraging words when she sensed exhaustion and frustration and sickness, she was a key part of all the assembly presentations, she engaged in spiritual warfare, she ministered in her own right. So often I have heard children called the church of tomorrow. That is a half-truth because children are also the church of today. We need to stop putting the young on a back burner and give them opportunities to lead and to pray and to minister. I believe that God honors the prayers of a child in a special way and we need to be allowing them to exercise that beautiful gift of favor with their Heavenly Father. God said that out of the mouths of babies and infants he has established strength to still the enemy! That is spiritual warfare! Let’s stop pushing our children to the side and instead encourage them, train them, and give them opportunity to participate in the service of God.

Abbie all grown up with her own babies

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

Psalm 8:2 ESV

Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy clothed with a linen ephod..and the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD..and the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”  And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

1 Samuel 2:18, 21; 3:10

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign..and Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord..after this (when he was older) Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord.

2 Chronicles 24:1, 2, 4

..children do not have a “baby” or “junior” version of the Holy Spirit.  He is the same age in them as He is in us.  Even though they may be young, immature and inexperienced, God’s Holy Spirit working in them is the power of God…born-again children are brothers and sisters in the Lord first and children second…Our children need to hear the Word of God coming in power just as the adults expect to hear it each time the church gathers together!..(During the Welsh revival) young children often went out into the streets singing and witnessing.  Large meetings grew out of their testimony. (James Stewart, Invasion of Wales)

David Walters, Kids in Combat, pages 20, 21, 22, 47

6 thoughts on “Winds of the Himalaya -Part 15a”

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