Many of you have supported our partnership with Ekta Church in Nepal through your giving, and participation in the most recent Serve Lunch event. Here is a report from Vaun Swanson about the trip…
“The women’s conferences we hosted in Tikapur were a huge success. We heard story after story of women that were so blessed by their time at the conferences…and away from their daily chores! The women came from many different churches and were from all castes and different tribes. We focused on how much God loves each one of them, views all of his children as equals and how often we see God use unlikely people (like uneducated women) to accomplish his purposes. We talked a lot about how important stories are. I shared several stories from scripture and many of the women shared their stories. Many, many more would have liked to but we had to encourage them to share with one another and with their neighbors. The exercise I had planned for them around stories kind of bombed though. I had taken four hundred cards and markers and we tried to teach them how to put their story-line on paper in order to share it. Turns out…many of these women didn’t even know how to hold a pen! Wow! I quickly told the group that this was only one way to help them think of the important times in their lives….but the important thing was that their stories were important and they needed to share them with others.
The women loved mixing and talking and eating together. Many of them slept at the church Thursday night too. This was the first time many of them had ever done something like this. One woman told her pastor (who told me) that she was kind of afraid to come because she feared that the monkeys would destroy her fields while she was gone. After the conference she told him that she didn’t care what the monkeys did…she was just so glad she had come. They are already talking about next year and anticipating 7-800 women! Yikes!!
Thank you so much for your prayers and support for this Christian women’s conference. I interviewed 20 women and wrote down their stories. Only one of them was born into a Christian family…and she was pretty young. They have all had hard lives and been persecuted by their families and friends. But their love for the Lord is so strong. I was truly blessed by them. I know you would have been, too.”
I am so grateful for this partnership and the great work God is doing in Nepal!
Susie Grade 