Just days after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal, Senior Pastor Woody, Worship Pastor Todd and Lifeline Leader Jack flew out, as scheduled, to visit the Trust Home and encourage pastors in remote areas.
Our pastors traveled alongside many aid workers; in fact, Todd wrote on social media, “Flight full of aid & rescue organizations. Love seeing the world come together!”
Missions Team Member Shea Foster was able to share why they took the trip in this WSET news story.
Jack and Todd arrived first after heading out April 29, and spent a day in Kathmandu. Todd shared, “24 hours in Kathmandu gave us a chance to get a feel for what is happening here with earthquake relief. The city itself is getting help. It's a big city so you have to look for pockets of damage. Old building are a mess."
"The villages are suffering greatly though, with poor housing most are gone. Due to landslides, they having trouble getting to these people to get them food. Slowly getting organized. Pray for the churches to take advantage of this opportunity to share hope in Christ!”
Our pastors then headed to the Trust Home where they taught from 2 Peter. Jack encouraged the children, many of whom were still frightened from the quake, not to fear but to remember God’s promises.
“We been hearing so many stories about the devastation from the earthquake in the villages. So many still have not gotten any aid or help. Over a week later! These villages are almost impossible to get to because of landslides. The hills the towns were on are even too steep to get a helicopter near."
"Whole villages of sometimes 100s of people are gone. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. All this to say it's a mess. So many are helping each other though. Pray that the church would have influence in these places and would take advantage of the opportunity to love and share the Gospel,” Todd wrote.
Woody, Jack and Todd then headed out to some remote villages to encourage pastors, some of whom have as little as just a month of training.
“We traveled about seven hours to a remote village … there we spent a full day with around 80 pastors and church leaders teaching on grace (Jack), faith (Woody), and then I walked them through 2 Peter 1:3-11. We then finished up by praying over them, which turned into about a half hour of also laying hands on and praying for the sick."
"It was special and a privilege to be there. Many of these pastors walked for hours from even more remote villages to be there.”
They then traveled eight more hours to another village to teach on the “5 Gs”: Going, Growing, Gathering, Giving and Glorifying. The team arrived back in the United States around midnight May 11, just as another earthquake hit Nepal.
Please continue to pray for Nepal and especially the Trust Home. The last quake is reported to have affected the Mustang region, home of many of the children’s families.