today i just felt to share with you all a story that will likely be one of the highlights of my time out here in India. a friend and i recently went on a 5 day trip to Nepal. somehow we missed the "night" bus by just 30 minutes and ended up on a "local" bus... similar to your average city buses in the States. what was suppose to only be 12 hrs quickly turned into 26 hrs... which included the bus stopping one night to pick up a small herd of goats (yes, goats!), then the driver pulling over around 1am in the middle of nowhere and disappearing for 2 hrs, then the bus having a blow out first thing in the morning. 14 hrs into the trip, we were exhausted, to say the least.

in a small village 7 hrs from Kathmandu (Nepal's capital), we left the bus for an 11 passenger Jeep headed for the capital. sardined (literally) in the back was my friend and i, a Japanese tourist, and a Nepali guy.

i noticed the Japanese guy right away because he was super friendly! i've always thought Japanese people to be shy and reserved, but not this guy. we struck up a conversation immediately... asking the usual questions that you ask complete strangers when stuck in small spaces together.. ex, where are you from? why are you here? etc.

i wish i could remember his name, but to be honest with you i cant.. because.. well, because it was very Japanese :) so for the sake of this story, i'll just call him " Y ".

after a few superficial exhanges, we started talking real life. Y said he was buddhist, but admitted that he didn't practice. my friend told Y that we were Christians and he said, "that means you hold hands and pray before you eat, right?"

shame on us if that's all the world ever knows us as.

but Y's response was a good opener for us to share who Jesus is. we told him that just as the body needs food to survive, the soul also needs "food".. and that food is God. it was almost as if Y got an instant revelation because he said "wow, thats huge!"

i wish i could say that Y accepted Jesus, but he didnt... not that day, anyway. i do believe something happened in his heart though. i would rather he go home and ponder the living, breathing word of God that was spoken to him than to make a decision out of haste.

please pray for Y as Holy Spirit leads.

on another note, before coming to India i got a 10 yr visa... however, since i've been here the visa laws have changed for all foreign tourist visa holders. the law now requires that each person leave the country after 6 mths and stay out for a minimum of 2 mths. in just 4 wks, i have to leave the country. i decided to make my exit a little early and will be flying to the States on March 15th.

please pray for my heart as i know leaving here is going to be so bittersweet.

" Y "

reunited with friends in Kathmandu

beautiful Himalayas