India/intro to Nepal

What’s up guys, I know its been a while and I apologize for that. It’s been kinda busy and i hope you understand. Well we went to India and now I am in Kathmandu, Nepal.

So in India we were connected with a ministry called Asha Mission Society in New Delhi. India marked something so different in my life especially in the aspect of Praying. (I will later explain.) We lived at a bible college, where there were about 20 students there. Their ages range from 14 to 25. They were all guys and so humble and servant-hearted the way they treated us. They made us food for every meal without complaining, washed our dishes and offered to do everything for us. It was truly humbling to let go and let someone that you’ve never met before serve you in this way. We had a room amidst the college and had no heating or instant hot water, so in that aspect it was a little challenging and something to definitely get used to. India was hard. It was harder than Nicaragua in the way that there wasn’t to much structure due to it being around Christmas and New Year. I didnt realize til later that our main kind of ministry for that was to empower the next generation that will bring that Gospel to India. (Did you know that 50% of the unreached live in India). So to be able to be apart of that, is truly an honor and a privilege to partner with Asha and the Lord. When we had structured ministry, we would leave for the slums around 9 in the morning, which was nice because it gave us enough time to spend with the Lord before we went to ministry. we would go to the slums. We would go with a nurse who would go every day and either help take care of patients or teach some of the young kids basic English. We would also go to the leper colony, which was my favorite, I do the same thing there on Fridays. It was pretty much a Ministry, apart from the college kids that we got to speak to but also be poured into.

A couple of things that we got to do was one we took the college students to the India Gate which some of them have never been to. And we were able to buy them food and hang out with them. During one day of ministry, we went to a temple, called the lotus temple. The temple was very interesting. Even though the temple with me for specific religion, the religion itself is trying to bring all religions together in peace so pretty much everybody could go into this temple, whoever you are in worship your own God. So the goal for us to go in was just a pray, that the other people in calendar, the love of Christ, and at the encounter the True One God. The atmosphere in there was so weird. Like I walked in and I felt the Holy Spirit for a good bit and then I felt the darkness in the hopelessness, and I realized afterwards that the Holy Spirit was just covering me in production. A lot of them people went into the temple and did a small prayer and then left. It was so obvious that the religions were so workspace and not relationship based in that was heartbreaking to see.

Something else we got to see what is the Taj Mahal. We took a trip down to the city where it was at just got to hang out with me and my team and go see one of the seven wonders of the world. It was beautiful then after that we went and seen a Ford. It was so cool to go through out to see where a king used to live.

Testimony/what the Lord taught me.

My time in India was really strange. I was in this battle between what is wisdom and what is boldness when it comes to sharing the gospel when there’s a chance that you could go to jail. I love evangelizing, but it was so hard, because knowing that if I got caught it could potentially mess up the ministry that I was working with. So I was in this constant battle of how, and when do I share the gospel The Lord really put on my heart and asked me, if I don’t share the gospel with one person in India, was India worth it? And to my fleshly self, I wanted to say no. But the Lord really put on my heart that though I might not see results or the fruit that comes from my time in India, it’s not about what I do but about what he was doing through me. Even though I might’ve not seen the fruit and might not to him, it was worth it that was there. And then this whole battle I wrestled a lot with from when is it wisdom, because we book in the book of acts, and all the disciples did not care what the government said. For example, Paul was in prison, and told not to preach of the gospel, they let him out and went to the exact same spot that he got told not to preach at And I read of the other disciples about their boldness and I just really didn’t know and still don’t know completely what the line is. Though I wrestled with these thoughts, the Lord gave me opportunities to share the gospel with a couple people. Praise God!! One time me and one of my boys were out thrown frisbee, and the neighbor man and his brother came walking over to us. The neighbor was talking to one of the college kids. While the other brother was kind of just standing around, not knowing what to do. So I choked in the frisbee and he caught it and then he tried to throw it back to me, but it went the wrong direction. I say this not to bring shame upon him, but to show you how the Lord worked in this. As I was walking over to get the frisbee, he went running past me and ran to get the frisbee because he felt bad that he didn’t throw it at me. He came up to me and gave it. He told me that he was so sorry because you’ve been a bike accident a couple months ago, and his shoulder was torn up a little. At this point, I knew that this was through the Lord had put in place for me to pray over, so we kept talking little small talk, and then eventually I asked him if I could pray for him, feel so honored that would pray for him. It’s a whole cultural thing that if you’re an American you’re valued so much higher. So I pray for him and he got healed. While I was praying the Holy Spirit just came over me and went into him and he was freaking out. Matthew 5:14 says, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. He was telling me that when he seen me he seen this energy behind me. Explain to her that it was the Holy Spirit, and he also said when he was running to go get the frisbee the presence of this ”energy” was surrounding him. When I prayed over him, he felt the Holy Spirit, or as he explained this energy transfer from me to him. It was so beautiful because then I got to share the entire gospel with him and he was so hungry for it. Though he did not receive the gospel completely pray that the Lord would continue just to show up to him. This was also so weird because when I was done with this conversation, the enemy just brought so much fear into my mind like whenever there was a banging on the door. My first thoughts were police, and what would happen if I would go to jail. And all these things were running through my mind, but the Lord reminded me of a phrase. My grace is sufficient to you, 2 Corinthians 12:9. That’s all I needed to hear for me to realize that it doesn’t matter what happens his grace is sufficient to me, and there was no need for me to fear. One other testimony that I have, I was in a coffee shop the one day just doing some work and spending time with the Lord when I got talking to guys either have been to the states or has family in the states. And we ended up having to our conversations with both of them, and I had to share the gospel, and it was such a reviving moment to me, because I have gone so long without sharing the gospel I felt depleted, and the Lord gave me these opportunities to share his love with them, and ended up praying for them. So this was a little bit about India and then we headed up to Nepal.

Nepal

Nepal the teams are split up again and we switched leaders for this country only. I have the privilege of leading a team of five girls this month. It’s so cool have a board is a ready working in our lives to push each others closer to him. Since we were splitting up and changing leaders, we had a little dBrief about India. This was such a great time because we went to a high peak in this time and got worship the Lord and look over Kathmandu and most of Nepal. We even got to see Mount Everest in the Himalayas mountains. We also got to go white water rafting from the Himalayan mountains, with the squad. It was such a sweet time before everybody split up again. Here in Nepal we’re working with a Ministry that does a lot of stuff. The leaders in contact with over 500 churches in Nepal alone. Every morning and evening Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we go to the slums and every Wednesday the girls have a women’s Bible study. Saturdays we go to a Nepali church and preach and give a couple testimony in the morning. We are also gonna be doing a lot of different things. This will not be our set schedule. We will be doing a lot of different things from going to Bible colleges to play soccer with kids from the street and a whole bunch of other things. We started ministry today, Tuesday yesterday we just prepared for ministry and we all painted rocks and wrote a name of God on them, and then went up to a hill that receives all of Kathmandu. There is a Buddhist temple up there and so we got to worship up there and prayer for Kathmandu before we start ministry and also asked the Lord what he wants for time here. The highlight I have for Nepal already is I got to meet my mentor from last year, Bill Swan, in Kathmandu an hour with his family, but then also went and walked around the city at night, and just had a great conversation.

Prayer

If you could be praying for me at the world which show me how he wants me to lead this group of girls over the next month and be praying for sickness because they have a stomach bug and have been throwing up lately. Thanks.

Support

I’m still in need of financial support while I’m on the field. I am currently 64% funded and made a little over $2100 to be fully funded. I would love if you guys would be willing to pray about it and see if it is for you. I know that prayer support is more valuable, so I do ask for prayer more than anything.

Support Links

https://adventuresinmissions.servicereef.com/events/adventures-in-missions-3/2024-world-race-gap-year-24g0902-leader/participants/dougsto

Cashapp- $dougstoltz04 Venmo- @douglas-stoltzfus

Photos

Anyhow, here’s so cool photos

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