Blessed to be Wrong

Planning a trek in Nepal is somewhat of an oxymoron. With questionable roads, inaccurate maps, and unpredictable weather, we are never quite sure where our journey will take us. On this particular trek we planned to go to a new area where no other teams had gone before. We travelled with porters, who carried burlap sacks full of Christian literature which we sold far below their value. In Nepal, free things are not considered important, so a small price ensures that the books and pamphlets will be appreciated and read.

Right from the beginning we realised that things were not going to go as we had planned. Our intended route turned out to be the same trail another team had taken just a few weeks earlier, so many people had already purchased literature. We were somewhat discouraged as we stopped for lunch at a small shop in a busy area and sat down to wait the hour-and-a-half it would take for them to prepare the meal for us. As we waited, I felt God telling me to speak to the nearly one hundred men gathered around us. Not a natural evangelist, I fought with the idea, but God nudged me further and I gave in.

I started by simply telling the men that we did not come to give them rules, but to explain what they had been missing. God showed me that my job here was not to preach, but to just interact with the men. So after sharing my testimony, I asked if they had questions.

It was then, as questions started to pour from the crowd, that I realised what a blessing it was that we had taken the same path as the earlier trek. All the men gathered around the shop had bought small testimonies and Scripture portions from the other team. For the past few weeks they had been reading the material and thinking through how its message could impact their lives. Rather than breaking new ground, we had come to this place to care for the seeds that had already been sown, providing a second dose of the hope of the gospel. The faces of the strangers around us beamed with joy and surprise as we encouraged them and explained the things they had not understood.

As we finished our discussion with the men, we realised that our porters had already eaten and moved on towards the next village. My friend had to chase them for almost an hour to bring back Bibles and other literature for all the men. We sold almost 150 books that afternoon and left the village praising God for being bigger than our plans.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.      I Corinthians 3:6-8