The third day

It's 6 am on my third full day here. My time has mostly been dealing with jet lag and adjusting to life in the third world. It's fairly difficult being obese in America but I would venture to say that it's 10 times harder here. As was expected my body is going through some serious challenges. It is extremely hot here and even a quick walk is difficult. Heat exhaustion lingers around the corner ready to pounce at any given second. My other main challenge is my sinuses & lungs. I am an asthmatic and Kathmandu is one of the dirtiest and most polluted places I have seen. Even the locals wear dust masks when walking around all day. So I certainly have, but I can tell my sinuses and lungs are fighting hard. Thank goodness I brought several inhalers. Walking through the slums on the first day was especially challenging. Rivers of human excrement surrounding makeshift homes.  Smoke from fires, pollution from engines, smog, dust, fecal matter on roads, etc. My appetite hasn't been strong either. Please pray for my health. 

With these challenges have also come a lot of self-doubt. Questioning why God brought me here, etc. It has been a fight to remember that his ways are perfect. To remember who He is and who he says I am. Pray that I will remember and walk in my true identity. 

As for the experience itself, I am living in a four/five story building with probably 20 Westeners who are missionaries in Nepal. They operate a House of Prayer and everyone takes regular shifts in the prayer room. There are Nepalis that come and visit on certain hours too. I think church will be on Saturday and it is apparently very lively. I had initially hoped to go on excursions to the villages with people but I am beginning to rethink that. I don't want to isolate myself though. 

I have been praying Ps. 54:4 over myself. "Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me." 

"Don't call me Shirley!" -Airplane. (It's a joke. You will either get it or you need to watch the movie Airplanes)

Yesterday we adventured out for a bit. The roads smelled of dust, exhaust, and cumin. It was lovely. 

All of the Nepalis are shocked by my weight. Much to the chagrin of my Western interpreters who are having a hard time interpreting what would be considered rude in America. Everyone asks how much I weigh? Tells me to excercise to lose weight. And stares. It's been humorous for me but not so much for the interpreters. Just another reminder of how the choices in my life don't effect just me, but are carried by an eco system that surrounds me. 

I have only eaten American groceries so far. I didn't want an upset stomach on top of everything else. 

So, today is the third day. Jesus was resurrected on the third day. Scripture says that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in me. I am asking God for resurrection power to fill me today. All of the places where my body is feeling the pull of death, that they will be filled with life again. Lungs, sinuses, joints, digestive system, hips and back. I pray that my body will choose life today. 

Dt 30:19-20 "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."