I'm freezing my royal rastafarian nay nays off!

Hi from Syabrubesi! 

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, we've appreciated the support that all of you have given us.

We had two great rest days in Trisuli.

The main street in Trisuli

We just hung out together on the roof of the home where we were staying, some of us visited a beauty parlour and others judged us for doing so (guess who?) and we all enjoyed just doing nothing and going to bed early. 

Squeaky clean Colin

Graydon gave a story telling seminar at the local Assemblies of God church which most of us attended - the church was packed with mostly young people who hung on his every word.

After our rest period we made our way to the Archale area and stayed at a place called Shanti Bazaar. We stayed there for two nights and 'practiced' climbing up into the higher villages from the valley in preparation for the more difficult uphill hikes next week.

Effortless

Just halfway up the hill - that block of buildings is where we were staying

On the day we arrived one team met a man who was in his late 60s. He told them that he had been praying everyday for 15 years for God to give him a sign that he should follow Jesus. That day he believed that the sign had come and he accepted Jesus Christ. As soon as he prayed he was yelling out at every passerby what had just happened to him and that they needed to come and learn more. 

This was a huge encouragement for everyone as people in that area seemed very closed or affected by community pressures and so on. It was great to see how God had used our team to help this man to come to know Him and it really confirmed God's work in the area before our arrival.

The plan was then to leave on Saturday morning and leave most of our Nepali colleagues behind to go back to Kathmandu. We were all frantically trying to get things organised and that included washing our hair. 

It was easier for some of us than others

For the next leg of the trip we would only be accompanied by Barney, Dipendra and Suresh. This meant leaving Subha who was our amazing cook and overfed us at every single meal. Our Nepali colleagues were incredibly serving, gracious and kind. They woke up earlier and went to bed later than us every day. They always ate after us and made sure that our needs were always met. This includes getting all the hot water for our teas and coffees, face washing in the morning and all our showers. They even scrubbed all of the toilets we used and discarded our bags of used toilet paper. Some of them were also our translators all day and never got time to rest. They never had proper sleeping conditions and mostly slept on the floor in the room that was also used as their kitchen. Amongst all of this they were constantly joyful.

Kumar, Suresh, Barney, Subha, Ramesh, Dipendra, Jonah

We then caught a 'micro bus' which is what they call mini-vans here all the way to Syabrubesi. The trip was just under four hours and it progressively got colder and windier as we travelled upwards. The view was incredible though and changed constantly. 

How's the serenity?

Syabrubesi is where the Tamang people live and is a gateway for trekkers into the Langtang mountains.

The main road in Syabrubesi

 We are currently writing this blog from the freezing cold lobby in the hotel that we are staying (we can see our breath in the air). Today we went up to the Tibetan border and prayed for the area and did some ministry. It is a very strong Buddhist area and we had be very careful about telling people about Jesus as we were warned by the police.

This river runs into the Trisuli river which then runs into the Ganges

We will be hiking for four days from tomorrow uphill. Tomorrow we hike to Syabru, Cholongpati, then towards Gosainkund then trek back to Dunche. From Dunche we will be going back to Kathmandu then we fly home.

Three of us are struggling with colds and it is freezing here and only going to get worse. We are starting to crave foods from home and actual hot showers. Hot showers here means lukewarm water. Pray as we hike, don't shower for five days, carry our packs and deal with the freezing cold weather.