The Perfect Day

Hi y'all, Sarah here!

Today was... how do I describe it?... PERFECT.

We've been in Kathmandu for 3 days and so far we have just been familiarizing ourselves with our surroundings. Exploring Thamel, the tourist-y type area near our hotel, meeting with friends and connections in the area, and yesterday we visited Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, which is a 15 minute walk from where we are staying (Favorite memory from Swayambhunath: Kevin made best friends with a little boy, maybe a year old, who loooooved him!!). Kathmandu is incredible, filled with so many sights and sounds and people. Everyone we've met is so friendly and hospitable, including the lovely people working at the hotel.

So far our time has been chocked full of divine appointments, and today topped it! A couple days ago we ran into Emily, who has worked with APU students at Tiny Hands in previous years, and she treated us to some iced tea at a nearby cafe. Turned out her and a friend also working with Tiny Hands were staying at our hotel, so we spent some time with them and met the head of Tiny Hands International, John, and had dinner at his place last night followed by a few rounds of Mafia (in which Chris died almost every single round and Kevin falsely accused me of being Mafia twice!). Emily, Courtney, John, and John's girlfriend Aksha are some of the nicest people! We look forward to many more games of Mafia with them. :)

This morning started with a random phone call to Kevin and Chris' room. On the line was Hom, a man Kevin has been in contact with who works with Young Life in Pokhara. Turns out he was down in the lobby of the hotel! Oh hey, Hom. So Kevin jumped out of bed and went downstairs to meet with him and talk about possibly heading to Pokhara for a week or so to help out with Young Life. He was only able to stay for a little while but it was long enough to know that we like him a whole lot!

After breakfast we decided to head to Rhatna Park, a place that Chris' team spent time at last year with a man named Dilip, hanging out with the street kids that gathered there. The walk was incredible because we got to get out of the more tourist-y part of Kathmandu and into the real nitty gritty! We almost made it to Rhatna Park, but God had better plans for us, because we ran into Dilip on the way!! Turns out he was headed toward our hotel to drop in on us-- how awesome is that?

So we went to lunch with Dilip, but not just any lunch. First of all, on the way there an old man reached for my hand and for some reason I gave it to him, and he tried to kiss me. So, that was a great memory. Thank God for my bodyguards, Kevin and Chris, who helped pry him off of me. Secondly, we had been asking around about a restaurant called New Dish on New Road, which is owned by mine and Kevin's host from last year in Darjeeling, SuLee, and his wife Usha. We found it! SuLee is in Darjeeling right now, but we asked for Usha, because we had heard LOADS of great things about her but we didn't get to meet her last year. Well, guess what? All those great things we heard were true! She was awesome and she told us to come back anytime, even if we had no money, and eat. Sooooo nice!

Over lunch Dilip filled us in on his street kids ministry (he is so great, I love him!) and then we headed home. Since we'd had such full day already, we decided to go chill out at a coffee shop in Thamel and do some reading/blogging. Well, God was not done with us yet. While at Himalayan Java, Chris was taking some pictures off the balcony and spotted Krishna, a boy he'd become close with last year while doing the street kids ministry. Chris and Krishna's hearts were knitted together by the Lord last year, a true miracle, and today was the first time Chris had seen him since last summer. Kevin and I watched as Chris darted down the stairs and across the street to embrace Krishna: a beautiful end to a perfect day!

I'm sure that today was a preview of what the next two months hold: precious moments, amazing sights, important relationships, and divine appointments straight from the Lord! I think I speak for the three of us when I say that today brought us so much joy! Not only did we get a better idea of what these two months will look like by talking to Hom and Dilip, but we renewed several connections that are precious to each of us. God definitely treated us today, and we are thankful.

We love you all! We'll be posting some pictures on here soon.

-Sarah, Chris, and Kevin