This is a good story!

One morning recently I woke up and had such a feeling about the day. On the one hand, I knew that the Lord was up to something, but I was also tired and simply wanted to spend some more quality time with Him to prepare for preaching the following day. Life with God is funny that way, when our thoughts don’t match His thoughts, we have a choice to follow Him into the unknown, or settle into what we want and hope everything works out.

I decided to pull myself together, ask for a double shot of coffee, and head out into the busy streets of Kathmandu. As I walked along, my thoughts with Holy Spirit became more solid with what He had planned, and I was aware that I would meet a young boy whom I was to help. Accordingly, I bought a cookie (biscuit) and carried it around until he came, and shopped for a bag for myself. I saw one I wanted and made a mental note of where it was so that I could think about it and return for it another day and continued walking, cookie in hand, while seriously debating about just eating the cookie myself.

Then the Lord convicted me and so I turned around to return for that bag. When I got there, a woman walked right in front of me and picked up that very bag and bought it right out from under me! lol. At that moment, I knew I was in the right spot. It wasn’t about the bag, it was about the place that I would be meeting this boy. So I stood there trying to figure out if I was even going to buy a bag at all, and then I saw him out of the corner of my eye. One look at him, and suddenly my arm extended like lightening to hand him the cookie and give him a smile. This was the one.

As soon as he took the cookie, something hard to explain happened. Inexpressible joy flooded my entire being, and before I knew it we were walking hand in hand through the alleys just enjoying being together. I can’t explain how I felt about him, which I knew was just a tiny little bit of how the Father feels about him, it was simply not of me. While we walked, I discovered that his name was Arun and it was his birthday. I gave him the biggest hug in the world and then of course, I knew what I knew, I had to take him on a birthday shopping spree!!!

First things first, he didn’t have any shoes. I felt he probably did not wear shoes because it increased his chances of someone taking pity on him. The beggars are very adept this way. However, I believe in dignity shopping. This means that though “you get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit” is appropriate in some cases, for children and grown ups in developing nations, what they actually want is important. Dignity. So, he deliberated for some time over the shoes that he wanted to buy and because I was in some kind of joy stupor from the almighty Himself, I just watched in pure glee and he carefully chose each part of what I will call his birthday outfit.

As we shopped and I tried to communicate, and he did as well, one could tell that he had been hoping for one such as myself for this day. He was like Tigger, jumping around, smiling and chattering to all those who would listen that it was his birthday and his Didi, (auntie) Haley was taking him shopping. People even stopped what they were doing to tell him happy birthday! Can you imagine??? How many beggars get this much attention, or even know when their birthday is? Now to be sure, I have no proof that this was his actual birthday, but no matter, because all of heaven was in agreement with him! The joy that I wanted to spend the day with him, and to actually buy things he wanted on his actual birthday was quite clear. I discovered that he turned 11, one of my favourite numbers, and that he was a dancer. I later learned that he is a breakdancer to be specific.

“Fear not little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32 How many times have we feared instead of trusted? We form a lot of opinions about our Father God based on our human interactions, and in this way, I believe the Lord wanted to plant a seed in Arun’s heart. What if when I am able to share the love of Jesus with him in words, God hearkens his heart back to this very moment, when He poured out kingdom kindness and generosity through me, and all the others that have been and will be after me? In this way, will he be better equipped to trust the kindness of God?

Eventually, it was time to buy the cake which is very important in Nepal. We sat down at the bakery and he did some very careful deliberating about the cake he wanted. To my surprise, he had bought himself some balloons already with money he had earned that day begging, so no matter what, he was quite ready to celebrate his own birthday. Once I bought the cake, (even labeled Happy Birthday Arun!), he invited me to his celebration later on that evening. This was icing on the cake for me. Pun intended.

I came back to my place and made a giant poster sized card for him and prayed as I waited that he would feel special, loved, and important. Knowing the challenges of communication, I called my friend who he agreed to accompany me, and long story short, we met Arun, and then found ourselves in an Indian refugee camp, with a group of no less than 70 living in very humble quarters, all from New Dehli. They are Indian refugees, which explains why Arun did not look Nepali to me. He also speaks Hindi and thankfully, my friend had some experience with that as well. This is how I learned that Arun’s dad was in India finding a new wife and he was living with his three brothers there.

When I walked into his living quarters, I saw that he had decorated the walls with the balloons he bought for himself. It was absolutely amazing, and such a testimony of the human spirit to live fully the life we are given, despite our circumstances. I was so honored and humbled that he had invited me to his birthday party. My friend told me he had waited at our appointed meeting place for almost an hour, fearing that I would not show up. “Fear not little flock…”

Of course, it is quite unlikely that another blond haired, blue eyed westerner has ever stepped foot into these living quarters, indeed, my friend had never known about it even having lived there his whole life. It is tucked away and hiding down a long alley. As soon as I was seen, the whole community descended into this room, speaking to me, chattering away as if I spoke perfect Hindi, and looking at me through longing eyes. The laundry list of needs was presented to me, and one by one, I had to say not today. One woman tried more than once to command my help and she was none too pleased that I actually had no help to offer her that night. I learned that the entire community makes their living here by begging. They are all related, from one family with many members, and help one another survive. They had hoped to escape the harsh realities of poverty by migrating to Nepal, but so far have had only trouble.

As they whispered about me, and stared at me sitting on the floor of this humble space, a large man came lumbering in with all sorts of intensity as he plopped down beside of me. I learned that he is the leader of them all, and a Hindi Priest, as well as a professional snake handler. Meeting a snake handler has always been a bucket list item, so this was quite a moment. Today, the snake was with him in that bag you see, but I only realised that later, when I was back in America!!! I am so glad I was clueless. He had just called everyone to worship one of the Hindi gods moments before, which was a whole wild new experience as well, loud, rowdy, and clear, so I was aware of his authority in this place. I wanted to honour him as such, but also feared that he would take over the celebration, so I diverted his attention to the boy after a few minutes and he lost interest in our party. I also sensed this was not the moment to begin open air preaching, but that now I had a slight opening in this community that I would be able to build relationally over time. May it be.

As we brought out the cake, Arun showed me how they do things. Host cuts the cake, and then feeds to his most honoured guests by hand. So, he shoved some in my mouth as well as my friends, and then he cut small pieces for as many as he could make for this amount of people. There were so many, he chose all the children. He is a beautiful soul this one. Then, it is time for someone to put cake in his mouth, and then smear it all over his face. That was fun to watch. He chose a didi, (auntie like person), who I learned has been kind to him along the way. She closed down her beauty salon to come to the party. She also gave him the blue hair you seen in his picture, per his birthday request from her. We sang the American version of the Happy Birthday song, in English, which I found odd, and he blew out his candles with a smile that stretched to heaven and back. With probably 30 people crammed into that room at one point, the fun continued, and the party was a grand success.

As I walked back to my place that night, the joy I felt simply would not dissipate, nor the smile off my face. I mean, God just invited me to love on an entire Indian refugee camp. I even got to kiss the face off of the most precious dumpling baby in the whole wide world (signature hyperbole inserted here). In fact, people kept staring at me, probably because I looked slightly off, with my giddy grin. It was simply so divine in nature, that all I could do was worship and praise God for His goodness toward the entire human race, as my mission statement implies. It was such an incredible picture of how I believe God means for us to experience life in the service of the king, with JOY unspeakable and it made me hungry to never stop following Him… He has the directions for all the best adventures, and to all those He means to bring back to Himself.

Will you join me in praying for my “next time” moments with these people?