July 3-4
First off, being in Bhutan the past couple days has been one of the greatest honors of my
life. The entire Tamang family has been so inspiring and challenging to me in their example of ministry. Bhutan truly has been a blessing to me. I have loved seeing the beauty and breathing in the clean, fresh air. I love the mountains and they reminded me of my Colorado mountains, which was definitely needed. The Lord had been so challenging and good these past couple of days.
Today we started off the day early with breakfast and devotions. We then met up with all the youth of the Bhutan churches and headed deeper into the mountains for a hike. We had about a 2 hour bus drive to reach the hiking destination and the entire trip was filled with tons of laughter and songs. We all really enjoyed getting to know the youth and being able to talk to each of them directly, as most of them spoke English fairly well.
The entire hike took a little under 4 hours. All four of us girls rode horses about half way up. The boys went the whole way on foot. It was a super fun and exciting experience for all of us. At the top of the mountain, after about a zillion flights of stairs, we reached a beautiful monastery called Tiger’s Nest which was set into the side of the mountain. The views from it included the Bhutan mountain range and a lovely waterfall. After the hike, we ate a picnic lunch of chicken curry and white rice with the whole crew. We all really enjoyed the extra fellowship time we had with the youth.
We then drove straight to Thimphu Friends Church for an exciting celebration of the youth of the church. We got to witness many graduations from the Sunday School discipleship program and I was able to give a brief message to the children about Sunday School’s (and Christian education/discipleship) importance. It was so encouraging to see the joy on the faces of the entire church, as well as, the significance they place of raising the youth of the church up as warriors. On that subject, the pastor of one of the churches in the slums was 19, which I find absolutely amazing and challenging for all of us. We also had the opportunity to share some songs and a skit about the Feeding of the Five Thousand. To top it all off, the program finished with a fun “fashion” show in which we each escorted the kids down the aisle while dancing and waving. Dinner was the served, which was extremely good, although some interesting salad made me cry a little bit due to it’s spiciness. Adam called it “suffering for the Lord”. And then after I had already finished it Adam mentioned I didn’t have to eat it if it this time if it made me cry, but it was too late.
On Monday we had a devotion time in which we had the pleasure of affirming and praying for David Tamang. We spent the rest of the morning at the Tamang’s house. There we had the amazing opportunity to hear the story of Rupak’s calling story and also the story of their family’s meeting with the King of Bhutan. Saying goodbye to such a wonderful, Godly family was hard, but their lasting legacy and work is so exciting. We are truly a man short without David and we will all miss him dearly. Please continue to pray for them and the mission field in Bhutan as they seek to plant 108 churches before 2020.
We then headed back to Paro for our flight. Before we got to the airport we had a chance to do a little shopping and eat lunch, which by the way there were these little baby potatoes and they were delicious. We then said goodbye to the Tamangs (so hard!) and went into the airport. We all got some coffee there, and FYI, it was not good, but you probably didn’t need to know that. Anyway, we then boarded our flight back to Kolkata, which went smoothly.
The past two days were packed full of so many wonderful adventures, each proclaiming more and more of God’s majesty.
Lynnelle Bogan
Bethel Friends Church
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