This is 'Dindy' carrying some of our bags. These guys carried between 50 and 80 pounds and trekked the same trails that we trekked. They are AMAZING! 
sometimes shaded by trees, sometimes uncovered and subject to the blazing sun, and almost always within the sound of the roaring river below or beside us! And one time, the path disappeared. Yes, I said disappeared. Apparently a there had been a landslide or something, so we just had to figure out how to continue and find the rest of the path on the other side. Our friend who invited us there led the way - he held my hand and led me through much of it. I was pretty scared and rightfully so. I mean, the path was unclear, we were walking on loose sand in some parts at quite the downward angle. In other parts there was literally enough room to place our feet on the land between the mountainside and the edge of the cliff. At this point, Daniel was holding my hand leading me and one of the porters grabbed my hand in the back to make sure I wasn't going anywhere. And...after much stress, we made it to the path on the other side!! God was faithful!! 
but maybe it will help to say that we all commented a couple of days later when we were descending and were at 14,000 feet, "Ah, the air here is thicker and we can breathe more easily." Now, 14,000 feet is higher than many of the peaks we Americans ski in Colorado. That we were commenting on the ease of breathing at that height should give you some indication of what in the world it was like for us at 17,400 feet! We were never totally out of breath, but we'd have to pace ourselves as we ascended to that height. We would count out 50-100 paces, then stop to take 10-15 good breaths. It was crazy! But, oh-so-amazing. 
One of our teammates said, "There aren't many things you do in life that you were unsure that you'd actually be able to accomplish and then are able to look back on it and say that you had in fact achieved your goal." And that's just what I feel like - there were many times I wasn't sure that I could make it to the 'finish line' that particular day. But, with God's strength in me, I did. And we all did!! And we've now experienced something not everyone gets to experience. As for ministry, the trails were so difficult that prayer walking was also difficult. As we trekked we were very much focused on the next step and on breathing and getting enough water to stay hydrated. 
However, much of our ministry was being an encouragement to the man who invited us to come to Nepal in the first place. He said over and over how special it was that we would come and meet the folks he's been translating the scriptures for over the past several years. His family has yet to go out to the village because of different circumstances, and in his prior trips out there he's only gone with his language helper and a handful of others. We are the first from our church to come out to see his work. Looking back on the time we were with him, I believe one of our big purposes was to get to see this Valley where the Tazig people live. This is our friend's 'baby', and just as I know we will one day love having guests in our home to meet the little one who grows inside my womb now, he was just that excited to have us meet the Tazig people, his 'baby', and see what it takes to even get out to their village. For us, it was 2 days of travel from Kathmandu and 7 days of hiking up and over mountains and in rain and snow to reach these people.
- hidden. One night in the valley we met with two of the believers. We walked in the dark with our flashlights - not because we were going in secret, but it was just dark. (There's no electricity in the village. In fact, we weren't around electricity for 12 days.) Daniel made the comment on the way to the ladies' home, "It seems like we're going to visit people in the first century church." There was something really special about what we were doing. Something very holy. We were meeting with people who had chosen to leave Buddhism and follow Jesus. And, with little discipleship and no scripture in their language, they are following Him as babes in Christ. We spent the next hour or so in the home asking the ladies what we could pray for and praying over them.
One thing that asked pray for was to grow in their faith. They recognize that even after 3-4 years of following Christ, they are still infants in the faith. The book of Mark has just been translated in their language, but they are an illiterate people, so the translation will have to be recorded and then it will be useful for them. For now, the Holy Spirit is their Guide. We return to the States with a sense of responsibility to pray for the salvation of the Tazig people and the growth of the 7 believers' faith. We count it a privilege to have walked among them and seen the land God has placed them in. Although they seem hidden and tucked away between the mountains to us, our God sees them and cares deeply about them! What an indescribable God!
It was such music to our ears to hear his little heartbeat yesterday at the doctor's office after having taken him on a 2 week trek through the Himalayas and up to 17,400 feet. The sonogram man measured his head and femur, etc. and said that he is right on schedule for his November 3rd arrival date! We are so grateful for God's faithfulness to keep this little boy growing inside of me despite all of the energy I burned while trekking and despite the lack of fruits and veges while there. GOD IS SO GOOD! We are praising Him for our son.
It was also his fantastic idea to have people bring gifts with a "31" theme. So...he got
And then, we left for Nepal the very next day. More to come on that a bit later.
As you can see, I spent a lot of time weeping over the loss of my dear friend Jimmy. Who can really understand these things? It was simply his time to go. All I can do is believe he is in a better place--perhaps the recycling center.
You see, Jimmy had pretty bad breath. And the state of Texas said his bad breath was making our air dirty. So the state said it'd give us $3000 if we junked our friend Jimmy and got ourselves a newer buddy with better breath. What can we say...we sold Jimmy into slavery. Perhaps this makes us bad people, but we did what we did. And here's our new buddy.
We haven't found out his name yet, but for now, let's just call him Mr. Toyota Matrix. We think we'll be friends for a long time.
baby Audi at 6 weeks, 4 days
The 'Tour de Cafe' has been a special event for the past two years because of that. However, not only is it special because it's the place where I met Daniel, it's special because it's the night when we at Catholic Charities celebrate refugees by having a coffee, tea, and treat tasting of food from all over the world as well as music and art presented by the refugees. This man is a former ESL student of mine and I currently tutor his son. Daniel is his employment case manager. He is from Burma and of the Karen people group. He is a phenomenal artist. Here are some samples of his paintings.
I also tutor four of the kids in the this family. The father, grandmother, and baby stayed home this night. There are 10 people living in a four bedroom apartment - grandmother, parents, and seven children. Can you imagine? They are such a sweet family with hearts that love the Lord. During Christmas Catholic Charities gives Christmas gifts to our families through Toys for Tots and private donors. I was teaching ESL to these parents at the time and got to deliver their Christmas gifts. The oldest daughter wrote me the sweetest letter thanking me for the gifts and speaking blessing over me from a passage in Psalm 12. So sweet!
Daniel and I spent Easter Sunday afternoon together planting flowers in the front bed at our house. We planted gerbers and petunias and after weeding the flower bed we saw that some of the gladialas we planted last year were peeking through the soil again, ready to grow into beautiful blooms again this year.
purple petunias
pink gerbers
the front flower bed
We took them down to the Stockyards, the place out-of-towners 'must see' in Fort Worth. Mom Audi even got on the back of the longhorn!
Then we took them to the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth. I had never been before - here we are, after having walked down maybe 50 steps to be in the center of water falling down the rocks that surrounded us and flowing into a drainage system at the bottom.
