Temples and Idols

The past couple days have been filled with a variety of activities. Yesterday I was able to travel a little outside Patan and go to the historical old town of the Bhaktapur Kingdom. I stopped by a home that has several women making hand crafts that help support the 10 orphans that the mother Sanu spends her life taking care of. She was an older woman that had a beautiful testimony. We talked for a while, they showed me their craft projects and then we prayed for the orphans that are sick. Sanu then insisted that I walk with her to go see the other children that were currently in school. So along rice fields I walked, stepping in a pile of mud (which I later had to wash off) to see the other orphan children, bright eyed and wide smiled. It was worth getting my foot covered in smelly mud! She then took me and the other OC teammate I was with to see the Bhaktapur Durbar Square (many old temples built in the 15th and 16th centuries). Today I mazed through the worst traffic jam I've ever seen because of taxi drivers striking(the whole petrol shortage issue-I would be striking too)! I could hardly get by on the street on foot...cars, buses and motor bikes seem to think that filling every inch of space is the way to get through. All the excitement was to go with Karen to the international school and shadowed her for the day. I got to see what it is like to be a MK. The rest of the afternoon I took a nap and worked on some messages for future speaking engagements.

Sanu is the lady in yellow, these are the sick orphans she takes care of.

Fasidega Temple dedicated to shiva....kind of creepy looking in person.

A view of the temples at Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

Patan Durbar Square-the gray octagonal one is called Krishna Temple, it was built in 1723.

So I have been living and exploring around the birth place of the Hindu and Buddhist religions for 3 weeks and I haven’t shared my thoughts on idols yet. They are all around and it’s time I commented on what I’ve seen. As I visited the Durbar Squares in Patan and Bhaktapur I couldn’t help but see the endless rows of idol shops selling gold, silver and wooden craved images of gods. Mixed in with the idols are countless numbers of the scariest looking masks you’ve ever seen (this is part of the Buddhist belief system). I’ve gone into shops to buy bracelets and the shop owners try to persuade me with their merchandise by telling me that it has the “lucky #8 symbol” on them…as if that will make any difference to me. At first I was astonished at how many idols there are all over the place, then I just sort of got used to them. Every symbol, every sign has some kind of significance to it, you can’t escape it here. It was sad for me to see the superstition, like a bus driver that lit some incense and waved it around the gas petal, break, gear shift, etc for protection. Then I had a sudden reality check several days ago when I was in a taxi. I looked up on the window where most of the drivers keep their collection of favorite idol photos and along with the colorful array of gods I’ve never seen before was a photo of Avril Lavigne. I thought wow…who am I to judge! Just because their idols are blue bodied, eight-armed beings with elephant heads and ours look like athletes, rock stars, Nike swooshes and Seven Jeans….doesn’t make them any worse, maybe just different. If anything I’ve become more aware of the material things that constantly become idols in my life. Isaiah 41:29 says “Behold, all of them are false; their works are worthless, their molten images are wind and emptiest.” Later in Isaiah 46 saying “Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on the scale hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; they bow down, indeed they worship it. They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; they set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place, though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; it cannot deliver him from his distress.” Makes me think of things like diamond rings and television sets, oh how we love to sit at the throne of the recliner in front of our TV set! Isaiah talks of the folly of idolatry in Chapter 44- “they do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.” I think we are blinded by the ways we commit idolatry in our lives. I know I’ve realized how much I enjoy my hazelnut lattes just so and my brand name this and that. I guess this is something I am learning and praying through in my own life, to see what I may be “crying out to” to make me happy or save me from my distress instead of the Holy One, who is called El (“The Strong One”—who is more powerful than any false gods). 1 John 5:21 tells us to flee from idols, praying that I can obey His word and keep in mind the things that can become idols in my own life.

One of the many idol workshops that line the streets of Nepal.

Prayer Requests

-My throat and lungs have really been irritated with all the pollution. I've had a bad cough and yesterday I lost my voice. Please pray for God to heal my lungs and restore my voice (I need it!).

-Tomorrow I am giving a devotional (Lord willing if my voice returns) and hanging out with the women at project resuce (they have all been rescued from trafficking into brothels in India). Pray for God to encourage them thru the words He gives me to share.