ANSWERED PRAYER IN THE HIMALAYAS
April 2, 2026
Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you for your prayers on my recent 6-week trip to India and Nepal to visit 10 Tyrannus and Lydia Halls. Amazing things happened. Too many to tell all at once. In this update, you’ll get a small glimpse into only one of multiple stories during my one week in Kathmandu and the Himalayas, specifically how God answered prayers for His Kingdom purposes during a four-day Kathmandu Tyrannus Hall discipleship trek.
On Wednesday morning February 18th at 5:15 AM and with a full pack and hiking poles strapped to my back, I hopped on the back of a motorcycle outside my lodgings in Nagbahal Square, Kathmandu for a 40-minute bike ride to a bus station on the outskirts of the city. There I met Yuba Raj Devkota, director of the Kathmandu Tyrannus Hall, and 12 KTH students for a 6-hour bus ride to our trailhead in Langtang National Park.
(If you want to get a feel for a typical motorbike trip through Kathmandu, you can watch: 2026.02.17NighttimeBikeRideThroughKathmandu.mp4. There were a lot fewer people at 5:30 in the morning than there are in this video taken the night before on my way to give a lecture at the KTH.)
Prior earthquakes and landslides had taken out much of our road, which made our journey significantly slower, bumpier and more treacherous. Once outside of Kathmandu, most of our way was only dirt or mud. Although I have had many bad bus rides, including crashes, this was the most uncomfortable and stressful bus ride I have ever been on (until the return bus trip back to Kathmandu). Enjoy the 30-90 second bus ride videos.
Bus ride videos (30-90 seconds) from Kathmandu to Chhimti:
1) I was instructed to take the “seat of honor” in the front of the bus with the driver. For the first hour, we were losing air from our brake lines and needed to stop multiple times to fix it. Can you hear the air escaping at the end of this video? 2026.02.18LeavingKathmandu.mp4.
2) A typical stretch of dirt road and steep cliffs: 2026.02.18DirtRoadsAndCliffs.mp4.
3) Waiting again for a JCB to clear the road so we can proceed. Notice the two-foot margin of error the driver has in the sloppy mud with no underlying supportive foundation! 2026.02.18JCBRoadClearing.mp4.
4) Further delays due to meeting another bus: 2026.02.18OneWAyDelays.mp4.
How about a mid-morning momo breakfast?
Then after a lunch meal in Chhimti, elevation 1800 meters (5905 feet), we take our group photo before ascending ~5 hours to Tuppi Danda at 2720 meters (8900 feet). The following day, our destination is Panch Pokhari (The Five Lakes) at 4200 meters (13,800 feet).
Kathmandu Tyrannus Hall Discipleship Trek Team on way to Panch Pokhari
Looking down on Chhimti Village
Entrance to Deurali (2105 meters) and Langtang National Park
As I took the first steps of the trek out of Chhimti, I wasn’t feeling well. No energy. I hadn’t slept well in the two weeks since I arrived in India. Maybe because of the 12-hour time change and jetlag? Maybe because of the sore throat and sinus infection/flu that I picked up from my coughing seatmate on my flight to India and still hadn’t been able to shake? Was it due to the unexplained dizziness and vomiting of the previous day? Was it because my ear had recently begun to leak blood onto my pillow at night? Was it the fact that I am almost 66 years old? Or was it that morning’s early departure, uncomfortable 6-hour bus ride and sudden elevation change? Regardless, I had no option but to trek uphill. This was now my 11th discipleship trek into the Nepali Himalayas, and I had always pushed through. But this trek was different. I barely made it to Tuppi Danda, our first stop. Thirty minutes before reaching this destination, I could not even carry my light 20-pound backpack anymore. A gracious KTH student offered to carry it for me. I was the last trekker to walk into our tea house. Everyone else though was fine, as you see here: 2026.02.18EveningInTuppiDandaTeaHouse.mp4.
That evening God began to do profound things in all our lives.
KTH Team singing in Tuppi Danda Tea House
After a time of singing (photo above), I began our evening reflection time by sharing how God had been humbling me all day long. According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “to humble” has a primary meaning of “to force into submission.” I explained how God been forcing me into submission “for my own good,” as He did to the people of Israel (cf. Deut 8:16). Up till that day, I had always pushed myself to finish every trek. I always carried my own backpack. And that day, I couldn’t. Nor could I continue with the rest of them the following day, which was going to be even more demanding with more elevation gain, more kilometers and less oxygen. I had to admit defeat. I had to stay behind. Everything in me rebelled against this inevitable fact. But I physically could not go on. And the humbling of my soul was good! It is a part of the often painful process of making us more like Jesus, who described Himself as “gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). He is committed to transforming us into humble Kingdom citizens, just like He is. And it is good! Then one by one after me, each student and Yuba Raj shared what God had been doing in their life that day (or recently). Some vulnerably confessed sins. Others spoke of being distant from God. Others asked for prayer. Others told amazingly encouraging things they had either been challenged by or learned that day. Another told of how a fellow student greatly encouraged him on the trail, something guys typically don’t tell one another. One Christian girl that we met on the bus ride joined us and also shared. It was truly a “holy hour” of sharing during which God was at work in us and through us to build us into His Kingdom citizens.
Skipping to two days later and passing over other answered prayers, on Saturday morning at 6:30 AM we departed on the 6-hour bus ride back to Kathmandu, a bus ride that almost cost all of us our lives. I was sitting in the very back seat of the bus by the window on the right side (8 of us were crammed into a seat made for 5). Here is what it looked like from my vantage point: 2026.02.21ReturnBusRide.mp4. A few minutes later, with a sheer cliff on our right side, we began slipping backwards downhill toward the edge of a cliff. The driver braked and the bus slid a couple feet in the mud until it came to a stop. I looked out my window and could see straight down the cliff. The bus driver’s assistant went out and found some branches to put under the wheels. When we slowly started up again, the bus initially began to move forward, until we started slipping backwards again. But this time, the driver gunned the engine and the bus rocked into the old rut, tilting at least 30º towards the cliff. Instinctively we all began leaning away from the cliff. I thought we were going over. The driver continued to gun it. The engine was whining at top speed and mud was flying everywhere. We got to within about a tire’s width of going over, when it slowly began to inch forward, mud still flying and engine screaming. When we eventually pulled out of it, we all looked at each other. The expressions of fear and relief were palpable on every face. Sadly, the next day a bus did go over killing 19 people, one a British citizen. That could easily have been our bus, with one American citizen.
So, thank you for your prayers. God answered many prayers, from growth in Christlikeness for each of us to simple traveling mercies.
Steve