Like you, I read Mags' blog posts every week. I appreciate her openness and honesty with what life is like in Nepal. But, unlike you, I have the inside view on what her life is really like. And I feel as though she humbly leaves out some details. But don't fret, I'm here to set it straight. There are two main components to Mags living in Nepal that, based on reading her blog, you may not fully grasp: Her ability to love and how much it hurts.
Mags shows love more overtly than most people I know. I could tell heaps of stories where she's taught me about love, but this blog can't go on forever, so I'll just share one: We were in the village together and Mags wasn't feeling well. In fact, she was feeling absolutely rotten. Sharing a tiny wood planked bed with me, eating nothing but rice, feeling dirty, and living out of a backpack is hard enough when you're healthy. But she was doing it all and woke up feeling wretched. If it were me, I'd shut myself in a tiny dark room and demand to be left alone. (Be honest, that's probably what you'd do, too). But not Mags. When an old Christian woman came to the house and asked us to walk across the village to her home for tea and fellowship, it was without hesitation that Mags agreed to go. There is loving your family, and there is loving your friends, and then there is showing love to a complete stranger under the most uncomfortable circumstances. And that's that kind of love that Mags shows.
But in a place like Nepal, you can't love the way Mags does without also feeling the hurt. Mags is tough. Impressively so. But inside that tough, I-can-handle-it-all facade, there is one of the softest hearts. The day that two little girls were dropped off at the orphanage and she had to hold one of them as their only known guardian turned and walked away - that broke her heart. And though she tries to explain what it feels like through her blogs and sharing, we, as listeners, can't image the hurt that she feels. But, knowing it hurts, knowing that every child she holds has a story and every day might bring a new wave of emotions that she doesn't want to deal with, she goes and loves and holds and hurts for those kids.
That's the Mags that I see every day. That's the Mags that she has become, or maybe always has been. And as you read her future blogs, as you connect with her, when she returns home and you ask her questions, don't forget that the events she tells you about aren't ever just stories to her. They're people. They're emotions. They're love. And they're hurt.
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