Nepal Short Term
NEPAL REPORTNepal: tallest mountains on Earth, breathtaking scenery, sweltering jungles, glacial ice fields, yaks & yetis, dozens of ethnic groups, 60s hippy trail, ancient cities... but incredibly poor & unreached.
The task: To help our Nepalese partner by distributing thousands of Gospel tracts in three different areas, in just under two weeks.
The team: 10 young people from around the UK led by AsiaLink’s youth officer and our national partner, Bishnu.
Days 1-3, Kathmandu
Orientation is important in any field work. Understanding something of the culture and it’s practices and beliefs is key to successful ministry. The first couple of days in the capital was a time to listen and learn from Bishnu. Once a Hindu himself, there was no better person to take the team through the Nepalese way of life.
Kathmandu may be the most Christianized area of Nepal, but if you took a walk around the streets you couldn’t tell. Hinduism and Buddhism pervade every aspect of the concrete jungle, poverty can clearly be seen even through the shadows of this dark and gloomy place. Kathmandu is a bustling, claustrophobic and dirty city. It is so stupendously busy that it makes rush hour in the any western city look relatively relaxed.
As in EVERY place on the planet where there are Christians, the workers are so few. Our partners estimate around 500 churches in the capital city so -some might ask- why bother distributing tracts where there are already so many Christians? To put it in perspective, there are more Christians in some of the smaller mega churches of the USA or S. Korea than there are in the whole of Kathmandu’s 2 million population.
In light of these sobering truths we felt burdened to help Bishnu do what he does on a weekly basis: take a box load of tracts, stand on a busy street corner and begin distributing the Gospel of John and sharing Jesus. Fortunately, this generation of Nepalese are mostly capable of speaking our language. It wasn’t difficult to communicate the love of Christ to dozens of people.
In our society, paper isn’t valued and tracts usually end up on the floor or in a bin. Here, it’s a different story. People are so poor and spiritually starved that they will clamber over one another to get a hold of the Gospels we were giving away. People would frequently come back for spare copies for their family or friends. Busses would drive past and hands would reach out to take copies of God’s Word to read in their own language.
Days 4-6, Lamjung (central Nepal)
By the fourth day, ‘Delhi-Belly’ had struck 4 members of the team and things were beginning to look bleak. To our utter amazement, not a complaint was heard and the resilience of these sick ones was a testimony to the steadfast work of Christ in their lives.
Sadly, despite their stout-hearts, three members of the team were too sick to travel the six bumpy-road hours to the next province. Awaiting them would have been concrete floors and noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Throw in a squat toilet, a shed load of insects, and 4 hours from the nearest medical help, and you have a potential recipe for disaster.
The remaining 8 traveled through the day on winding mountain passes to eventually arrive at a small rectangular concrete building. No carpet, no paint on the walls and no chairs. Just a lectern, a cross, a clock and a guitar. Oh, and some straw mats!
Sleeping on concrete is obviously uncomfortable. In fact it takes three nights for the average body to eventually adjust to the rock solid mattress. At night the surrounding fields and tropical rainforest come alive with a chorus of weird and wonderful sounds. Using the squat toilet after dark, situated a few meters walk away, was a memorable experience. It’s always pleasant to share a few intimate moments with a cockroach or grasshopper! Apart form the head torch another must-bring was toilet roll. Most Nepalese aren’t accustomed to our western luxuries because their hands are sufficient enough for the need!
Our first day in Lamjung was spent distributing in the surrounding foothills. The morning three hour trek in intense heat was a challenge but every tract that was given away made it all worthwhile with the knowledge that some of these ethnic people were to read of the Messiah for the first time. After lunch we set off again, this time we headed on a 2 hour hike uphill under the blazing sunshine. What made our ‘walk’ very humbling was the fact that the school we were aiming to visit was full of children who make this kind of journey on a day to day basis, come rain or shine. Our arrival was timed perfectly as hundreds of children and teenagers piled out of school to eagerly take the comic tracts of the life of Jesus.
The following day, we hosted a seminar. Bishnu reports:
“Next day August 20 was a long day for me. It rained heavily from the last night till the next morning and I was praying for the rain to cease for next day's seminar. God answered and rain stopped and the room became full with spiritually hungry souls. AsiaLink’s youth officer took first two classes after the team sang few hymns. Others shared their testimony. Then I taught the believers a little bit about leadership from Acts 20, and mainly about evangelism. There were more than 120 pastors, leaders and believers from 5 different churches. I taught them how to use the Law or Ten Commandments in evangelism. I was encouraged to see the pastor and believers from a far church. They had to walk a whole day to get there. At the end of the training we supplied each church a box of John/Romans tracts. Also when I asked the attendants if they would like to evangelize on their way back to home, then all of them raised their hands and I gave 5 copies to each of them”
Days 7-12, Pokhara (Western Nepal)
On our third day in rural Nepal we finally said goodbye to our concrete beds and made our way to Pokhara to reunite with our absent team members. The distribution began almost as soon as we arrived.
Bishnu: “That afternoon we went downtown to preach the Gospel open air and distributed 2200 of John/Romans. It was good to cry out the heart touching statements about God, heaven, hell and eternity in the streets. Many local believers were encouraged to see us preaching the Gospel open air. That was Friday and we joined a local church for fellowship the next day.”
The following five days in Pokhara were jam-packed with distribution. Some days we stayed lakeside and distributed at an open-air Hindu festival at which thousands of people from surrounding areas were present. On other occasions we went to more rural places.
Bishnu: We went to two colleges and distributed tracts among the local Hindus also. I saw a Hindu priest who was performing a mourning ceremony in a family which had recently lost their loved one. When I offered him a tract, he told me that he wanted to read the Bible. Then I asked his address and promised to supply him a Bible the next day. Then the AsiaLink worker took me to a follower of Jehovah Witness. I showed him some verses from the Bible that prove the deity of Jesus Christ. Please pray for him also. Next day I met the Hindu priest and handed over the Bible when we're on the way to the airport. Please pray for him that he can see the Only WAY to heaven. Also God gave me an opportunity to encourage the believers who work in the hotel. It was great to spend some time with them and I supplied them with a box of J/R. They are encouraged to go back to their villages with the Gospel. More than 10,000 J/R were distributed and supplied. I would like to request you to pray for all of these seeds to fulfill God's plan on them (Isaiah 55:11).
