“We will never accept Christianity,” said the village leaders in Nepal. Just six months later, some of them became believers and are helping to lead a church in their region. Elim missionary to Nepal, Bhab Ghale, reports
It was over 60 years ago when Nepal was completely closed to the gospel with neither church nor Christian. However, since the borders opened in 1952, the church has grown remarkably and there are now an estimated 10,000 churches and one million Christians there.
In 2007, Elim began working in Nepal through one of our missionaries whose vision was ‘to see one church and one trained leader in every village in Nepal’.
The initial strategy was to simply focus on a neglected low caste Hindu community in the hot southern plains of Nepal. This community was first reached out to by organising a well to be dug to provide access to drinking water and irrigation for their vegetable gardens. It was a tangible expression of God’s love. Through these actions, a relationship began to flourish and the gospel was boldly shared in word and action and a church sprang up.
In another part of Nepal, a church was planted amongst a high caste Hindu community in a hilly region through an inter-village volleyball tournament. A young man’s passion for a three-day tournament between 12 different villages provided a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with all who attended.
During the event, one of the most influential families asked question after question about Jesus and Christianity, and subsequently the whole family accepted Christ. As a result, not only was a church established in this village, but they have been active in reaching out to other communities.
While it was exciting to be part of establishing other churches elsewhere in Nepal, it became clear that the strategy needed to be revised in order to realise the nationwide vision. After much prayer, a network of pastors and church planters was initiated who had a vision to reach out to their own areas and districts. These ‘insiders’ were brought to Kathmandu every few months for intensive training to empower them in fulfilling their Godgiven vision.
These five-day sessions focused on equipping the representatives with the essential tools, and support every church planter’s needs. A significant emphasis has been on multiplication – training the representatives to become trainers themselves by mentoring and passing on their skills to younger people in their regions.
In the last two years, the number of representatives has risen to 21, with some mentoring up to 25 people. The vision is to empower and equip at least 75 representatives (one per district).
This approach and strategy has been effective in penetrating the scattered countryside and has even yielded second generation church plants. So far, it is estimated that 52,000 people have heard the gospel and over 67 churches/cell groups have been established.
There are times when community development work is also initiated by the representative in order to demonstrate the love of God in word and deed. This happened in Lagara, another low-caste Hindu village near the Indian border in the south.
Prior to the start of the various projects (safe drinking water, bio-gas toilets, adult literacy, agriculture etc) the community stated emphatically that ‘you are most welcome to come and help us, we need and want your help, but we do not want your religion’. The village leaders unanimously approved this decision to not accept Christianity. However, within less than six months, some of these leaders were the first to accept Christ and are now leading a house fellowship where 25 people worship Christ every week!