By Rod Matthews

After Mohan Jayasekera and I visited Pakistan (see previous article), we went to meet with a ministry partner in Nepal, the nation sandwiched between India and China. Nepal has 29 million people; less than 1 percent are Christian.

There are no direct flights from Pakistan to Nepal, so we had to transit through Delhi in India and stay one night. There we met up with Rick Shallenberger, pastor of one of the congregations in Cincinnati, Ohio, who was accompanying us at the request of his church so he could give a first-hand report on the results of the financial support the congregation had given to our projects in Nepal.

We flew into Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, in the afternoon—descending through a gap in the surrounding hills and coming in over thousands of flat-roofed red-brick buildings, where more than a million people live. The city lies in a lush valley at an elevation of 4,500 feet, with the peaks of the Himalayas only barely visible at a distance through gaps in the hills to the north, and even then only on a very clear day. Around the outskirts of the city are many brickyards with giant chimneys rising from the kilns.

Soon after we reached our little hotel, Deben Sam, pastor of the Gospel for Himalayas church, our ministry partner in Nepal, came to meet with us. Deben and his wife, Manju, come from the far eastern part of Nepal. They have an 18-month-old son named Uzziel (all three at left). Deben was the first person in his village to become a Christian, and as a result of persecution from his Hindu neighbors, his parents asked him to move out. So he came to Kathmandu and lived with a relative who was a Christian pastor until he decided to start his own ministry on a theological foundation he believed was more accurate.

Our contact with him began through email as a result of his interest in our extensive range of website articles, and his request to use them for his ministry. He explained that little biblical educational material was available in the Nepali language. We offered to fund the translation and printing of biblical educational material, with the first Nepali publication being the Discipleship 101 course (which is available on our website). Over 1000 copies have been distributed in Nepal, and another printing is needed.

On our first full day in Kathmandu, we visited the medical clinic that Deben and his ministry team started (left). Around two years ago, about 30 members of his Kathmandu congregation who worked at one of the brickyards were required to work seven days a week by their Hindu owner so that they could not go to church. These workers live in absolute poverty and work in slave-like conditions. Even the children have to work. They earn about 90 rupees ($1.50) per 1000 bricks, which can then be sold by the brickyard owner for 6,000 rupees.

In response to their circumstances, Deben started exploring specific ways to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to them—in addition to conducting Bible studies for them in their brickyard living areas. They are too poor to pay for medical care, and the living conditions pose health risks, especially for the young children and their mothers. Deben suggested starting a medical clinic to offer them free consultations and medicines. That meant renting a room, hiring a pharmacist, buying medicines, and gaining the services of a doctor for a few hours a week. We discussed the levels of assistance we could sustain and committed to establishing the clinic and funding operations initially for one year. The support started with the Australian churches, and a major portion was picked up by Rick’s Cincinnati congregation.

After some challenges getting the required government approval, the clinic now operates in an area near some of the brickyards and is open six afternoons a week for several hours, staffed by an administrator and a pharmacist, with a doctor in attendance for four hours once a week. Its services are free of charge for brickyard workers and any others who are very poor.

On Saturday (Nepal has a one-day weekend), we visited the Kathmandu congregation pastored by Deben. Mohan and I gave short messages and Rick gave the sermon with a translation into Nepali provided by Raju, Deben’s brother-in-law and the worship leader (right). About 35 people sat on the floor in a small room to sing, pray and hear the messages.

On Sunday, we accepted Deben’s offer to take us to a village of Chepang people about 160 km (100 miles) west of Kathmandu, where he had planted a church. It was a rather difficult drive that took about 4½ hours each way. The traffic was "challenging"— slow trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles, three-wheelers and carts pulled by donkeys and oxen.

	The scenery was magnificent as we followed the Narayani River (a tributary of the Ganges) for about half the way, through gorges and floodplains. The Chepang people are an ethnic group living southwest of Kathmandu, and are largely animist, although influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. For over 1,000 years they have lived in very poor conditions, being originally nomadic but now living in villages and raising livestock and planting crops. We pulled off the main road and walked down a dirt track through the village of Ramantar—past houses made of wood and bamboo frames with mud walls and either corrugated iron or thatch roofs. As foreigners (with digital cameras!) we were of great interest to the children. Deben had a friend from the area and decided to start a church amongst a people who desperately need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. He conducted a public meeting in the village, and from that a congregation was formed. It meets in a rudimentary building (below) and the pastor, Sudip Lal, lives in a single room at the end of the building with his wife and three children. The building has a bamboo and wooden frame holding adobe mud walls with a dirt floor and a corrugated metal roof. There are woven mats on the floor and the only item of furniture in the meeting room is a lectern. There is no electricity or piped water in this village. Yet here there is a congregation of Christians who worship the same great loving God. It was a moving experience, and I felt privileged to be there.

The church building could use some repairs to the roof, so we plan to help them fund repairs when they have assessed what is needed. Because Sunday was a work day, we were not able to meet with the congregation.

On the way back to Kathmandu, we stopped at another town to see where a new congregation is about to be planted when they have secured a meeting room. We saw one proposed location—a small and dirty room at the back of an unused commercial property—which will be greatly improved with a coat of paint and some mats on the floor. Again, we were sobered by being on the front line of the gospel "going into all the world." I asked Deben why he had started a congregation in this place—and he paused as if the question was hard to fathom and answered, "Because I have a heart for the poor." This characterises the ministry in Nepal with whom we have a partnership. Thanks be to God!

In his travels, Deben takes public transport. He does not own a motorcycle—which is probably good, since we saw very long lines of cars and cycles waiting for fuel at petrol (gas) stations because of a severe shortage in Nepal at present.

In the months ahead, we are planning to translate more of our material into Nepali for the education of the rural pastors in the network of Gospel for Himalayas congregations—of which there are another 15 or so in eastern Nepal. Then the information can be used as a teaching resource for those pastors in their congregations. We will also evaluate whether we have the capacity to expand the scope of services offered by the clinic. We pray that this partnership will enable the gospel to reach into new areas and for the poor to be served as a direct expression of God’s love. All people have been invited into that marvellous relationship the Father has with his Son and the Holy Spirit.