By Robin Corner
Nepal has been a Hindu nation from its foundation, the people worshipping 33 million gods and goddesses. It is claimed that Buddha was born in Nepal, so the people have a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism that has created a very strange Hindu/Buddhist culture. You can believe anything but are still a Hindu.
Christianity came to the closed nation of Nepal 50 to 55 years ago. When the gospel came, many of the Christian leaders were persecuted by being imprisoned or tortured, physically, mentally and through social ostracism, especially by their families and the religious leaders. The Lord heard the cry of his people and saw their pain, and began to do his work in the hearts of the Nepalese. Because of the persecution the churches were actually stronger. Believers could not openly carry a Bible or be a Christian, so they began to meet underground in homes in small groups. The Lord miraculously healed people and this is what brought most of the people to Christ. The Gospel spread through the country as people shared it with their families. Wherever the gospel went, God followed it with signs and wonders.
This is how the movement started. There was a pastor who worked in the construction business. This pastor was previously a shamanist witch doctor who received Christ when his wife was healed from a serious sickness. He had one lady worker in his business that was hungry for the Word of God. She committed her life to the Lord and this became his first church. This lady went back to her very strong shamanistic Buddhist village, which was several days walk away. She started sharing the gospel with some families and over the course of several years one or two families came to Christ. The lady traveled back to the village from time to time to help these families to grow.
After several years, this lady died and someone contacted the pastor and asked him to come back and help with the funeral. When the man went there, the whole village was waiting to attack him at the funeral. He tried to talk to them, but they wouldn’t listen to a “foreign religion.” He asked God to give him something that he could share. He started sharing with them about faith in Christ, and the righteousness of Christ and about God’s plan. He said, “This sister, she didn’t bring anything into the world. She is leaving this world empty handed. But we have hope and we are going to see her again.” Her family was amazed and asked, “Are we really going to see her again?”
This realization brought a few people to Christ. So the funeral created the opportunity for him to preach the gospel, and then that evening a few people gave their lives to Christ.
After the funeral, the pastor stayed for several days and started talking with all the people about Christ. Day by day, while he was there, 20 to 30 or even 50 people would come and hear him speak. After three or four days, there were 31 people who were ready to get baptized. They went to a river in the mountains to do the baptizing. They started a line at 9 a.m. with 31 people and at 4 p.m. the line was still growing because people wanted to get baptized in the name of Jesus. They wanted to know Jesus more. Each time he baptized someone he put a stone to one side so that he would know how many people had been baptized. He baptized 381 people that day and claimed his legs were numb from all the cold water!
From that day on a movement started. This was the first movement of church planting and discipleship among the common Nepalese people. It was out of control from what was humanly possible. It spread from village to village. Wherever the disciples went the people wanted to know about Jesus Christ.
In 2001, one of the sons of the Nepalese royal family killed all the other members of his family except for one brother. The king, who was killed in the massacre, was revered as an incarnation of god, so it became a big question on a lot of the Hindu people’s hearts, “Can the god who could not save himself, save us?” In 2002, a massive Hindu conversion happened and several new house fellowships started. Among one of these new groups in Kathmandu, within a period of just a month, 186 new house groups were started. The God that can sustain is healing their hearts.
The house churches are a real strength for the people. Church does not happen just one or two days a week, but every day. It is not an obligation to have to go to the church; it is a natural process. The believers are not able to socialize with other non-believers any longer, so it is natural for them to gather together.
Michael (not his real name), one of the Nepali leaders, tells a story:
“One of the house fellowship groups meets every evening in an apartment that is high up in the mountains. One evening, around 6:30 pm, I went there and they fixed supper for me. People did not begin to show up until around 8:30 pm. The people carried a big stick with dried grass on top that was alight so that they could see to walk in the mountains and not fall down or get hurt. Once they showed up, everyone began talking and sharing.
“I was tired and could not really understand the language and asked them when they were going to start. The man replied that they already had started. I asked if they start with singing, and he answered, ‘Not necessarily.’ I asked, ‘Do you start with praying?’ and he said, ‘We do pray, but it does not have to be at the beginning.’ When I asked what they do, he said that they talk about what God has spoken to them and how he has blessed and protected them throughout their day. They also talk about what opportunities they had to represent Christ to the people. These people are 100 percent illiterate, oral learners.
“I said, ‘This sounds good to me.’ When I asked how long it goes on, he said, ‘Until everyone is done sharing.’
“About 30 minutes later they were done sharing and they asked me to tell a story, I told them one and then for a long time they discussed how they could implement it in their lives the next day. Then they asked me to tell them another one. I said, ‘It is almost 10 pm, what time do you usually finish?’ They answered that it was not often that they had visitors up in the mountains and since they cannot read and write, the stories will last them a couple of months until the next person comes. So I was delighted to tell them another story. Afterwards they lit the torches back up so they could go home.”
This multiplication is all the work of God. The church planting movement is not artificial; it is like a tree coming into season. It doesn’t bloom overnight but it happens in God’s way and timing. There was even a newspaper article in that town written by a Maoist saying that someone had to do something because Christianity is growing so big.
Fifty years ago, there were only five Christians in Nepal. Now the data shows around 500,000 Christians in the country. In the south there is a church in almost every division. There are still areas in the Himalayas where the gospel has not been reached. Michael’s mission is to reach those people and bring them to Christ. A lot of the ground is hard ground. They started reaching out to a group in 1991 and did not see any fruit until 2004. Many times they lost hope, thankful to the Lord if they saw five people get baptized in a year.
But there are rays of hope on the horizon. More and more people have started coming and the stronghold of the devil is beginning to break. God truly loves his people and they even have four house groups among the Tibetan believers. In the past, this would have been impossible.
Michael himself came from an orthodox Hindu (Brahmin) background. He was the fortunate child of a middle class family. His father was the first educated man in his village. His mother was not highly educated, but she was educated by the standard at that time. A mission group (United Mission to Nepal) came to his village to establish a hospital. They brought a holistic approach to come and work in the country. His village denied and rejected their plan because they thought they just came to bring their religion. They approached Michael’s father, an educated man, who saw the benefit of having a medical hospital. The village gave them the worst place in the village to start the hospital—people were afraid to go to this area even in the daylight. Eventually, the missionaries made a fine hospital there. Michael’s father had regular contact with them and his mother started teaching them the language. During that time, Michael would go and play with the missionary kids.
When he was older, his mother left the family and the Christians in helped her, so his father turned against the Christians.
One day, Michael got very sick. He was taken to the hospital and, at the age of 13, accepted Christ while lying in the hospital bed.
Three years later, Michael felt like he had lost the peace in his life even though he had received Christ. At sixteen years old, he ran from away home to be with his mom. When he met her, she told him that she now knew God and Jesus. As he reconnected with his mother, he also understood God’s love. For about 16 years his mom prayed for his dad, and eventually his whole family became Christians although his parents never came back together.
Michael continues the story:
“I was a schoolteacher for several years, but I knew that God had called me to teach his Word. I knew how to teach the ABC’s, but I asked God to show me how to communicate his message. God brought some people to my life and through that I was able to do a distant education course. In 1990, I left teaching and led a team to India with Operation Mobilization. I took 14 young Nepalese with me and we worked in India for six months. I then led a team for six months in Nepal.
“Because I come from a broken family, God has laid on my heart is to help many of the young girls who are being trafficked to India and abroad for sexual exploitation. We have a ministry called Kingdom Investment Nepal. This ministry is involved in stopping the girls from being taken to the brothels. We bring them to stay with us and counsel them and love them. We also teach them a skill and then send them back into society. The girls stay with us between six months and a year. Ninety-nine percent of the girls who come to us through this process receive Christ in their life. Not only that, they go back and start a church.
“For example, one girl was in a brothel for three years. After this time she was trusted by the brothel owner to go and recruit other girls. I was at the border when I saw her crossing with a fourteen-year-old girl from Nepal. I have a 15-year-old daughter and I couldn’t tolerate it! I asked the Lord what to do. Should I forgive this 24-year-old woman who was doing the recruiting, or turn her in? The Lord told me to forgive her and share the love of Christ with her. So I spoke to her and we shared food with her and gave her the Gospel. She cried and cried for 45 minutes, saying she had never seen such love in her life. Her father had died and her mother abandoned her and she had never known love. She followed a man and ended up in the brothel business. She gave her life to Jesus. She stayed and worked at our office for five months and received counsel and learned a vocation and became a strong believer. After the five months, she went back and started a church. Now it has been eight months and there are 12 members in her house church. This is in a place where there are no churches at all.
“So far, this year, we have rescued more than 1,400 girls. It is a huge, rampant problem in the country right now, so please pray for that.”
Right now, there are around 870 house groups in Michael’s network. The house groups need encouragement, so Michael travels to help them. The Holy Spirit does the preaching and teaching. He also reaches out to the Nepalese Diaspora in nations like India, Malaysia, Dubai and Burma.
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