It was a challenging and hectic third quarter, but God is good. In the three months, I taught two modules to our Master of Divinity (MDiv) and Master of Theology (MTh) students and one module at the Kathmandu Institute of Theology. Teaching three modules was a fulfilling experience.
It’s a privilege to be a voice for the voiceless. Milan was so moved by the plight of flood victims in Nepal that he decided to do something.
Written by Terence Lee
Ascending Everest is many mountaineers’ dream. For some it is the apex of their journey, to stand at the roof of the world and, for one moment, look down and survey the rest of humanity. Needless to say it is a bucket list item for many people. For Gopal, however, it’s his day job.
Gopal Tamil is a trekking guide. One of many who, weekly, would make the walk to base camp and beyond, whilst carrying someone else’s ascent equipment. To him, Everest stands not so much as a challenge, but rather as livelihood.
When he’s not busy walking and guiding people up mountains, he has a day job as a training coordinator in Butwal, Nepal equipping a new generation of Christian leaders. Each year, the training centre runs two, three-month long residential training programmes where up to 15 people can attend at a time. They would come to the centre, stay there for three months, and in that time learn the basics of grass roots leadership, practical ministry techniques and the foundation of theology.
The need to train and equip pastors and church leaders is growing in tandem with the rapid church growth in Nepal, particularly in villages and other places outside the cities.
But grassroots pastors and leaders in Nepal usually lack theological education and formal academic training, putting them at a disadvantage to enrol in seminaries or bible schools. The Lord gave me the burden to reach those leaders in their local places.
In Nepal, leadership positions are dominated by men. Even churches outside of the main cities are not spared this trend. Given this scenario, we thank God for sustaining us to train and equip women from various denominations throughout the country.
The participants travelled for two days and some walked for 12 hours to catch the bus to come to the training centre. Many participants are the wives of church leaders, but had never set foot into a bible training centre. It was their first opportunity to be trained and equipped for mission work.
Dr Abraham Saggu was born into a Hindu family in a remote village in south India. After his father passed away, his mother came to faith in Christ and eventually became a “bible woman.”
The only child in the family, Saggu was attending church for a year and thought he was living out life as a Christian until a divine appointment one night. He was at home when he overheard his mother sharing the gospel with an elderly lady. Among other things, his mother asked the neighbour, “Where will you spend your eternity if you die tonight?”
In November 2016, the National Mission Commission of Nepal launched a livelihood development programme for women living in the slums of Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal.
The purpose of this programme was to equip women who lived in marginalised communities with skills that would enable them to eventually start a tailoring business for sustainable and dignified livelihood.
It is a privilege to serve the poor and marginalised. The last four months of serving in partnership with the local church and community has provided me tremendous opportunities for sharing Christ in different parts of Nepal.
It was wonderful to see more than 170 young people and pastors from 14 local churches participating in a conference on “Youth & Addiction” in Makawanpur in October.
Teaching and training can be both a challenging and an exhilarating task, especially when it has to be juggled with general administrative duties.
As the founding dean of the Nepal Theological Academy (NTA) in Kathmandu, I can testify to this. But praise God for his faithfulness; NTA celebrated its first anniversary on Oct 21, 2016. We invited our new board secretary to preach to our students. There was also a cultural show.
Karna Bahadur was born in a Hindu family of west Nepal and worked as a teacher before going to Japan to work. His sister accepted the Lord and he hated her for that because he didn’t like Christianity as he was a devout Hindu.
