God sightings in Nepal, the top of the world.

 After teaching and training alone in Kolkata for four days, I took the 3 hours flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. What a joy to meet the WorldLead team from our home church in the airport. Kathmandu is in the shadows of the Himalayas, but you would never know it. The traffic and smog were terrible; motorcycle zipped around our van as we headed for a hillside hotel. It was so refreshing to be with friends from our church and to share the teaching with my pastor, Bill Mitchell and Missions director, John Lucas. We taught the same leadership development themes we had covered together in Haiti but had more time for interaction with the Awana Leaders from India, Nepal and Pakistan. The idea is to equip them so that they, in turn, will equip their teams. We had a wonderful time with this sharp group of men and women.

The people worship on Saturday in Nepal. So John and I hopped in a small taxi and were taken by a Christian woman, Meera, and her daughter to a simple church fellowship in another part of town. Along the way we saw rice fields (85% of the people are involved in agriculture) and the second industry is carpet weaving. That is what Meera and her husband did. As in India, cows roamed freely, without fear, in this predominantly Hindu country.

About 60-70 believers gathered. The women sat on the right and the men on the left with a passage way up the middle. The youth played instruments and led the singing. Even though I was told there were no women pastors, a very articulated woman led almost every that happened during the service. She was the Nepalese wife of an American missionary who had left the Mission and started a coffee business.  

On Friday, after doing a little shopping downtown, Gajendra, our Nepalese facilitator went with me to a gathering of people interested in talking about Church Planting. This wasn’t part of the “official” program, but an Indian leader from our Mission had encouraged me to build relationships and explore future training while I was there. His friend, Pastor Sonam Kabo, hosted the meeting and prepared a supper for the guests. On the way over Gajendra explained that this is God’s hour in Nepal. The first Protestant church was formed in the 1950s even though Christianity was illegal. In the 1970s, there were several hundred churches. In the 90s freedom of worship was allowed but not freedom to convert others. The country was largely closed to Christian influence from 1995-2005 because of political turmoil and a civil war between Maoists and Monarchists. Froim 1995 to 2006, during the fighting, the church grew to 10,000 churches.

I was amazed at the response to the invitation to talk about church planting. Eighteen key leaders and church planters came, not only from Kathmandu, but from all over the country. One had traveled 12 hours to be there for the 2-hour meeting. As I listened to their stories I was humbled and grateful that my friend’s suggestion was used by God to bring so many choice servants together. They shared training as their greatest need, but also mentioned the need for resources to help new initiatives. Then I shared a video on church planting movements and told about the training I had just done in Kolkata. All of a sudden the electricity went out and we were in total darkness. The pastor’s wife, Rita, came in with candles. Later I found out what an amazing lady she is. She directs a Christian school and when the Maoists came to the gate in 2004 she stood them down, arguing that their fighting was making orphans that the Christians were feeding and caring for. Rita put out a nice spread and while I ate they discussed the idea of church planter training.

Within twenty minutes they formed a steering committee and named Sonam as the coordinator. I didn’t see any vote or debate but Sonam shared that about ten groups decided to participate and that they would be developing a plan to host church planter training and deploy it to the outer regions. His suggestion was to start by training the trainers. Please pray for Sonam and the team in Kathmandu. The last thing we want is to start another group of churches. But if they can work together and come up with a feasible plan, we would love to work with them to strengthen and extend Christ’s church in Nepal by training church planters to multiply healthy churches. I don’t know where this will lead, but I believe God is in it and want to do all I can to help them move ahead together. Please pray Ephesians 3:20 for these leaders who want help training a new wave of church planters.

Monday through Wednesday we worked with the Awana leaders from Nepal, India and Bangladesh. I learned a lot about their ministries and the challenges they faced. When they found out that I was a trainer of church planters several talked to me about future training in their country. Two Bangladeshis said that they weren't aware of any Church Planting Conference in their country, although one sat on a church planting committee.  The Indian leaders from the Mombai region were also interested in learning more about church planting. They say in the USA Awana works with established churches only, but in their countries  they start Awana clubs where there are no churches. It becomes a way of making and gathering new followers of Jesus. But they need help then to organized and grow the churches.

What a joy to see them discuss the principles from the Word of God and apply them to their ministries. Would you consider helping me to return to Nepal and continue the work begun there. We are in need of regular monthly supporters. But even a one time gift would help. Please go the the "give now" button on the top left portion of this website to contribute. Or you can email us to get more information about being a ministry partner. Thank you. 

A lighthouse in a dark city

The name Kolkata means "abode of Kali." Kali is one of the three top gods in Hinduism. He is the destroyer. Brahma creates, Vishnu preserves and Kali destroys. That is the cycle of life. There are tens of thousands of gods added. The elephant god adorned the wall of the guest house and there were tons of little figurine gods on the door. Kalid, the guest house owner went to a Catholic school but says he doesn't believe in God. His only son is a drug addict. He gets drunk every night. I shared the hope in Jesus with him. He asked me to pray and then said: :I do beleive in God but He has abandonned me." Please pray for him and his son.

Kali being taken in the Ganges as an act of worship.

gods on gest house door

 Parts of Kolkata are flooded during the rainy season. The church reaches out to the needy. 

I was here in 2009. Purnendu Sinha invited me back to give level 1 churh multiplication training to his evangelists and church planters. They have planted 35 churches in the Eastern district which includes Kolkata, Salt Lake, West Bengal and Orissa.

What a blessing to work with these brave evangelists. They are so grateful and appreciative of the training received. They gave me a wood carving.

These two young men (in their mid-twenties) work full-time as evangelists and live on very little. They long to see unreached people know Christ, become disciples and form new lighthouses in the darkness.

Here is a lighthouse. They meet for prayer and fellowhip. I was asked to teach unexpectedly. God blessed and we had a great time in the Word. The trip took 2 days and it's been non stop since I got off the plane.

Some of the trainees came from the Brahmin class. They are powerful evangelists. They go to the slums in the name of Jesus, taking medical teams and bringing a word of hope.

Prayer and praise are the strength of these churches.

 Rev. Purnendu and his little family.

 They worked hard at their studies and made plans to multipliy disciples, leaders and churches.

 Kolkata is weher Mother Theresa had here minsitry. This is the home of the Carmelite sisters. Willima Carey also ministered in Kolkata 200 years ago.

God is at work in India! Workers are rising up.

Please pray for Purnendu and the 15 that were trained.
Now I am off to Kathmandu, Nepal. I will be there with a team from my home church. Please pray for a meeting to explore doing church planting training with Nepalese leaders. I will also be training leaders from AWANA from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. More later