This update is from a report by Rod Matthews, GCI mission developer for SE Asia and the Pacific.
Nepal: house churches, mobile Bible school
We are reaching with the good news into the foothills of the Himalayas! In Nepal, GCI provides project support for our partner in ministry, Himalayan Gospel Church led by Deben Sam. Deben is working to plant house churches in several remote villages north of Kathmandu on the border with Tibet. When he visits these villages, he takes Bibles translated into the local languages and sometimes a small generator and movie projector to show films about Jesus.
Deben reports that less than 5% of the pastors and church leaders in Nepal have opportunity to attend a seminary and thus are weak in their ability to expound Scripture. As a result, most members of local churches are poorly grounded in even the basics of Christian doctrine.
Also, most members and pastors are so poor that they do not have the resources (including time) to leave their family-supporting farm work and go for training outside their home area. Therefore, Deben plans to provide training via a mobile Bible School that will visit them where they live so that they can learn then teach their own people. He also plans to train missionaries who will reach into areas where there is yet no church. Deben dreams of an annual three-month-long Bible School in Kathmandu.
In teaching his classes, Deben uses two GCI publications that have been translated into Nepali: How to Become a True Disciple of Jesus Christ and Basic Christian Teachings. We recently funded the reprinting of 3000 copies of the second one.
India: suffer the little children
Because India has a large number of abandoned and needy children, our congregations in India support a home and orphanage for disadvantaged children (see picture at right).
GCI Indian pastor Danny Zachariah reports that GCI held a residential camp at his congregation’s building last May. There were 27 campers, age 4 to 14 (see picture below). Members provided food and served as camp counselors.
One of our Indian members, Dr. Piria Suntharam, built and now runs a home for children in the Indian village of Kalthanipadi (see picture below). The home houses about 35 youth who are orphans or whose parents cannot care for them. GCI congregations in India and Australia support the home. Various building projects there are underway.
This is a great work being carried out by the church in the Indian Sub Continent! May our heavenly Father bless the efforts of all those involved in spreading the Good News to the poor of that area and also the care of the orphans. This is Christianity in action.