In Nepal I discovered that, though the life of the nation has been spiralling downwards because of corruption, political stagnation and the Maoist war, the church has been growing. A Hindu friend said numbers have been “soaring”! A rather negative Hindu friend told me, “The Christians are targeting the same people as the Maoists!” i.e. the poorest and most needy. In 1993 when I spent six weeks on Study Leave looking at the growth of the church in Nepal the top estimate was 200,000 Christians. In 2008 a realistic number is 1 million. Dramatic! The 73 district jails in Nepal were tight shut against any Christian input 15 years ago. Now they are wide open. One prison has 50 prisoners & all turn up for church. Prison Fellowship Nepal call it a “prison church”. In Kathmandu there is a church building being constructed inside one of the jails. Unbelievable! Did you know that the first church to be planted in Nepal in the early 1950’s had its origins in the Church of Scotland? It was a Church of Scotland mission across the border in Darjeeling, India, where the first Nepali converts found Christ. They subsequently re-entered Nepal at great risk and the Kingdom began to grow in indigenous soil. Nothing to a million in slightly less than my lifetime so far.
One of the strange reasons for this soaring growth has been the Maoists. They have stirred up the religious and social structures so much that excluded and minority groups ( like the Christians) have found that resistance to them has given way. In the elections in May many Christians actually voted for the Maoists because they are strongly secular and fiercely against a Hindu-dominated Monarchy. Mao in China
allied himself with anyone to gain short term advantage but subsequently annihilated them when it proved convenient. If Maoists in Nepal follow the original Mao then the church had better look out. But whatever happens God has planted one million seeds in a half-century window of opportunity. I predict that our post-Elizabeth II United Kingdom will feel the strong de-stabilizing power of anti-religious (Christian & the others) secularism. Another Hindu friend told me that in his own remote rural town there are five times as many Christians as there were when I visited there in 1993. This is a place that has seen ferocious Maoist attacks and killings. He admires the goodness and kindness of the Christian people he knows
because, he told me, they care when no one else does. His sister-n law has even joined their ranks! I think God’s willingness to save in & through & in spite of everything is breathtaking. So encouraging for us as we serve him in Culloden with our few, minor difficulties— most of them self induced!
INDIA CHURCH PLANT
Christ’s power to transform lives came to light recently during the visit of Chanti Raju who heads up Good News Ministry in south
India. Nine of us went out to Andre Pradesh on a mission trip in
November 2007. As most of you know we went for “holistic” ministry, covering a wide range of activities. We preached and prayed for anyone who moved and taught the Bible and helped distribute rice. On the second last day I was totally out of action with sickness and diarrhoea & needed a doctor. The rest visited a small village where there was no church. As a result of praying for all those who lived there, giving out rice and Jim Rettie preaching an evangelistic message calling the listeners to trust in Jesus to save them - a number responded. We have learned from Chanti that eighteen months later there is a fifty strong church meeting every week for worship and teaching, with their own local pastor, Elisha. I find it very moving to think of the Barn, and some of us travelling to south India, making a contribution to the emergence of a church that did not exist before. I can’t think of anything better than serving Jesus here in Culloden or anywhere out & about across the world. To see and have a part in lives and hearts being transformed by Jesus - with everlasting consequences - must be the best!
