Kingdom In The Clouds
Operation Christmas Child makes inroads for the Gospel in communities all over Nepal
Nepal is known for being the home of Mount Everest, the crowning
jewel of the Himalayas and the tallest peak on earth, reaching more than
five miles into the heavens. Mountaineers from across the globe travel
to Nepal to challenge the rugged peaks.
The country also has a unique spiritual heritage that embraces two of
the world’s most widely held religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Thousands
of Buddhists make pilgrimages to Lumbini, Nepal, to visit the
birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Although Buddhism spread
across Asia, it was Hinduism that took root in Nepal. The country was
the world’s only Hindu kingdom until it was declared a secular state in
2006. Today more than 80 percent of the nation’s 30 million people
worship the gods and goddesses of Hinduism.
Christians have always been a minority in Nepal. In 1980, only a few
thousand believers were known to exist. Today, that number tops 700,000
and continues to grow with the help of missionaries and native believers
dedicated to spreading the Gospel.
GET INVOLVED: Click here to order materials and begin preparing for National Collection Week, November 12-19, 2012, and learn more Operation Christmas Child.
Samaritan's Purse is helping make a way for the Gospel through gift
boxes that are distributed to children through Operation Christmas
Child.
Working in partnership with local churches, the Operation Christmas
Child National Leadership Team in Nepal is building bridges of trust and
making inroads into communities from the slums of Kathmandu and to
remote villages, where gift boxes have to be packed in on foot over
rugged mountain trails.
“Operation Christmas Child is a wonderful outreach to the community,”
said Dhan Raj Ghimire, the National Leadership Team coordinator in
Nepal. “Jesus Christ loved children very much. When we share His love
with the children, parents see it, they learn to trust us, and they
allow their children to come to church and participate in other
Samaritan’s Purse programs. It’s all about Jesus Christ.”
When Pastor Arzun Ramtel moved to the village of Khadgabhanzyang to
plant a church, there were only a handful of believers, and he found it
difficult to make headway into the community. Operation Christmas Child
changed everything.
“Operation Christmas Child became a way to show love to the community,”
he said. “The gifts are given to the children, but they become a way to
reach the family.”
A blind man named Rasham first heard the Gospel when his 10-year-old
daughter, Mina, brought a gift box home. She handed her father each gift
and described it to him in detail. There was a pair of gloves, a
coloring book, pencils, a ball and her favorite gift, a stuffed animal
dog.
Mina began to attend the Bethel Assemblies of God Church, where she
learned more about Christ and studied the Bible. “I accepted Jesus at my
Sunday school,” Mina said.
Pastor Ramtel visited Mina’s family and discovered that Resham was
having fainting spells and had been unable to work. Although Rasham is
blind, he is a talented musician who plays a sanai, a unique Nepali
instrument that looks somewhat like a clarinet that is played at
weddings and special events.
Ramtel prayed for Resham and shared the Gospel with him and his wife, Batti.
“The pastor became like a father to me,” Rasham said. “He comes to help
me during times of hardship. I have accepted Jesus. I have committed my
life to Christ.”
Rasham is one of many new believers who heard about God’s gift of salvation because of the project.
“Operation Christmas Child is a milestone for the church in this
community,” Ramtel said. “Through this ministry, many unreached people
have had a chance to hear the Gospel, and many have received Jesus
Christ.”
Alongside each gift box, children receive a colorful booklet called “The
Greatest Gift of All.” When the children go home, the booklet often
becomes the first contact that families have ever had with the Gospel.
In the village of Shikharbshi, Shanti Tamang opened a gift box and
caught her breath when she found a “Cutie” doll with bright orange hair
resting on top of the gifts.
“I never had a doll before” the 12-year-old said as she gave the doll a
hug. “And the notebooks and the pens and—oh, I am so happy!”
Shanti heard a Gospel message before she received her gift box and was
intrigued by the colorfully illustrated booklet she received.
“I like the pictures,” she said, thumbing through the pages. “When I get
home, I will read it to my brother and sisters. I will also read it to
my parents, because they can’t read.”
Recent Operation Christmas Child distributions have taken gift boxes to
remote villages in the Nuwakot region, where the Gospel has rarely been
heard and where there are no churches. Tragically, the area is also the
center for human trafficking.
Lured by promises of good jobs and even marriage, young girls are
whisked away from their mountain villages and forced to work in brothels
in Kathmandu and neighboring India. Young men are also taken and put to
work on construction crews or in factories. Most of the children are
never heard from again.
Pastor Lok Bahadur is coordinating distributions in the Nuwakot region.
He said that human trafficking is a source of shame for the people in
the villages, but the Gospel provides hope and truth that can help
conquer the darkness.
“I have been praying for these villages for years,” he said. “I will
visit the villages myself to do fellowship and follow-up ministry with
the children and the community.”
Shoe box distributions were recently done at local schools in the
Nuwakot region, and school administrators were thrilled. Many children
drop out or rarely come. But when word went out that the gift boxes were
coming, classrooms were overflowing.
“I think the teachers were happier than the children,” Pastor Bahadur
said. “The gift boxes encouraged children to come to school and get
involved again.”
Bahadur was also encouraged knowing that the excitement of the children
and the Gospel booklets they received would touch hundreds of families.
“My job is to spread the Gospel and replace darkness with the love of
God,” Bahadur said. “These shoe boxes that came all the way from America
are symbols of God’s love.”
