news from the local and nepal fronts
Greetings in the name of the Most High. There is only one true God; and He has a Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12). Not much has transpired on the home front thus far in 2011, aside from prolonged sickness recovery, preaching outside local abortion mills, and weekly outreach in downtown Charlotte. Notwithstanding, Bishnu Shrestha, our supported national partner in Nepal, has been very busy and faithful to the call of the Gospel. Much preaching has taken place in Kathmandu's Ratna Park and in Himalayan Villages; evangelism trainings have been conducted around Pokhara and in Dharan; and a large Hindu Festival was targeted for mass distribution of our Project Jagerna Scripture portions. Your prayers and contributions to Full Proof Gospel Ministries and its support of Bishnu Shrestha and Project Jagerna in Nepal make all of this possible. Thank you, and praise be unto Almighty God which supplieth all our needs (Philippians 4:19).
Below, one of Bishnu's reports concerning outreach at the Leknath Festival in Pokhara has been posted (i.e. in italics), along with a few photos. We rejoice at the public proclamation of the Word of God in a country where people are in bondage to idolatry and false religion, yet hungry for the eternal hope that only Jesus Christ can provide.
Before getting to this, however, may I beseech continued prayer for Full Proof Gospel Ministries. Our return to Nepal has not taken place as quickly as expected, and many delays and barriers are starting to make sense as the Lord orders the steps of this missionary journey. Therefore, I praise God in these delays. After all, our weekly outreaches in downtown Charlotte and occasional outings to the local abortuary have yielded fruit, as many have been confronted with the Gospel through exegetical and doctrinally sound open-air preaching. Recently, FPGM started hosting a podcast. You can subscribe on ITunes by searching for "Full Proof Gospel Ministries," or you can find an archive of episodes HERE. Included are some messages preached in local churches, evangelism training sessions, and a few street sermons from downtown Charlotte. To God be the Glory. None of this would have transpired apart from the Lord's overwriting of my schedule with His.
Notwithstanding, big things are coming in the next couple of months, and we covet the prayers of God's people. Lord willing, I will be traveling alone to Pakistan for 4-6 weeks at the beginning of May. There, I will be partnering with a local brother I have corresponded with for years and another brother who likewise shares a passion for bold evangelism. For security reasons, I cannot now discuss the particulars of who, where, what, when, and why. This week, I'll send off for the visa, yet approval is not a foregone conclusion. Please pray that I receive this visa and can then find reasonably-priced airline tickets. We have prayed about this journey for some time, somewhat anxious over the security risks that may be unavoidable. Recently, by the mouth an old friend, the Lord confirmed our direction with Proverbs 29:25: "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe." It always gives me great joy to discover specific answers from God right there in the Holy Scriptures.
Sometime around the middle of June, Lord willing, I will be rendezvousing with my family in Delhi, India. A 16-year-old young lady from a local house church will also be accompanying them to help Jamie with the children and to taste of missionary labor in South Asia. She will be staying with us for a couple of months as we return to Ladakh to target the Nepali speakers with the Gospel and revisit the nomad camps where FPGM proclaimed Christ back in 2006. Lord willing, Bishnu will be joining us up in Ladakh, and we will all make the overland trip to Kathmandu in August (For various reasons, this time of year will be better for our labor in Nepal than the earlier times I had planned to travel there). From then until perhaps May of 2012, my family and I will be basing in Kathmandu to continue the translation and distribution work of Project Jagerna, coming alongside Bishnu, his family, and his local church. For all of this to take place, the Lord must make provision in terms of traveling expenses, visas, affordable places to live, Bible and Gospel tract printing costs, etc. I'll keep you all posted as things transpire.
Before leaving for Pakistan, FPGM hopes to target a few college campuses, preach outside the NCAA Basketball Regionals in Charlotte, and join a team of faithful street preachers from April 1-14 up in Washington, D.C. During those two weeks, the Earth Day Celebration, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and a large pro-abortion gathering will provide ample opportunity to decry the sins of our nation and publicly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the belly of the American beast. Please commit these things to prayer and supplication before the Lord.
Well, let me get on to Bishnu and news from the Nepal front. I pray you are as blessed as I was when I read these glad tidings. Please pray for those who heard the Word and left with a Gospel of John in their own language. May the Word of the Lord not return void in these hearts (Isaiah 55:11).
Greetings in the name of Messiah! (In Nepali, Jaya Masih!)
Let’s praise the Almighty and give glory to the God “who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18), for He has done so much in our 10-days outreach at Lekhnath Festival. We would like to thank God for His grace, mercy, guidance, wisdom and provision. Also we would like to thank you for your continuous prayers and supports, especially for this outreach. We really appreciate it. Once again, thank you very much. We would like to give you a brief report of what was transpired recently at Pokhara.
Yes, being obedient to the God-given ministry of reconciliation, we, the Shrestha family left for Pokhara with two brothers from our church. We hired a bus and loaded it in and out with tracts in the early morning of Jan 26. Though it was freezing cold that morning, my childhood friend Raju, not a believer yet, sent his bus from the bus park, which is unusual, to pick up the tracts. Please pray for his and his family’s salvation. Then we left our house at 9:30 am. Also one of my friends Saran had provided me more than 10,000 tracts for free. Praise God! We heaped those on top of the seats. The bus was overloaded but the traffic police did not bother us and God kept us safe in that riverside so called highway. We had about 60,000 tracts in total including 22,500 Johns and 700 New Testaments which was provided by a friend of mine for free. Praise God for his kind provisions.
We were also carrying three banners of 8”x4” having Words from the Bible and some bold messages like, “If you die tonight in your sins, will you be in heaven or in hell?”, “Heaven is God’s kingdom where He rules with his own rules, so can you enter into it in your own way?” Also there were quoted John 3:16, Isaiah 30:15, Eph 2:8-9, Isaiah 1:18 etc.
So we were fully loaded with the materials that God provided miraculously. On the other hand, the local pastors, leaders and believers were ready to store those materials when we reached the Festival site which was on the side of highway. We got them off at two places as they were more than 130 boxes. Then we went to my parent’s house to stay leaving the brothers from our church with a pastor of a local church. Later, we were humbled to know that over 60 years old grandmothers carried the boxes on their back to the store. What a serving heart!
On Jan 27, we gathered with the local pastors, leaders and believers at the festival area and in our booth to pray. We prayed and collected the table and chairs they provided for us. Praise God for He provided the booth charge. Eight local churches were also praying for the festival along with you. And we had been praying for this for a year. We were more than happy to have a booth in that festival and also the materials and the zealous soldiers of the Lord to labor with us for 10 days.
Jan 28, Bimu, Bijigisha and Bigya joined me to the festival. And the local pastors and believers arrived with their address stamps. We prayed and started to stamp every tract and bible portion. My family started preaching and distributing. We did not care about the inauguration of the program, even though it was done by former prime minister of the country. Now we have a new prime minister. As we were distributing free of charge, people just gathered at our booth and picked up their copy themselves as we could not distribute ourselves.
I already told you that God miraculously provided that booth for His glory and now I can look back and praise God for His work through us. God gave me many phrases to cry out in that crowd of thousands. Some of them were, “Is there any one who wants to go to heaven? If so, I’ve a free one way ticket to heaven.” Some would say, “I’ll go to heaven when I die.” Then I would ask, “Can you get to heaven in your own terms as heaven is God’s Kingdom where He rules with His own rules.” Some would say, “I would go to hell.” Then I would say, “The fire never quenches in hell.” Some would say, “I don’t want to go to heaven now.” And my reply would be, “There is no guarantee that you would sees tomorrow morning. Therefore prepare to go to heaven before you go to bed tonight.” Still another slogan was, “It is easy to go to hell as only one sin is enough for that, but you should not be in a single sin to go to heaven. So you better prepare.” The messages were so bold that many people stopped, returned back and took the tracts. I preached so much that my throat was soaring bad and my voice is still not the same. We meet many people who didn’t even know the word Bible, the name Jesus, and the Nepali word for The God (PARAMESHWAR) which Christians use. Many school and college students asked for Bible and we distributed all of 700 NTs. There were many awesome conversations that I can’t mention here. Bimu preached a lot personally too with many orthodox hindus. Some wives would not let their husbands to take the tracts. But they took any way. I always wished to give tracts and bible portion to my school principal and teachers. God fulfilled that desire in that festival. Many villagers I knew from my childhood were glad to see me and I was glad to give them the saving and life changing Word. Off course, I gave the tracts to my childhood friends, but God was working so much that those unbelievers brought their relatives to our booth for the tracts and Bibles. One unbeliever boy took tracts for himself and took a copy of One Thing You Can’t do in Heaven for his believer sister. Yes, we give out more than 200 copies of One Thing to believers.
Bimu, Bijigisha and Bigya also were busy everyday except on Bigya’s birthday, Feb 1. We also celebrated Bigya’s third birthday at our booth in the midst of the dust. We never had a break for lunch. Bijigisha also worked hard stamping and distributing the tracts, while Bigya was busy collecting the stamped tracts from ground, putting those on the table and also in distribution. It was amazing to see 15-20 believers in the booth everyday working, preaching and distributing. Among them, three were grandmothers who served the Lord faithfully for the whole festival. They also brought water for us from their homes. Praise the Lord for their serving heart.
There were some reports from that outreach. One girl would not sleep unless she read the Bible we gave to her. One of the local pastors informed me that he was following up the contacts he made during the festival. It was really a blessing to see the most of the children and college students were open to the Word. Oh, I wish I could explain every moment of it. Just I would like to let you know that God worked it out amazingly and took His glory. And I would like to let you know that you were partnering with us through prayers and supports.
Not only that, next day of the festival, Feb 7, we also held one day evangelism training and 45 pastors, leaders and believers from about 8 different churches gathered in a local church. God led me to teach them for four and half hour. I talked to them about the privilege of believers to preach the Gospel and the urgency of it. Also I trained them on how to use Ten Commandments in evangelism. They reported me that they were abundantly blessed and they expected the local churches would grow in number after that outreach and the training. We have done our best and want to see God doing the rest. Also you have more opportunity to pray for the seeds sown in those 10 days.
Finally, once again I would like to thank you very much for your continuous prayers and supports. We ask God’s abundant blessings upon you, your family, ministry and work. Please continue to pray for us as we plan to go for Him to other unreached areas. Please pray for brother Hari Krishna who is in five month Bible School at Dharan. He has zeal to serve the Lord in his own area among his own people in Lamjung. I’m helping him with his stationary and sundries. We really appreciate your prayers and supports and hope to get continuously in the days to come. Please pray that we can go and preach the Gospel at another Hindu festival in a village 7 hours away from Kathmandu on March 2, 2011.
“I must work….while it is day….” (John 9:4).
In His field, Bishnu Shrestha Kathmandu, Nepal