What a day of absolute privilege we have just had. The morning began with a visit to the Pokhara Head Office of the International Nepal Fellowship where Kate Dalitz from CMS Australia works. Between her and Niraaj, a local Christian also working for INF, we heard the story of not only the beginnings of Christianity in Nepal, but also the genesis of INF.

Niraaj told us of his grandfather, who is still alive, and how he turned to Christ and was integral in the beginnings of a missional church here in Nepal. Several of us had tears in our eyes as that story unfolded. What a blessed life! Niraaj is still committed to seeing the Nepali church grow to the point that Nepal can be called a Christian country. Please God may it be so!

Kate shared with us her role in INF and told us stories of workers she supports who go to the outlying, extremely poor areas of Nepal to assist communities in better health practices, and to foster development work. There are some truly amazing things happening in Nepal. Huri, one of the INF support workers in the south on the Terai, has brought incredible change to the community she is working in, and has also influenced several families for Christ. Kate also has strategic work in INF as she mobilises local churches for mission and does a lot of travelling around to support projects. As well, she is involved in the forward planning of INF as they look at their future.

So much of the development work of INF is funded by AusAid, The sad part is that they are having to put people off because of reduced funding. As Aussies we saw the direct repercussions of our Government cutting the aid budget, which means that INF has had to make these kind of decisions. We are so saddened by what is happening.

We had lunch with Kate in a great little local cafe in this top end of Pokhara. Now that was a place very few tourists go! Definitely an authentic Nepali experience.

We then hurried off to the other side of town to meet with the Pastor and Children’s Minister at the Nayagaun Church and the interpreter for the children’s ministry training session we’re running. What an amazing testimony Pastor Grishma has. As a teenager he went for treatment at the Green Pastures Hospital. He came from a very devout Hindu family who followed all the rituals. He saw people talking about a different kind of god, and then saw other people converting. This made him very angry, as it was against the law for people to change their religion. As he kept coming back to the hospital for treatment through the years, his anger grew so much that he went to the authorities. They asked Grishma if he could tell them the names of the people doing these things, but Grishma didn’t know. So they asked if he would be prepared to go back and find out the names of the people and exactly what they were doing and how they proselytised. Grishma agreed. So he then began hanging around the Christians a little bit more so they would think he was interested in hearing what they did. He described himself as a spy. What he found were caring, compassionate people who were genuinely interested in who Grishma was. They asked how they could help him and offered to pray for him. They also asked if he’d like a Bible to read, no pressure, just an offer if he’d like to read it. Initially he said no. But then at another time of offer, when they said ‘just read it, if you like it and it speaks to you that will be good, but if you read it and don’t like it, then all you will have is more knowledge. So no matter.’ Grishma decided that sounded ok, so took the Bible. It was a New Testament, and as he read the Gospels he met the real Jesus, was converted, and never went back to the authorities! He has now been the Pastor at Nayagaun Church for the last 18 years. They have 11 daughter churches, and are planning to plant another new church in the coming months. At the Nayagaun Church, where Chris will be preaching tomorrow, the congregation is around 400 plus another 250 in the Children’s Fellowship.

We then went further down the road [read bumpy, narrow, deep pot-holed, rocky track] to the CCDP Hostel. [Creative Children’s Development Program]. The children greeted us with beautiful flowers they had put together, and warm smiling faces. They sang a song of greeting and then introduced themselves individually, and we reciprocated. Following that we heard the incredible story of the beginnings of the Hostel and as

Shanka [the house father] was sharing it with us he was very emotional, and a number of times had to pause, because he himself had a bad childhood, but God intervened and transformed him, and he and his wife now head up this project with several houses, looking after about 90 children. An Australian couple from the Blue Mountains had been working at Green Pastures Hospital in Pokhara and had a desire to begin a hostel project here. They went back to Australia and began raising some money, but Peter developed a brain tumour and died before being able to see their dream accomplished. His wife continued the work and has set up a trust, and it has all happened very quickly now.

We spent our time with about 15 of the children ranging in age from 5 to 17, and Nicole with an interpreter shared the gospel story through the colours of a bracelet, and then taught the children how to make them. We all had a great time getting involved and helping the children, [or the other way round!] rummaging on the floor and twisting lots of coloured elastic bands round our fingers to make great little gospel bracelets. They are then going to practice re-telling the gospel story for our return on Sunday.