Gary Fallesen / Wednesday, January 5, 2011 / Categories: Nepal, Mission: Nepal 2011, Dispatches Thursday, Jan. 6 We spent the day visiting Hindu and Buddhist shrines as well as Pastor Tej’s main church and orphanage in Kathmandu. His SARA Church on the Rock has 15 churches: four in Kathmandu Valley and 11 in other parts of Nepal, including Dapcha, where we are going on Friday. There has been some opposition to the church. In one location, Pakdol, the pastor was beaten and fled to the main church in Kathmandu for two months. He has returned to Pakdol, however, and the church is growing. There is an increasing Hindu fanaticism as some believe Nepal should be reinstated as the Hindu kingdom it was before becoming a secular state in 2007. In Dapcha, many of the people are traditional Newari, meaning they are Hindu and resistant to Christianity. As we visited the Swayambhu temple – a joint Buddhist and Hindu stuppe that overlooks Kathmandu – we discussed the challenge of sharing the One true God with a people who believe in millions of gods. Monkeys were all around us at the temple. These monkeys represent the god of protection to the Hindu; to us, they are a funny, flea-infested animal. One way to reach the people of Dapcha is to show them the love of Christ. Do rather than just say. This could involve setting up an occasional clinic that would provide much-needed medical care and/or offering education through the church to poor families who cannot afford to send their children to government (public) school let alone the better private schools. In other words, serving both their physical and their spiritual needs, which is what Climbing For Christ is doing in a dozen nations – from Hindu and Buddhist to places where people are Muslim, voodooist, and animist. “...because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” — Luke 1:78-79 (NIV) Mission: Peru 2011 Friday, Jan. 7 Print 3943 Gary FallesenGary Fallesen Other posts by Gary Fallesen Contact author