Laying a sure Foundation
We had just begun to adjust to life as missionaries in South-Asia when the world was struck with the Covid 19 pandemic. We had found a local church to attend and had begun to serve, we were in the middle of making plans for expansion of our Engage Church planter’s training program and momentum was starting in regards to national outreach but now everything has changed.
Thankfully, the country we live in has relatively few cases of the virus (under 50). But it has taken major precautions to stop the spread. We are currently in full lockdown; the airports have been closed for a month with no signs of opening. Many expats and missionaries have left the country on emergency flights being repatriated by their countries; the shopping centres are closed which makes it a little difficult to get food and travel on the roads have led to arrests and beatings in some cases.
At times like these we often long for the familiarity of home, but we have no plans to leave. We believe that God has called us here to serve him and we only have a desire to serve in anyway we can under these circumstances. We aim by God’s grace to reach the people with the Gospel, build up the national church; and to serve our neighbors in their practical needs.
It is at times like these that the unique light of the church shines the brightest, unlike the unbeliever our citizenship is in heaven with Christ and for whom we wait (Phil 3:20), we long not for the comfort of an earthly homeland but for our heavenly country and city the new Jerusalem (Heb 11:16). Our hope lies beyond this earthly existence and we must not fear as other fears because we have the comfort of the God of all comfort through his Spirit (2 Cor 1:3-4), we must work while there is still time and we pray that God who is sovereign over everything that happens will glorify himself through our work during this time.
Church Planter’s Training
We have had the prIvilege to run two week-long intensive training sessions since arriving in the country and next month (God willing) we will run our third, albeit in a different ways if necessary. We are exploring options for online training as both a long -term supplement and temporary means to get a material to the students during lockdown. The purpose of Engage’s training is to equip local Nepali leaders plant churches among the unreached. To this end, at our February training week in the western region of the country, we graduated four-teen students and appointed seven new church planters. We also have a wonderful group of fourteen new students that we have begun to train in our two-year program.
An exciting development is the plan to establish a second training centre in the capital city. This plan is still in the early phase of discussions but plans are still moving forward. We have had many requests to run our program throughout the country and God willing as we get more established we will be able to do so.
Outreach
We have also been involved in local evangelism, in our local community, seeking to reach out to the people who live around us, at large gatherings such as a national festival where Bibles and biscuits were distributed to the poor. In unreached places, where we distributed food for people suffering during the Covid 19 shortages and shared the Gospel with unreached villagers. I was able to share the Gospel with over eleven families in their homes (over 50 people) eleven families in their homes (over 50) people. Please pray for our ministry here, we are extreamly excited about the future and are looking to serve during this pandemic, but also praying for it to be finished as soon as possible.
THE INSIGNIFICANT CHRISTIAN 