It's been a long time since I updated this page :(
This time I would like to share some of the experiences we as a team went through in doing training in a district called "NUWAKOT" one of the 75 districts of Nepal.
The one thing you
have to know about this district is that NUWAKOT has the highest rate of human
trafficking problem among all of the 75 districts of Nepal. It is so sad that in
some of the villages in this district you don’t even find girls between the
ages of 12 to 20 because they’ve all been sold.
We faced lot of
challenges and opposition in doing training in this district that we have never
faced in other trainings before and I would like to share them with you:
#1) When I started planning to do training in this
district, while fixing dates the host would always confirm the proposed dates first
but after few weeks they would change it. And deep in my heart I knew that something
was going on that the enemy didn’t want us to do these trainings in Nuwakot. We
kept praying together with the host to make it happen. The dates changed 4
times since February 2014 until God helped us to do it last week, May 18-20.
#2) The second challenge, which I believe was an
attack too, occurred when the four of us were traveling together to Nuwakot for
the training. We reached the bus park quite earlier than our departure time so we
left our bags on the side of the road near the bus counter and restaurant where
we ate our breakfast. When our bus came we all got onto the bus thinking that
we picked up all our bags. After 2 hours a voice in my heart prompted me to ask
Bishal (our training staff traveling with me) if we had picked up the projector
bag. That was the second time I was prompted to ask but the first time I
ignored it thinking Bishal surely had picked up the bag. But when I asked him,
he said, I thought you (Jomesh) picked it up. Then we stopped the bus, and checked
everywhere but sadly we couldn’t find the projector bag. The bus passengers were
quite tense because they thought that the bag had been stolen. This was a new
projector and we knew that none of us had picked up the bag, which means we
left it at the bus park. Our hearts sank.
With
very little hope I asked the driver to call the guys at the bus counter in
Kathmandu to go and check the area where we had left the bag. His reply to me was
there is no way that you will find that bag again. Some of you who have been to
Nepal know what that means L. But I asked him if he could at least just try and call for me.
Some of us in the meantime were praying and pleading with God that it would be
found. The driver honored my request and called the guys at the counter. The
guy at the counter went to check the area and guess what, the bag was still
there J Praise God! Think about this, the bag was left
for 2 hours curbside in an area that is so busy with lots of people moving about
and amazingly the bag was still there! I believe that it was God who hid the
projector bag from the people. So Bishal jumped off the bus, returned to
Kathmandu to retrieve the bag and was still able to reach the training location
on the same day.
#3) On the second day of training, one old man
came to the training site and scolded us for doing the training. Now this old
man was an extremist Buddhist actually a “LAMA” (the one who leads Buddhist
rituals) and was very concerned that his whole village would become Christian
if we trained these young leaders. So he was using all kinds of dirty words and
asking us to stop the training. Needless to say I was little upset. But after
some time the Church leaders managed to send him back. This village where we were
holding our training was a highly Buddhist dominated village and they really
hate Christians. Let’s pray that the Church would continue to show Christ’s
love to these people and that they would one day know the truth.
#4) On the very same day, in the afternoon we
experienced another attack. This one may be hard for some of you to believe and
understand. Demon attacks are not as common in the West as they are here in
Nepal. One of the youth leaders attending the training, who was perfectly fine
on the first day of training, began crying and wailing out loud at the
beginning of the afternoon session. She was saying that her heart was burning
and continued screaming. Everyone was shocked and started praying for her but
she continued crying out loud for about 30 min. We decided to take her to
another room and we prayed for another 2.5 hours. While we were praying she
would sometimes stop breathing. We were actually quite afraid for her. Eventually
she spoke which we believe was actually the demon that was attacking her. It
said that her father was angry with her for becoming a Christian. Her father is
a witch doctor and he had been persecuting her ever since her decision to
follow Jesus and he was sending a demon spirit to attack her. Finally after so
much prayer the demon left her and she was totally fine for the rest of the
training.
#5) One of the things I love about Nuwakot is
that this district has 24 hours of electric power because it produces more hydropower
that others. As a result, the people living there demand to be provided power
all the time whereas the capital city of Kathmandu suffers 12 hours of power
cuts everyday.
Surprisingly
on the 3rd day, right after the youth ministry training, a short but
large storm came through the village and the power went out. My friend Cynthia V.,
who was leading the anti-human trafficking workshop the next day, was worried
because she was prepared to show some video clips of testimonies to demonstrate
to the people how demonic trafficking is and what the role of the Church is in
the fight to stop this injustice.
We
prayed for the power to return but we didn’t have power the entire night. The next
day we kept praying but still there was no power. Cynthia managed to run the
workshop without power but that meant that she was unable to show those video
clips and the testimonies that were so powerful.
The
exact moment the workshop was over and the participants were dismissed, the
power came back on. This totally felt like another attack from the enemy who didn’t
want people to see those powerful testimonies. He first tried to take the
projector from us and when that didn’t work he messed with the power. But let
me assure you - God is always victorious. The workshop was so powerful, even
without electricity.
Despite all of these
challenges and attacks we endured through this training, God did an amazing
work in the hearts of the youth leaders and the people who attended the anti-human
trafficking workshop.
