NUWAKOT Training Experiences, Attacks and Victory - May 2014

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 3^rd 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.