Ancient Clash of Light vs Dark Shakes Today's Nepalese Peoples

Praise God for India Gospel Outreach’s role in helping to bring Jesus Christ to the people of Nepal, and to India’s Nepalese migrant communities. They have proved to be among the world’s most receptive peoples to the Good News.

It wasn’t always this way. First, a little history of how this came to be...

Nepal, a nation of 29.6 million people, is hemmed in by two nations, India and China, each with one billion-plus people. One government is controlled by communists, the other by Hindu nationalists. Both these larger powers influence Nepal in different ways, neither of them friendly to Christians and religious freedom, but—is Jesus actually winning?

Until 1951, Nepal was a closed nation, cut off from the rest of the world. It was an officially Hindu kingdom ruled by an absolute monarch, something not even India experienced. No one was permitted to worship any other deities but those worshipped by the king. Not a single Nepalese person believed in Jesus or even heard His name because of strict Nepalese isolation.

In 1960, only a handful of Nepalese people identified themselves as Christians. As late as 1975, only 500-600 people in all of Nepal dared to call themselves believers in Jesus. Christianity was officially banned, and Christians were subject to seven years in prison.

In 1990, after greater exposure to the world, Nepal became more open to democratic thinking. With that came greater freedom of religion, bringing greater freedom to preach the gospel. That’s when change really began to
take place.

At the same time, great unrest was stirring the country, caused by many complex cultural and historical reasons. Basically, this was due to conflict between populists who yearned for greater freedoms and democracy versus those with authoritarian views who wanted Nepal to become communist or who yearned to return to the “good old days” of Hindu absolute monarchy. Freedom vs. authoritarianism—the two sides had nothing in common.

This growing conflict erupted into a civil war that lasted from 1996 to 2006, instigated by Nepal’s Maoist communists. The strife brought war crimes, crimes against humanity such as summary executions, massacres, purges, kidnappings and mass rapes. At least 17,000 people lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes and became refugees. The war ended, with democratic reforms coming to the country, but the peace has remained fragile.

During the civil war, over 10% of Nepal’s population permanently fled the country, mostly into India—more than 3 million people. They have never returned to Nepal. Most of these people fled primarily into India’s northern states. All of this disruption throughout Nepal brought about a great spiritual crisis. Their old gods to whom they prayed did nothing to help them, and they desperately needed new hope in a world that was rapidly falling apart.

At such times of desperation, people become open to new ways of thinking to give them a firmer foundation in shifting times and seasons. During this time, India Gospel Outreach joined with others to help them find Jesus, the Rock, who remains firm in the worst storms. Through IGO’s evangelists, they heard the gospel for the first time, many of them coming to Christ.

IGO evangelists report that Nepalese people who live in Nepal or India are awaking to the gospel because they see many miracles of healing, deliverance from evil spirits and other amazing answers to prayer in the name of Jesus. They never saw these things happen when they sacrificed and prayed to their traditional gods, convincing them to change course and trust Jesus.

Several hundred thousand Nepalese refugees settled in and around Ludhiana, Punjab, in northwest India. One Nepalese man, Anuj Thomas and his wife, former Hindus, knew God was calling them to reach this growing Nepalese community for Christ. They received much mentoring from Pastor K. Koshy at IGO’s Punjab Bible College.

Since then, they have won many hundreds of Nepalese to Christ. They have started several fellowships in and around Ludhiana which have expanded the outreach further into the Nepalese community.

Some of these new Nepalese believers in Punjab have received calls to ministry themselves and are also receiving training at Punjab Bible College, eager to join the harvest force and reach more of their people for Christ.

Even India Bible College and Seminary in faraway south India experienced effects from the Nepalese turning to Christ. As increasing numbers of new Nepalese believers in Jesus, both men and women, received calls to preach the gospel to their people, the number of Nepalese students and graduates dramatically increased, most of them returning to Nepal to start new ministries in unreached areas. This is a long-term trend that began almost 30 years ago.

In recent years, we have reported fruitful Nepalese ministries such as the IGO-supported husband-wife evangelistic team of Phendey Gurung and Rodha Lama among the Dolpo Tibetans. Even after Phendey’s untimely accident in 2022 that removed him to Kathmandu for treatment, Evangelists Phendey and Rodha have actively led men and women to Christ and trained them to start house churches in remote areas of western Nepal where there are few if any believers.

A number of non-Nepalese graduates from IBC have also received calls to start new ministries among Nepalese peoples. Most notably, Pradeep Kumar and Mhontsen Lotha, who graduated from IBC, began ministry together in the Darjeeling area of West Bengal state in 2007 among primarily Nepalese people. Most of these people fled from the continuing troubles in Nepal.

After only three years, openness to the gospel was so great among these people, Evangelists Pradeep and Mhontsen opened Darjeeling Bible Training Center where over 200 Nepalese-speaking men and women have since received training as evangelists and church planters and spiritual leaders of their Nepalese peoples.

All of these Darjeeling graduates are former Hindus or Buddhists, and they have started up Christian fellowships among other Nepalese speakers throughout the Darjeeling area and beyond. Some Darjeeling graduates have returned to Nepal to start new ministries there in unreached areas.

In the years since the Nepalese civil war, through India Gospel Outreach and other like-minded groups, Nepal and India’s Nepalese communities have become one of the world’s fastest growing Christian populations. It is hard to know just how many Christians there are. Estimates range from 693,000 to more than three million. The number of Nepalese Christians has more than doubled over the past ten years.

But this dramatic growth doesn’t mean Nepal’s Christians and Nepalese Christians in India are free from continuing challenges. Wherever the gospel is on the march, the enemy stirs up trouble and confusion to throw the people of God off course.

Since the civil war, Nepal’s government, although more democratic than before the war, remains marked with instability. Over the past 17 years, 14 different governments have come and gone. All these governments have had bad reputations for corruption and elitist leaders who lost touch with the people.

Unemployment is an especially acute problem among Gen Z youth, now at more than 20%. Every year, thousands of youth leave the country for better opportunities elsewhere, depleting the nation of the next generation. Thousands of young people have even joined Russian forces to fight in Ukraine. Many have been killed in the fighting.

In September, Gen Z youth rose up to protest the government’s banning of 26 social media platforms for criticizing government corruption, elitism, and unresponsiveness to basic human needs. They set fire to the national Parliament building and burned down the President’s house. The protest was the most violent political upheaval in recent history with at least 74 people dead.

Growing numbers of Nepalese who take note of these things feel that democracy is failing. Nepal’s chronically unstable political condition has increased pressures by some to abandon democracy and return to the imagined stability of the old absolute monarchy. They want to reinstate a Hindu kingdom and enforce uniform religious beliefs for everyone.

Some of these people see the growing appeal of Christian faith as a threat to Nepal’s stability and traditions. A Hindu-run legislature, influenced by India’s Hindu nationalists, have instituted anti-conversion laws, in an attempt to forbid evangelism in Nepal.

Many Christians in Nepal fear these growing pro-monarchy, pro-Hindu forces at work and what it might mean for them. This is especially true in the lower plains areas that border India and are highly influenced by India’s Hindu nationalist politics. They also face opposition from Chinese communist influences.

None of these things have stopped the spread of Christian faith in Nepal. IGO’s own ministries among Nepalese peoples remain strong and growing. IGO training institutes continue to graduate committed Nepalese men and women born into the old religions who now follow Jesus Christ and start new ministries among their people where there were none before. IGO evangelists find new Nepalese believers eager to join the harvest force and spread the Word.

However, Nepal’s believers, though rapidly increasing in numbers, remain a small minority. They fear they may become scapegoated by political opportunists as a major cause of Nepal’s unsolved problems. They understand that desperate opponents may resort to violent persecution.

Nepal’s Christians and IGO’s evangelists in Nepal and among Nepalese believers in India face pressures not unlike those faced by first century Christians in Jerusalem who also saw unusual miracles and enjoyed exponential growth but faced opposition by political and long-standing religious traditions stronger and more numerous than themselves.

Those early believers reacted to their situation by going into fervent prayer. They asked God to “consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29-30).

God answered their prayer in great power, and made a way for them where there was no way. In the end, they prevailed while their more powerful enemies became footnotes of history.

Pray that God will do it again in 21st century Nepal and India’s Nepalese communities.

Pray for IGO’s evangelists and others in all these Nepalese settings who will speak the word with boldness and power.

Pray for a powerful move of God’s Spirit throughout all Nepalese peoples and a reordering of all Nepalese government and culture wherever they live to reflect His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Pray that all students and graduates of IGO training institutes will receive the support they need to pursue their callings. You can help them when you pledge $150/month for each student. You can help support an evangelist working in an unreached area of India by committing $250/month. We welcome your partial support.

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