Overcoming Persecution to Preach Christ in Nepal-December 23, 2009- Intercede International

Overcoming Persecution to Preach Christ in Nepal

NEPAL (INS)—In Hinduism, Resham Raj and his wife, Sita, found an empty well, but when they found Jesus, they discovered the Living Water. Now this Christian missionary couple leads the Intercede-sponsored Gospel Outreach Centre, which has the mission of reaching every Nepali with the Gospel. After living with persecution for hundreds of years, Nepali Christians now have a wide open door to share their faith with others. They can even celebrate Christmas more openly, because Christmas Day is now a national holiday in Nepal.

Resham Raj [last name left out for security reasons] had a dramatic conversion from being a Hindu priest to becoming a Christian ministry leader. “My family were Hindu priests, so I had to go and study to be a Hindu priest,” he explained, in an interview with Intercede staff in Nepal earlier this year. “When I was studying the Hindu religion, every god and goddess was coming to kill the sinners. My question was, ‘Who was going to save?’

“One thing I couldn’t understand in my family—every early morning my mother had to wash my father’s feet and drink a little bit of that water to get salvation. I began to think, ‘How can she get salvation drinking dirty water?’ When I studied the Hindu religion, no one came to save, no one came to give life. Everyone came to kill and destroy. ‘Who is God?’ was my question.”

After Resham Raj’s studies, he became a Hindu priest. “Once I was speaking at a Hindu conference,” he explains. “When I finished my speech, I was walking to my home and one man came to me and said, ‘You are a religious leader. I have a wonderful book for you. This is the Word of God.’”

The man gave him a New Testament, and asked him some pointed questions. “He asked, ‘Can you see anything without light, even though you have two eyes?’ I said, ‘No.’

“‘The same way our wisdom and knowledge is blind without light—divine light. The God of this book says He is the true light of every person. That means every person is in the darkness without Him. So then, please read this book.’”

So Resham Raj started to read the New Testament. “When I saw the life of Jesus, I couldn’t compare it to anyone, even though I had thousands of gods and goddesses. The life of Jesus is holy and pure. Every god in Hindu scripture said ‘We come to kill and destroy the sinners.’

“Jesus is saying, ‘I came to seek and save.’ Other gods are killing people—Jesus is raising dead people. I accepted Him as my God in 1962. I started to tell my people, ‘In this book I found the real and true God.... He is forgiving our sin. He is the water of life.’”

From that point onward, he started to preach the Gospel to fellow Nepalis. But soon he faced persecution from his family and authorities. He had to leave his village, and was arrested many times because of his preaching.

“Altogether I’ve been 22 times in police custody,” Resham Raj declares. “They put me in jail, sometimes one month or one year. I started to preach in the jail also. I was excited to preach, because I know that without Jesus there is no salvation. The jail officer came and said, ‘You can’t preach here.’ I said, ‘I preached in the countryside and you put me in jail. If I preach here, where are you going to put me?’ Then he didn’t say anything. I preached there and many people believed in Jesus.

“Then they decided, how to stop this man? If we are not going to stop him, he is going to preach and destroy these other religions. Actually, I am not destroying religions but making a relationship with God for the people.”

But the prison authorities enemies said, “‘He is walking, preaching the Gospel. Let us break his leg, so he can’t walk—then he can’t preach.’ They dislocated my knee. Then I was in jail for a few months. After a few months, I came out. My leg was walking, running, jumping, no trouble. We have 75 districts. I traveled to 72 of them by walking on foot. That’s wonderful, God, I thought.”

Sita’s Story

Like her husband, Sita was born into a Hindu family. “I didn’t have a chance to go to school when I was a child,” she explained to Intercede staff. In her family, “the daughters don’t count as persons—they count as animals. I never talked with my father—always fear. I never went to school, but my brothers went to school.”

One day a female Gospel worker gave Sita a booklet. “When I tried to read I could read it. I was surprised because I could read. It was written, ‘If you pray, He can hear and He can see you because He is the living God.’ I never heard that. I worshipped so many gods and goddesses, but I never heard that they could hear or see me.”

She became a Christian, but her family opposed her and she had to leave home. “Where to go, I didn’t know. I worked in someone’s home; then I became sick and went to hospital. Then I started to work there. There also my family came and persecuted me. I ran away from Pokhara to other districts to work. God protected me.”

When she met Resham Raj, he encouraged her in her faith. “We got married in 1979. We have two wonderful sons who are helping in the ministry. One of our sons is a graphic designer and he wants to go away to learn more Biblical things and preaching. Our other son is helping, and he wants to serve the Lord his whole life. He is helping in a great way.”

Now Is The Time

Early on, Resham Raj and Sita started Gospel Outreach Centre to preach the Gospel to every Nepali. “They will accept or reject—let them take time to make a decision,” says Resham Raj. “They have to hear a clear message about Jesus Christ. We have to make disciples of Jesus. For 47 years I have been preaching the Gospel. My wife started thinking, ‘Maybe they will forget his message. How to remind them?’ Then she started one course. One good thing about the Bible course is this: no one likes to give a wrong answer. In exams, everyone likes to give the right answer. If they have to give the right answer, they have to accept Christ.” Since 1991, GOC has sent out more than 419,000 Bible Correspondence Courses to Nepali seekers.

The religious landscape in Nepal has changed radically in the past few years. “240 years back, there were 2,000 Christians in this area,” explains Resham Raj. The king at that time “told them leave this country or you will die. In 32 days they had to leave the country. All of them left except for 150. Then he killed all of them. From that time, over 240 years, never any freedom here. Even though there was no freedom, we didn’t give up. Finally in 2006, Nepal was declared a free country—a secular country.

“In December 2008, we had Christmas as a national holiday. We had a wonderful meeting with the Christians. The president of the country came, and the speaker of the house came and said, ‘Please help us to make a new Nepal.’

“Such a freedom we have in this country. I don’t know how long it will remain. This is the time God has given to the Nepali people. Everywhere I go to preach the Gospel, thousands of people come to listen—even seven hours walking. Now is the time.”

Pray that God will provide Intercede and these missionaries with more opportunities and the resources they need to share the Gospel with thousands of Nepalis.

For more information on Intercede’s work and partner agencies, please check out: www.intercedenow.ca.

Photo: Resham Raj (centre) with an outreach team ready to go to a mission field. (Intercede International Photo)

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December 23, 2009