CHURCH PLANTING in NEPAL

Noel Tam, Area Director of Nepal

In 1998, our first Missionary couple, Rev Erick Tan and Shanti, with a baby in tow, arrived in the land of Nepal. They had responded to the call to bring the gospel to the unreached people in Nepal. The church planting work has since grown steadily. Currently, there are 12 Methodist Churches and Preaching Points in Nepal.

Approach and Strategy

Over the last 10 years, the Methodist Church in Nepal (MCN) has been planting churches with the vision of “Redeeming Nepal for Christ”. The objective is to plant “multiplying” churches that will change lives and transform communities. The Church Planting (CP) strategy is to have MCN churches plant new Outreach Points and Preaching Points in neighbouring districts in their region. This has been a successful model and has resulted in MCN now having seven Methodist Churches, five Preaching Points, and eight Outreach Points.

Community Development (CD) is essential in MCN’s CP approach. In the past years, our Methodist churches from Singapore played a pivotal role in helping to “break ground” and enable MCN church planters to start new Outreach Points through the conduct of medical camps. Other CD initiatives include providing Crisis Relief support during the 2015 earthquake and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. In the new norm, MCN is evolving in its approach to Church Planting and to leverage on the virtual and IT environment to reach the unreached people in Nepal.

Challenges

We face some challenges in our Church-Planting efforts. These include the need to look at creative ways for Church Planting with the COVID-19 experience having forced us into the new norm. We need more partner churches from Singapore to work with MCN churches to bring the gospel to the unreached. Last but not least, we need to develop the Church-Planting teams in our MCN churches through training, financial support, and prayers.

Testimony

Here is a testimony of someone blessed by our Church-Planting effort.

Karna Tamang with his wife

Karna Tamang, Member of Wesley Bardan Methodist Church

Coming from a poor family in a remote mountain village in Nepal and being the eldest son, I struggled a lot in life from an early age. I was also deprived of schooling and I got married at an early age. Despite working hard in the farm day and night, no progress was made in the village. So, my wife and I decided to work in Malaysia. Overall, we did not earn a good income there and we decided to return to Nepal after a few years. We managed to pay off some debts from our little savings.

After returning to Nepal, we bought a small piece of land but we could not decide what to do with it. We also wanted to build a house and do some other business, but we did not have sufficient money to invest. At the same time, my son began to suffer from sudden fainting. We spent time and money on many hospitals and witch doctors, but he did not recover.

At that time, Wesley Bardan Methodist Church began preaching the gospel of Christ and prayed for my son. We were amazed that God healed our son so miraculously. We rejoiced and believed in Christ Jesus as a family, and we were baptised seven years ago. In 2015, there was a big earthquake in Nepal. My village house was destroyed. My family paid rent to live in Kathmandu Valley. Our dream of educating our children, raising a family, doing some business, building a house, etc. were limited by unresolved issues. We prayed for everything although we had little faith in the Lord. But the Lord blessed our family through the church.

We received scholarships from the church for one of my daughters to attend school. The church’s earthquake reconstruction programme at that time lifted our financial burden as it included rebuilding our house destroyed in the earthquake. We were grateful for these blessings. My family continued to experience the blessing of the Lord.

Currently, we are raising goats, cows, and buffaloes. We grow green vegetables too. We manage to support the family by selling vegetables and milk. Meanwhile, we are worshipping our God alongside other believers in the face of adversity because He provides for us during this pandemic. May the Lord be glorified, honoured, and praised. Thank God for the church and everyone who supported us.

The Lord blessed our family through the church.

Support

Here are some areas you and your churches can help us:

1. Provide training for our Church-Planting teams.

3. Keep MCN’s pastors and national leaders constantly in your prayers and intercessions.

2. Provide funding for the staff and programme at the new Outreach Points and Preaching Points.