Don’t Despise the Small Beginning: My Experience in the US

Seven years ago, when Youtube was fairly a new thing in town for the Nepali speaking Christians, I signed up for an account and posted this video clip not knowing where it would lead me.  Few years down the road, I asked my wife to hold the camera so that I could speak on to it a message to the Nepali speaking brothers and sisters across the nations.  One thing led to another and started to post our full length sermons preached at various places.  Today, these sermons have received more than 170 thousand hits and we have been busy in responding many of our online listeners from around the world.

Last month, I had the opportunity to share the platform at Global Nepali Speaking Christian Leadership Summit held near Manchester in New Hampshire.  Many Nepali speaking Christian leaders from North America and a few other nations gathered to celebrate the work of God among the Nepali Diaspora from Nepal, India, and Bhutan.  As the summit progressed, nearly everyone that came to meet me (there were some who avoided me; especially those who are cleaver at marketing their ministry) had a word of testimony of how our online videos had blessed them in some ways.  For some, those videos were the only source of inspiration in a land that was so foreign to their origin.  The younger generation appeared to be more attracted to these videos.  Seeing the hunger and thirst for the kingdom of God and his word in the hearts of these young immigrants in the US has inspired me to do a better job in speaking the word of God into their lives through this medium in the coming days.

Among the testimonies I heard; two of them touched me personally.  They humbled me in such a way that I had to find a secret place to shed a tear of joy and gratitude to the Lord for using such a simple thing to touch these precious lives. 

First one comes from Durga Khawas; an elderly man living with his nephew near Boston.  He is physically challenged.  Until recently he could not even use the walking stick; he could only drag his legs and crawl as he was paralyzed below his waist.  Though he had heard the gospel but due to his physical condition, he could not really attend a church and his faith in Christ was not a reality.  On top of that, his nephew and grandson caught serious sicknesses for which they could not find proper treatment on time.  This made Durga’s life even more painful.  It was during this time, in God’s providence, he found two of my sermons on Youtube.  One was “Don’t lose your song” and second was “How to rejoice in suffering”.  Watching these videos over and again, his faith in a loving God began to take shape; he started to pray for the healing of his family.  Miraculously, strength came back in one of his legs and was able to use the walking stick.  His bitterness toward God and life disappeared.  He started to attend the church regularly while still listening to those videos at home.

When he met me in that conference, he was spiritually a very healthy and happy man.  His desire to meet me had its own twists and turns.  His desire to meet me in person became so strong; he started to pray for it.  His nephew tried to find my contact but due to their limited knowledge of the internet world, they could not.  The reason he wanted to meet me in person was simply to say “Thank you”!

This prayer became a kind of test of his faith in God answering prayers; he began to ask God to prove that he hears prayers by making it possible for him to meet me in person.  He prayed for three months.  One day he saw a broacher in the church where he attended about an upcoming conference near his place.  When he saw my name as one of the speakers, his joy knew no bound.  A childlike faith stirred in him in such a way that his confidence in God answering prayers became personal testimony.  He could hardly wait for the date to arrive.

Add to his excitement, I was never aware of the conference there.  A brother in Korea sent me an application form asking me to apply to attend this conference as soon as possible as the deadline was closing in.  Having been in the ministry for the last 27 years, and done a little bit of theological studies; being asked to attend a conference planned for the novice was a bit of insulting at first.  Therefore, I just decided to ignore the brother’s request.  But he kept calling me if I had applied for the conference.  When I could not silence the brother in Korea, I filled the form and sent it.  While sending the form, I wrote the following email to the main person in US;

Dear Pastor …,

I have attached the registration form in this email as per the instructions of the brother who contacted me.  But I have no way of knowing how to send the 50$ registration fee since there is no banking information in the form.  

Although I am sending the form, I am still not sure if you really want a person like me to attend the conference, and its relevance.

Wishing all God's guidance as you prepare and plan for this!

Bhojraj Bhatta

Even though I sent the registration form, there was no intention of spending that much of money to simply attend a conference in US from the other side of the globe.  But to my surprise, I got the following reply from the main organizer;

Dear pastor Bhoj,

Jai mashi!

We pray everything is going well with you in Korea.

I am writing this email to inform you that if you would help us teaching, on topic, "Diaspora Nepali Christianity and Leadership" during our upcoming summit. If you accept this request, we offer ... US dollar as appreciation for your ministry (we will offer each speaker $... dollar for their teaching/presentation). Secondly, please send us your couple of good photographs and brief information about you...

The honorarium offered to each speaker was not the motivation but the opportunity to address the topic that was in my heart motivated me to attend the conference, and so it happened.

In doing so, I was becoming an answer to the prayer of a sincere man who was asking God to bring me to the place where he could meet me in person and thank me.  The very first day of the conference, Durga, with the help of his walking stick, walks up to me with teary eyes and grabs my hand asking my hotel room number.  Late in the evening, with two other members of his church, he knocks on the door and there with an offering envelope in his hand begins to share how the Lord has led him thus far.  My coming to the US for the conference had become absolutely a heaven ordained thing.  Four of us praised the Lord in that room and Durga’s prayers had been answered!

The other incident occurred on the last day of the conference.  As the conference ended, we were waiting in the parking lot for someone to pick us up for the hotel.  The rain had begun.  A young man walked up to me and with his soft voice asked if he could speak to me for a moment.  Standing in the parking lot under the drizzling rain, he began; “my mom is very old and can hear only from one ear.  She did not like to go to church.  But one day we found your videos and while we all went to church, we turned on the computer and asked our mother to listen to you in our living room.  In the quietness of the living room, she could hear everything you said and she has given her heart to God.  From that day, it has become her habit to listen to your sermons when there is no one at home.  Her elder son still lives in Nepal as he cannot come to US and every time she watches your videos, she is reminded of her son as you look very much like him and that is why, she has made you her spiritual son.  Every day, she prays for you.  When she heard that you were coming to this conference, she made me to promise to tell you this.” 

These two individuals touched my heart because of their desire to make me their spiritual son and praying for me every day.  But there were equally inspiring testimonies of how young people found hope and courage to live for God by watching those videos.  One person testified how he was able to beat alcohol and 5 years jail term while another testified of the freedom from pornographic addiction.  Young and old, it was a joy to meet in person the people who were touched by the Lord through those simple videos that my wife recorded while I spoke.  These are videos without any fanfare or professional touch but praise God for the impact they are having.  I have constantly received the feedback online but to meet in person and see the result was so humbling.

Are you called by the Lord?  Then, don’t just wish to accomplish some great things.  Start touching people’s lives with simple things and someday you will be surprised to see how the simple and small things become tools in God’s hand to accomplish great things.