Hope Church; one of the Nepali churches in Nepal

We began in 1993 as a prayer meeting in Pastor's home.  After three years, in 1996, we were formerly known as Hope Church.  The nation at that time was losing all hopes and we saw that apart from God, there was no other hope.  The situation is still the same but the power of the Cross of Christ is able to give hope to many Nepalese.  Currently, Hope Church in Kathmandu is able to pioneer four more daughter churches outside of the the capital.

When Charity Married Christian Missions

Bhojraj Bhatta

Charity (giving to the poor and needy) is an ancient Hebrew concept recorded in their Scripture and practiced from time immemorial; not a philanthropic concept but a concept rooted in the very idea of the justice of God. God is a just God and therefore he demands his creatures, the humans, to practice social justice by extending charity to the poor because no one chooses to be poor but happens to be poor due to the circumstances beyond one’s control. Therefore, a Hebrew, i.e., as the people of God, has a God ordained responsibility to look after the welfare of the poor and the needy in order to maintain the privilege of being the people of God. The key scriptural teaching on the topic is recorded in Leviticus 25 and particularly the verse 35 captures the concept of Hebrew understanding of tzedakah, which the Amplified Version attempts to translate it with its full force as; “And if your [Israelite] brother has become poor and his hand wavers [from poverty, sickness, or age and he is unable to support himself], then you shall uphold (strengthen, relieve) him, [treating him with the courtesy and consideration that you would] a stranger or a temporary resident with you [without property], so that he may live [along] with you”.

Starting from this verse as the highest degree of charity where the self-respect of the beneficiary is not taken away, Moses Maimonides, a 12th century Jewish philosopher and the expert of the Law of Moses, categorized the eight degrees of charity that vary in their level of nobility. According to Maimonides, the lowest form or the first degree of charity takes place when one gives to the poor and needy grudgingly. Second degree is when one gives less than what is supposed to be given but gives it cheerfully. Third degree is when one gives only after being asked by the needy. Fourth, when one gives before being asked as he sees the need. Fifth degree is when the beneficiary does not know the benefactor. Sixth, when the benefactor does not know the beneficiary. Seventh, when neither the benefactor nor the beneficiary knows each other. Eighth and the highest form of charity takes place when there is a sense of mutual partnership based upon mutual respect in which the benefactor strengthens the hands of the beneficiary so that the weaker party does not fall into poverty. This highest form of charity also can be done in three different orders; first, it can be done by offering help without any condition so that the weaker party can stand on his/her own feet. Second, it can be done by offering a job or a share in one’s business, and third, by offering a loan so that the weaker party can become strong enough and return the favor without any loss of self-respect and dignity.

In all these degrees of charity, the most important element for Maimonides was the preservation of human dignity and self-respect of the beneficiary. Just because one becomes poor due to the circumstances beyond one’s control does not take away the God-given human dignity from that individual and therefore, the one who is not poor needs to realize that human worth does not consist on material possession but on how one relates to God and fellow human beings as Hillel the great Jewish teacher had said that the sum-total of Torah is to love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, Charity to the poor and needy has continued to be one of the cardinal pillars of Jewish society in every age, and Christian concept of giving is directly derived from the Jewish traditions and writings. Jesus made this principle crystal clear when he put himself in the place of the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and the prisoner and whatever the people did or did not do for any of these above mentioned categories of humans, they did it to him (Matt. 25:35-40). Jesus never failed to emphasize the need to give to the needy, and remembering the words of Jesus on this topic, Paul quotes his words “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts. 20:35) because somehow in the practice of charity there are only a few who can do it in the sense of the highest degree as defined by Maimonides where the recipient’s self-respect remains intact. Otherwise, in one way or the other, the recipient feels falling short of the dignified humanity when s/he finds the self in the state of a beneficiary.

But the fact of the matter, as Jesus said, is that we will always have the poor and the needy among us (Matt. 26:11) and therefore, the act of charity must continue regardless of its varying degree of nobility until the complete justice of God is achieved in the coming reign of God. Until the kingdom of God is fully realized, we must do all we can to practice the act of charity with the aim of doing it from the highest degree and history is filled with examples of such charitable works. The Roman Catholic Church is better credited for this noble task and examples of many saints like Francis of Assisi, who, while selling his father’s merchandise, saw a beggar, ran after him and gave away everything in an act of charity for which he was painfully ridiculed by peers and badly scolded by parents that broke his heart. But he went on to inspire millions of others and today we hear names like Francis Xavier, Mother Teresa and so on.

Protestant church is also equally filled with people who achieved great feat of remarkable charitable work even though at times the over emphasis on the doctrine of “justification by faith alone” minimized the value of charity and ethical works. People like William Colgate (Colgate-Palmolive), whose business brand covered the globe, is known to have given ten to fifty percent of his profits to various charitable institutions. George and Richard Cadbury inherited their father, John Cadbury’s small chocolate enterprise and turned it into a worldwide business. Cadbury brothers not only inherited their father’s business, but they also inherited his strong faith in God and dedication to charitable works. Unheard in their times; they treated their employees with utmost respect and provided them with everything that a normal business owner would need to have a loving home and healthy family with full access to life and leisure. They also saw that their father’s wish to make their locality free of alcohol was a way of serving wider community because John Cadbury believed that it was alcohol that made people poor and rob them of joy and happiness from their families and therefore, the Cadburys committed their lives and earnings in replacing the alcohol with drinkable chocolate and tea; after a century of George’s death in 1922, their desire to make their locality free of alcohol lives on and even the giant of a departmental store like Tesco cannot sell it in its local units there. Such stories of great charitable works by Christians could be found in every nation of the world; the difference might be that they had no one to document their story.

But the dawn of modern Protestant Christian missionary movement brought a new dimension to the age old concept of charity; a new dimension in which the innocent and the noble face of charity has been badly marred or destroyed. This modern missionary movement primarily began in societies where the protestant doctrine of God’s election and predestination was dominant; these societies placed a higher value on themselves compared to those which were non-Christian and considered as either heathens or savages. When William Carey tried to persuade his home church for the evangelization of the inhabitants in the islands of South East Asia and Oceania (he was touched by the writings of James Cook, an explorer who discovered and described about the inhabitants of these Islands on his journals as savage tribes so different and lost from the rest of civilization), an elder stood up and yelled at Carey saying, “young man, if God wants to save the savages, he does not need your help, he can do it himself”.

But people like Carey, Judson, Hudson, Livingstone and Brainerd were the ones who took upon themselves the God given mandate of evangelizing the heathens in every possible land, it was a sense of knowing that all men are equal and are in need of a savior who can not only see them free from sin but also from the savage life style. These early trailblazers of modern mission did not care so much about material possession; rather they gave their very lives for the sake of the people of their dream. But as the fruits of such missionaries work began to reach to the civilized world (western world), the disparity between the savage and the civilized also began to come to the fore. Wherever the colonial conquers went, they were only interested in exploiting the savages, but when the missionaries came along, they saw the exploitation and the suffering of the inhabitants in the colonies. Prior to the arrival of the colonial rulers and their missionary companions, these savages and the natives of the lands had their own way of life and sense of identity. The Chinese, Indian, African and the Native American civilizations had been in existence for thousands of years before they saw the faces of European conquerors and missionary compassion. These civilizations had their own set of values and worldviews, but when the European civilization, empowered by the biblical revelation and scientific discoveries, confronted them, the futility of their value system and the credulity of their worldview became apparent. The missionaries from the European civilization saw the sufferings in these lands and attempted to alleviate it through possible charitable contributions from the people in their homeland. In order to enlighten the populace in their homeland for the great need of charity in these colonies, the missionaries began to look for ways and means of communication; they began to write about these needs and the backwardness of these savages. As the means of mass communication developed over the centuries, the missionaries used them to their best effect and the whole western world came to know the limitations of these people and the limitless possibility of helping them wherever they may be found. The age old Charity found herself being married to modern Protestant Missions and the result was the birth of Inferiority followed by Deception.

The trailblazing missionaries like Carey, Judson, Hudson, Livingstone and others accomplished their monumental missionary achievements by maintaining utmost respect for the natives in their mission fields. They literally laid down their lives in the mission field (For example; Carey came with one way ticket and never returned to England for the rest of his life). They buried their children and spouses in the lands they felt called by their God. So long as these kinds of missionaries were in the mission fields, they embodied the highest form of Charity that Maimonides described. They did it for the love of their fellow human beings with utmost respect. As long as they were alive, they refused to give birth to either pride or pity; superiority or inferiority.

But as the romance of these early missionaries faded away, a new breed of missionaries began to arrive in these lands with their ship loads of western material comfort that exposed the nakedness and the destitutions of the natives in the mission fields. The charity became institutionalized and the missionaries became the mediators between the benefactors and beneficiaries. Mutual love and respect died, but inferiority and deception came alive in the minds of the natives while the missionaries tried in vain to wear the garment of Charity. The missionaries enjoyed the garment of Charity because it gave them immense sense of self-worth and leverage over the lives of their spiritual subjects. Over time, the distinction between a missionary white man and non-missionary white man disappeared.

In the language of science; after knowing for centuries that the Sun is stationary, every morning we call it a Sunrise. Likewise, white missionaries wore the garment of Charity for so long that even today when a destitute white man walks in the streets of India, China, Africa or anywhere else in the so called third world or former mission fields, he ignites a powerful spirit of expectation in the minds of the natives. In my own nation, when a wealthy Nepali family walks in the restaurant or hotel, the reception would be very cold. But when a white back packer hunts for a cheapest meal and a room, s/he would be surrounded by the whole staff willing to offer anything s/he demands. Such reception is not from the heart of hospitality but from the mind of expectations because when Charity had married with European Christians missions, inferiority was born and deception was the second child. After the death of Charity, their mother, Sister Inferiority and brother Deception have been most successful in modern native Christian missions.

A Window into My Past

I was born in a Hindu Brahmin family that was very proud for their higher social and religious place in the society. The Bhatta caste in Hinduism comes from the higher priestly family. In addition to the priestly caste, my father was very much into astrology. For him, everything and everyone on earth has astrological correspondence. Generally, in a traditional Hindu family, when a son is born, the parents should call their local priest (skilled in astrology) to draw up the horoscope that forecasts child’s personality and future based upon the position of the planets in relation to the zodiac sign under which the child is born. It so happened that I was born in a time that meant the imminent death for my father. The only way for him to avoid his death was for both of us never to see each other. In such a case, the priest would advise the mother not to feed the infant or give it away to someone far away. My mother kept me alive and finally left me at her parents' home.  

My grandma took care of me until I was 11. Meanwhile back in my home, another priest had a new look at my horoscope, and helped my father change his mind. Finally, with great hesitation and reluctance, my father agreed to bring me home in my 11th year. When I heard that I had parents and that I was going home gave me a new kind of hope because from the age of seven, I had been asking questions about my life and had never found any answer. I had visited many temples around our village, tried to read Hindu Scripture that my grandfather and mother made me to read for them as I learned to read and write. But there was no answer as who I was and where I had come from. So, the news about my origin was a great relief and thought that my prayers had been answered.

The day I came home, there was a big religious ceremony going on in my home; villagers were gathered and my family was busy with all kinds of rituals. As I arrived, I was washed, and was given white clothes to put on and they made me to enter the sacred room where my father was performing the religious rituals with many other priests. Someone guided me to the entrance of that room and told me to go and bow-down to father. As I entered the room, there were about seven men and did not know whom to bow to. So, I went to the man sitting nearest to the entrance; he happened to be one of the priests and kindly showed me who my father was and for the first time I saw my father and bowed to him as they made me to sit on a mat next to him and take part in the rituals for appeasing the deities so that my father would not die. As I sat there in that room, I tried to steal some glimpses from my father, but I saw him only focused in the rituals and never turned an eye towards me. He seemed to be very much full of anxiety and uncertainty.

As the day died down and all the villagers went home, I was hoping that my family would gather around me and welcome me. I was told that I had two elder sisters, two younger sisters and one younger brother. Except mother, everyone seemed to be hesitant to come near and my father went out with his friends and came back home very late. I was given a place to sleep but could not fall asleep and knew when father came home. I gave him the benefit of doubt, thinking he must be tired and may be from tomorrow he will speak to me. But the next day came and went, but my father never looked at me and never said a word. Finally, without realizing a year had gone by without my father speaking to me and having any kind of conversation. In an agrarian society, life for the children can go on without much social interaction and my life took a lonely path. After a year of silence, I found my father to be very angry man and soon his anger was expressed with severe beatings. I found out that he loved his younger son so much that no one was allowed to mistreat him. My inner loneliness was turning into an expressed anger but I was afraid of my father, so I expressed my anger over my younger brother. This brought the wrath of my father on my head and since then, it was a constant beating and mental and verbal abuse that left me totally detached from reality. My emotional, mental and physical condition began to deteriorate.

One day, when I was about 13 or 14 years old, a group of young people visited our school and were selling bags of books with fraction of money. I too bought a bag of books, but when I brought home, father saw the books and he destroyed them all. Somehow as he was burning them, I had hidden one book along with my school books. The title was “friend of all” and it had many pictures in it. But the book remained unread somewhere in the house until I was 16.  By this time I had abandoned my faith in religion and gotten into the company of communist friends who taught me the Darwinian view of life and Marxists system of politics. After spending considerable time with them, I thought that I found the meaning of my life; revolution for national liberation from tyranny.   But deep in me, I was far from real liberation and peace of mind. I was so angry with my father and my anger turned into depression and began to contemplate about suicide. I saw no end to my misery; I saw no one who could liberate me on a personal level. As I contemplated on taking my own life, I had this urge to take revenge on my father who had brought this misery in my life. I became a violent man and finally left home because I could not stay without trouble anymore.

When my father saw that I was determined to destroy my life, and was also afraid that on the process of destroying my own life, I might harm him as well. So, he sent message to his eldest daughter who was married in a faraway town. He asked her if she and her husband could do something about it. I had never met her husband, until that time; when they heard about me, my brother-in-law came to the place where I was living because I had refused to go home. As he met me, he gave me a book.  To my amazement, it was the same book that years ago I had bought and saved from being burned. I had never known that he was a Christian; he had married my sister in an arranged marriage in a fully Hindu religious way. But the title of the book “friend of all” once again drew my attention and this time I was able to read it with full attention. It was in this book that I saw the man named Jesus reaching out and touching people who were lost and forgotten by the society; he appeared to be the person who could provide the personal liberation that I was longing for. Much later would I know that this was the gospel of Luke! That day, my brother-in-law offered me the chance to come and live in his house so that I could finish my high school. 

As I read the book, I was greatly attracted to the person of Jesus Christ.  I had never thought in terms of that book or Jesus Christ having any kind of relationship with the religion called Christianity. I thought that my brother-in-law randomly got the book to give me as a gift. One day I took the book to a friend who was much older to me, had finished university education, had a good government job, and was considered to be the wise and successful man of the village. I wanted to ask him if he could help me to know more about the man called Jesus. As I gave him the book, he was shocked to see it and tore it into many pieces and threw them into the village air that took away the pieces of my dear book to many different directions. As he tore the book, a cold chill went into my spine and an unknown fear hit me. He warned me that such books have some kind of magical power and if someone reads them, the person will be either insane or lose mental stability. I left him there screaming at me, feeling sad that the book I was in love with was destroyed (In a few months, that person died with no apparent reasons).  Finally, I came home and found the same old book, hidden in the midst of all our school books. It was already dirty and dusty but the message of the book started to hit me home every time I read it.  

I decided to go and live with my sister’s family. It was the first time I had visited their house and saw that there were many other books. I learned that my brother in-law was actually the leader of this underground church.  As I stayed with them and the first Saturday came (Nepali Churches worship on Saturday), three more men came to their home and sat in a room and called me too. As we sat there, they began to pray, sing and some one gave a brief speech. I still remember the first speech, it was “where does my help come from? My help comes from God” (the preacher has now gone to be with the Lord). There I was asking the same question from my early childhood and the man there says that there is a God who is interested in helping us and this God has come to us through Jesus Christ. In my heart, I decided to find out about this God.  I was given the New Testament to read; I finished it in no time.  The verse that stuck to my mind was Matthew 7:7 where it says “ask and it shall be given to you”. I had many questions and here there was a possibility of my asking being answered.

My sister's family did not know but secretly, I began to talk to Jesus, but the longer I stayed with my sister’s family the more confused I became. The kind of Jesus I saw in the Bible and the kind of Jesus they believed in appeared to be different. The family life, the kind of controversy about the finances being misused in the name of church and mission had infected this group of new believers who were fighting with one another for money and power for leadership. On top of that I had brought all my troubles with authority figures along with me and my relationship with brother-in-law broke down.  But one day I found another book in that house, the title was “God who answers by fire”. Somewhere in all these coincidences, I began to see some kind of mysterious pattern. This book opened my eyes to see how God has a plan for every person, and the things that had happened in my life were not by accident, but were ordained by God.  I wanted to know this God.  I had thought that Jesus was the best human being to follow, but there was no proper understanding of him being the Son and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Then, God brought another incident; an English preacher by the name of Norman Mitten came to visit my brother-in-law and he spoke to our group. His text was from the gospel of Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.

As Norman began to expound the gospel to a group of about seven of us, I had a strange burning sensation in my chest. Whatever he said, it was as if he was reading my heart with absolute certainty and for the first time I recognized that my biggest problem was not my father, but my sin. The way to God, his help, and answers to my questions is made possible by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The meeting finished without any fanfare. There was no altar-call or prayer for anything or anyone. But a fire had begun in my heart and did not know how to quench it.  The following day, I went to a nearby bush alone and asked Jesus to come and save me from my sin. Since my relationship with brother-in-law was already broken, I could not ask his help. So, I asked other members of that group as what I must do in order to be fully forgiven of my sins. The person said that I had to take water baptism (this was a group that placed a high value on baptism by immersion for salvation). When I said to the group that I want to take baptism, they were taken aback. For them, I was anti Christian because I had opposed their leader and had expressed certain views that were contradictory to what they thought. It was a great danger for them to baptize me because if I was not a genuine believer, I might report to the police of my becoming Christian which then can put the leader into seven years in prison.  Finally, there were two more people who were getting ready for the baptism and I insisted to be included into the ceremony.  They arranged the baptismal program along with two other candidates and took us to an Indian border town in North India.  In the year 1985/6 (can't remember exact date due to the dual dating system in Nepal), I was baptized in an old Indian church (Church of North India) and since then, it has been a life of adventure filled with joy and pain, laughter and sadness but in everything, God’s amazing grace has provided the strength needed.

Right after baptism, I went home with the hope of reconciling with my family.  But my father he could not accept the fact that his prodigal son is now turning to Christianity.  It took another 10 years for me to go back home.  By this time I was married and had my son with me.  In order to break the ice, I took my Indian wife and three years old son to home, hoping that when he sees the daughter- in-law and grandchild, his heart may melt. It did melt, but only to the point of general formality. I could feel how uncomfortable he was with us being in his house.  And it took another 10 years for him to admit his mistakes. In 2007, we heard that he was very sick and had become very old and frail. I and my wife visited him. As we arrived at his home, it was about noon time. There was no one else in the house, children had gone to school and my mother and brother’s family were working in their field. As we went about the house, we saw the old man sitting way back in the garden, turning his face away from home. I went from behind and called him; he was surprised and tried to get up but could not. I grabbed him in my arms and helped him to walk back home. It was the first time that I had held my father; I had never known his touch or embrace. Within me, I was weeping, but had to put up a brave face so that the old man would not faint to see me crumble. For the first time, the old man confessed his failings and released me to do whatever makes me happy. As I saw his painful tears running down his boney chicks; I could not hold anything back and told him that the only thing that would compensate me of my robbed childhood is when I see him confess his sin to Jesus Christ and accept him as his personal savior. He neither denied my wish nor accepted; and realizing his social stature, I gave him an easy and wishful suggestion - “even if you cannot accept him in public due to the fear of your religious society, accept him in the privacy of your heart”. I am not sure how long my old man will live, but it is my prayer that when he leaves this world, he would have made his peace with his creator.

Hope Church Soccer Team

Illegal Nepalese Dilemma

 Dilemma of illegal Nepalese in Korea

Many Nepalese come to Korea with the hope of earning money and securing their future, but the three year time period for their stay here as legal workers is just enough for them to pay back the debt by which they came to Korea and send some for their families to have few new items in their homes.  The first year is simply spent in getting used to the basics of life and work environment in a foreign land and some give up their dreams and return.  But those who manage to stay for three years; they get used to the culture and society and become accustomed to the way of life.  They pick up the language, and know in and out of their working environment.  When they are just about to live and work in Korea without much difficulty in terms of language, food and culture, time comes for them to go home. 

At the same time, the home country continues to go from bad to worse every year.  As they communicate to their family members, everyone suggests them that it is better for them to stay in a country like Korea illegally than coming back to Nepal where there is no hope of doing anything.  As the three year period comes to a close, they run away from their working places and start working as illegal workers.  Many companies do prefer the illegal workers than going through the hassles of hiring the legal ones; beside, the illegal ones already are good at work, language and adjustment where as the new ones will have to be trained all over again.  So, the illegal Nepalese workers have no problem of finding the employment.

There are about 3 thousand or more illegal Nepalese working in Korea, but the latest crackdown by the government has become so painful for these friends whose hopes lie in their being here so that they can continue to work and send money for their families in Nepal.  They wish to stay here for few more years so that they could save some for their future and at the same time wait for their nation to be a place where they could live and work without fear and uncertainty.

However, many Nepalese are caught by the immigration officials these days and some are already held in detention centers, waiting for their time of deportation.  They had plans, hopes and wishes, but all of them are now dashed, not because it is a bad thing to go home, but because, for Nepalese, home means, absolutely no job, insecurity, extortion by the Maoists and criminals and even kidnap and death.  The Maoists and criminals know that a worker from a country like Korea does have some money for them to extort.  As they wait in the detention centers, their minds become restless.  On the one hand, they hare happy to see their family members and loved ones that they have missed so much, but on the other hand, when they think of the over all situation in Nepal, they feel helpless and lost.

The political situation in Nepal is getting nowhere and there is a strong possibility of bloodshed and perhaps a total control by the Maoists.  Economically, there is absolutely no condition for any investment or entrepreneurship.  Except in the monsoon season, there is no electricity for more than 15 hours everyday, constant transport strikes and closers of normal life have completely paralyzed the nation.   Factories and businesses are being taken over by the workers who are being brainwashed by the extreme communistic ideology of Maoism; businessmen are running away from the nation for their lives.  Departmental stores and shopping centers have become like hunted houses because the workers demanded more than what the owners could pay them and government loathes them with heavy taxes.  Security wise, when one leaves home, one does not know when or whether he/she will be able to come back, and for those who do have wealth and property, life is very uncertain; the constant news of kidnapping and killing for ransom have taken away their sleep and hunger.  Parents wait anxiously for their children to return from school and breathe a sigh of relief when they see them safely home.

With this kind of a picture in mind, a Nepali feels safer in Korea even if it means living like a fugitive, but a thought of going home creates a panic.  Deep down in the heart, everyone wishes to go home but the present reality of Nepal sends a chilling sensation in the spine every time the thought of deportation comes to mind.

Academics with Affections

Academics with Affections

Coming from Hindu religious background and atheistic (communist) indoctrination, my journey into Christian faith was an adventure of academics and affections. I was born into a devout Hindu family that faithfully observed their religious duties and astrological signs. My father would not leave the house for any emergencies unless the signs in the sky were right for him to do so. For a man like that, the birth of the first son was a major event and every detail surrounding the birth had to be recorded in the birth-scroll (horoscope) as soon as possible. Two meters long scroll was prepared for me and unfortunately, the priest discovered that my birth had taken place in one of the most inauspicious moments in the Hindu calendar; my birth ushered father’s death. The only way to avoid his imminent death was for him not to see me (a Hindu father generally would not see his new born child until the priest prepares the horoscope). The priest explained that so long my father does not see me, he would live and gave them two options; either the mother should stop feeding the infant or give the infant away to someone never to be remembered again. I was lucky! When I was nine days old, my maternal grandmother took me away; eight hours’ journey to her distant village. I stayed with grandmother until I was 11, never knew where I had come from. By the time I was seven, I had begun to pray to various Hindu gods about my origin and destiny. Meanwhile back in my home, a different priest had a look at my horoscope, and he discovered that I was not at all a danger to my father! The first priest had made a horrendous mistake!

In my eleventh year, the news came that I had parents and I was going home! Reluctantly they did bring me home and for the first time I saw my father, brother and sisters! About mother, I had seen her before many times but nobody had told me that she was my mother. She used to visit her family and then take me in her arms and silently cry and I had no idea that she was my mother. Sadly, even after I came home, my father refused to look at me and talk to me and my joy of finding my family ended there.

As a bewildered teenager, I lost my faith in religion and got into a communist group. Spending few years in their indoctrination campaigns, I thought that I had found my destiny. But in an amazing way, I met Jesus Christ (which is a different story all together) in my 17th year and did I realize what life was all about; questions of my origin and destiny were settled forever and from the age of 19, I entered into the full time ministry as an itinerant preacher without having any formal theological training. Later I was persuaded to go for formal theological education which then led me to a reputed Bible College in a Southern Indian city of Bangalore. It was there in that college that my life was refined for a lasting Christian service; after four years I received my Bachelor of Theology degree along with academic excellence award. I had the privilege of being mentored by wonderful men and women of God from various parts of the world whose influence still adds new impetus every time I am reminded of. Some filled the place of my father and others filled the place of a brother but not every one of the mentors under whose ministry I sat was able to leave a lasting legacy behind; some were dry and detached from what they taught.

After 8 years of full time ministry in the area of theological education and church pioneering, I had another chance to go for Master of Divinity course at Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology in Seoul where once again had the privilege of meeting many more men and women of God, some of whom had great academic achievements in their lives. But there were others, who also had great academic credentials, but their academic credentials were coupled with deep emotional affection for their students. As a mature student after years of ministry experience, I was greatly touched and impacted by their personal affections and academic excellence. I was able to re-evaluate and correct my own way of learning and teaching to my students.

Finally, another opportunity to further my theological education came my way and the Lord led me to do Master of Theology and Doctoral studies at Asia Life University in Daejeon. The university is relatively young and much of the infrastructure is still developing, but compared to the schools I have studied in and taught at, the ALU leadership and the professors possessed higher degree of affection for their students. The affection I found in ALU is coupled with high degree of respect toward students as co-workers in the kingdom of God regardless of their nationality and level of learning (which is a rarity in Korean context). Almost all of the professors have earned their doctoral degrees from prestigious universities in the US, UK and elsewhere, and have the reason to boast for their academic achievements. But they demonstrate such a depth of humility and camaraderie inside as well as outside the classroom that demands highest respect from their students. I am grateful to God for the privilege of being a part of such a wonderful place and I am sure the Lord will use these men and women of God to impact countless lives. It is my prayer that the professors that I have studied under in many of these schools would continue to strive for their academic excellence but would not forget to cap their academic caliber with affectionate countenance; without the affections of the heart, the dry and cerebral academics alone will not be able to leave a lasting legacy behind for their students to cherish.

As I reflect on the influence of my professors in my life, I am reminded of the two great Jewish Rabbis; Hillel and Shammai who had titanic struggles with one another for ascendency and influence during the either side of the first century. Hillel was known to be a man of great affection and tremendous influence among the Jewish populace while Shammai was a strict legalist who lacked compassion and wider following, but both were among the finest minds of their time. Shammai outlived Hillel and tried to eradicate Hillel’s influence by weakening the house of Hillel through all means, but according to the tradition, a voice from heaven nullified Shammai’s position on the Law (Yerushalmi Berakhot, 1:7) and till today, it is the position of Hillel that has survived as a testimony to the power of a teacher who possesses academics and affections.

One of the reasons why scholars and theologians lack affections in their academic life can be understood on the basis of their relationship with suffering. Hillel was born in Babylonia, and at the age of 40 he went to Jerusalem to study the Torah and for the next 40 years (Hillel is thought to have lived 120 years) he went through a lot of opposition, rejection, suffering and pain where as Shammai was on the side of persecuting Hillel and had relatively comfortable life compared to him and failed to express compassion to his fellow human beings. Most of the arm-chair scholars who have never faced suffering of any kind in life are wonderful to read but terrible to have relationship with. Such theologians neither can adjust in any local church nor are they able to run theological institutions and thus they resign themselves away from people in the company of their books. But of course in the area of scholarship, affection void of academic depth is equally ineffective to impact students’ life. I am fortunate to have met many wonderful people of God who have touched and transformed my deranged mind and damaged emotions so that today, every time I stand behind a pulpit, a podium or a lectern, I too wish to leave something behind.

Ministry at Sooyoungro Nepali Church, Pusan

During Chusok holidays, we were invited by Sooyoungro Nepali Church in Pusan to share the word of God. Our theme was "Living as Aliens", not just from one country to another, but our life here on earth is a pilgrimage, we are strangers in a foreign land until we reach our final home, a city whose builder and maker is God himself.


We also spent a day in a famous Heundae beach in Pusan!!

One Life to Live and One Wife to Love

Former president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, died on August 18 at the age of 85. Born in a remote Island of the South-western seacoast of Korea, DJ (affectionately called by common people) made his way up to the highest office in the nation but his journey was full of ups and downs as he becomes nostalgic in his diary. For him to say that his life was full of ups and downs is a very mild way of putting the perilous journey into a lighter tone. His was a journey filled with sufferings, sorrows and death itself. But his dedication and idealism for democracy in his homeland paid at last and he became the first democratically elected 15th president of South Korea, brought his nation out of the Asian economic crisis and nearly succeeded in uniting the two Koreas after a half a century of hostility. It was during his administration that the world actually got to know what Korea is really like; the resilient spirit of Korea coupled with love and forgiveness was personified in the life of the man Kim Dae-ung. Nobel Peace Prize added just a little flavor to a man whose life was already an aroma of inspiration for any aspiring politicians and civil servants. He carried this aroma of inspiration around him primarily because of his strong faith in God as a devout Catholic which undergirded his moral convictions that man must live to love God and serve fellow human beings. Such faith in God sprang from a tragedy when his first wife died suddenly leaving him behind with two young sons. His faith was again tested and affirmed when he was kidnapped from a hotel in Tokyo, bound and bundled in a boat to be drowned in sea by the Korean secret servicemen. In that moment of death, he had a mystical experience of Christ and miraculously with the help of US government, was spared from drowning. With this strong Christian conviction, in a culture where bribery, corruption and power grabs are considered normal, DJ exhibited a different moral standard of humility, forgiveness and reconciliation. His second marriage to a strong Christian activist only strengthened the faith that had already led him through many troubles and he led the nation from the economic miracle story of the 80s and 90s to a miracle of one of the most democratic and free societies in the world.
In retrospect, one can say that DJ was a successful man who lived his life to the full. On January 11, 2009, six month prior to his death, he wrote: "The relationship with my wife is now the best it has been since we got married. I love and look up to my wife. If it wasn't for my wife, it would have been hard for me to stand where I am right now. But I can't imagine myself without her, even at this point of time. I pray every day to God that we could live happily together for a long time."
At the grand old age of 85 he says, “The relationship with my wife is now the best it has been since we got married”, and he prays everyday that God would allow them to “live happily together for a long time”. This was not a wish of a man who had squandered loving relationship with his wife and was regretting at the end of his life; it was a wish of a man who had very fulfilling and richly blessed marital relationship with his beloved wife. Theirs was a story of a marriage filled with love and mutual respect. In a typical Korean society it is not a common thing to hear a husband confessing his respect for his wife, but almost all the letters he wrote to his beloved wife from the prison begin with “To you with love and respect”, and till the end he kept his love and respect for his wife and only wished to deepen it. Sadly, his wish to live happily together for a long time with his wife lasted only about six months in this world, and God willing, eternity awaits them for that. But here is a lesson for us who are still much younger than DJ to make that wish come true. As we come to the end of our lives in this world, may our wish to love and respect our wives and husbands be not from the regrets of failure to do so while in good time, but may it be a desire only to deepen the life-time of cherished love and respect because wife and husband will be the only person that will matter the most when we come to the end of our journey.
Sometimes, when we are in pursuit of ambitions, it is easy to neglect this part of life. Other times, our stupidity, selfishness and greed may destroy all the beauty of a marriage and a home. But from the life of a man who was never free from the challenges and dangers, we learned that he never forgot who mattered the most in his life. As he grew older, his love for his wife grew deeper as his prayer tells it all. He died as a man who loved his wife and reaped life full of contentment; he died with no regrets. Surely, he was not an angel or a saint, in their marriage they may have had their fair share of struggles, but judging from his words, it is easy to see the heart of a man who truly loved his wife and if given a chance for another life would have asked for no other person.
From Kim’s diary, if there is one thing we need to learn to have a happy ending; it is to have a hope for the better marriage every single day of our life in spite of all the struggles. It is to wish to love our spouses more than yesterday, respect them more than they deserve and if we can do this, every marriage will last a life-time with flames of love still blazing. Our romance does not have to be buried after the birth of our first child and respect for wife does not have to be equated with “joitingre” . Extended families and in-laws do not have to replace our spouses and economic hardships and suffering of any kinds do not have to be the messengers of doom for our “happy ever after”. If there is love and respect for each other, in the midst of all hell, we can still have a wonderful marriage filled with love, respect and romance as demonstrated by beloved DJ and his wonderful wife.

In God We Trust

The national motto of the most powerful nation on earth reads “In God We Trust”. Out of the ashes of terrible civil war, the nation longed for some sense of hope and security and the motto first appeared on the United States’ coin in 1864. Nearly a century later in 1956, President Eisenhower approved this motto into a law passed by the US Congress to provide a calming assurance from the looming danger of communism and a new kind of imperialism hiding behind the shadow of cold war. The congress insert reads: “In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, it is proper to remind all of us of this self-evident truth that as long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail”. The wisdom and the commitment to recognize human limitations in the affairs of a nation by the historical leaders of the United States has stood the test of time, and today the nation reaps the reward of their faithfulness. God said to Moses in the second commandment that he will punish the children for the sins of their father until the fourth generation but he will show love and kindness to a thousand generations of the righteous. Psalms 33:12 says “blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh”. In spite of the carnality and heathenism that we see coming out of the United States of America, this nation still has a divine hedge built around it because God is ever faithful to his promises made in covenant with his faithful servants. The carnal children of the US still benefit from the faithfulness of their forefathers because their forefathers chose to trust God, individually and nationally, and left behind a blessing for a thousand generations.
The same story can be repeated for many of the European states whose forefathers trusted God and the children still reap the blessings of peace, prosperity and freedom which the world is in great need of. China and many of the Islamic nations are now wealthy and prosperous but with great cost to peace and human freedom. God created man with free will but in these nations the free will of man has to be regulated by manmade rules. Man has become the master in these nations even though there is plenty of prosperity. Japan and South Korea have enjoyed peace, prosperity and freedom; thanks to their association with a nation that carries God’s blessing. It is the American money, manpower and prayers that have made what these two nations have become. The rest of the nations in the world has a long way in recognizing Yahweh as their God and thus deprive their citizens of the blessings of peace, prosperity and liberty. They have lived in misery for thousands of years and will continue to do so until they recognize the Lordship of Yahweh.
Now, as a citizen of a nation like Nepal, what hope do I have? What blessings can I expect from my forefathers who broke the very first and second commandments of God and worshiped the creation instead of the creator? The first book of the Bible is named Genesis, which means “beginnings” and in the very beginning of this book, Satan is represented by a snake that deceived the first man. The Bible also tells us that Satan fell from heaven because he refused to worship God; he wanted to be God and wished the angelic beings to worship him. He wanted to set up his throne higher than God’s. But God cast him down and replaced him by the creation of man. But we see him in Genesis chapter three as a snake and today there is no household in Nepal (except Christians and Muslims) on whose doorpost they do not post a picture of five, seven or sometimes nine snakes entangled together. Every year on Nag-panchami (Day of the snake god), the Hindu households will replace these pictures with the worshiping ceremony of the snake god. The snake posters will be posted on the top horizontal post of the door frame so that when a person goes out of the house, the head has to be a bit bent down to worship the snake and the same thing when one enters the house (traditionally, the doors in a Nepali house are slightly shorter than the average height of a person so that one has to bend the head to enter in and out of the house and therefore, the best place to put the snake god). In a devout Hindu home, every door in the house must have one of these snake posters. This tells us that what the Bible symbolizes as evil, Nepal worships as its main god. In Egypt, the blood of the lamb that symbolized Jesus Christ was put on the doorpost for the deliverance, but today Nepal replaces the blood of the lamb with the symbol of Satan itself. What blessings will we hope for?
On the national level, there is no hope now for Nepal. Unless the rulers and the general population turn to God and repent from the generations of violating the very commandments of God; our nation has no hope of prosperity, peace and freedom. The atheistic Maoists might be able to bring economic prosperity (that is because in my assumption, God prefers an atheists than an idolater), but this economic prosperity might come with a high price of peace and human freedom. In their pursuit of absolute power, they will not be hesitant to kill any number of people and once they have the power, there will be no liberty left for the common man. But because poverty is such a terrible task master, the general public might be happy to live under the political tyranny than the tyranny of poverty. So, there is no hope of a national blessing for Nepal.
But on the individual level, there is hope. There is hope because God in Jesus Christ transcends the national and collective boundaries and brings his blessings to every individual. Any Nepali who has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior from sin and satanic bondage has the power to break free from all generational curses. If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he or she becomes a new creation (2Cor.5:17) and Jesus has covenanted with such people a new covenant by his own blood (Luke 22:20). He has become the lamb that was slain and his blood on the doorpost of their hearts protects them from the angel of death and destruction. They are born again and all their past has been wiped away and now they are free to create a new genealogy for their posterity that will last for eternity in the blessings of God.
But this new beginning has to begin by trusting God just like Abraham trusted and he was declared a friend of God (Romans 4). Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”. David says in Psalms 40:4 “blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust”. This picture of blessedness is beautifully painted by Jeremiah in the context of a man who trusts in man. The one who trusts God is “like a tree planted by the water…does not fear…leaves are always green…has no worries…and never fails to bear fruit” (17:7-8). But “cursed is a man who trusts man…will be like a bush in a wastelands…will not see prosperity…dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (17:5-6). This is a very scary picture the prophet paints for the man whose trust rests on man. But the one who trusts God, he or she shall be free from lack, fear and worry and will live in the land of prosperity. This land of prosperity does not have to be some other nation or geographical location. In fact, regardless of a national boundary, one can enter into this blessedness on the basis of one’s trust in God, and therefore, Nepali followers of Jesus Christ do not have to bear the burden of generational curse from their forefathers. God in Jesus Christ is able to come to their aid and bless them spiritually, physically and materially.
But have we seen all these blessings (spiritual, physical and material) come to us in the last 50+ years of Christian history in Nepal? Yes and no. Yes, because, first, many Nepalese have come to the Lord and spiritually they have received eternal life. With the handful of Christians in 1960s, today some estimates claim that there are a million Christians in our nation. So, let’s say that all of these one million Christians have received the forgiveness of sin and eternal life; that is the greatest spiritual blessing we can ever imagine. The Nepali church is strong in preaching the message of salvation; Jesus Christ saves. Second, we also have received physically blessing of healing. The highest cause of the growth of the church in Nepal is physical healing. Even the cessationist Baptist and Presbyterian ministers in Nepal are still preaching that healing is possible when they pray (in their seminaries they teach that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased after the death of the apostles). So, the church in Nepal preaches that Jesus saves and Jesus heals, but the third aspect of the blessing, which is material, is the biggest issue now. Salvation is not possible apart from Jesus Christ and they trust him for that. Healing is also not possible apart from Jesus Christ and they trust him for that. But for the material blessings! Because, right from the early days, Christian leaders found out that man can meet their material needs and because of that, this faculty to trust God for material blessing never developed in their newly formed spiritual brain. Because the leaders did not have to worry for their material needs (their needs were met by outside donations), they did not know how to teach their members to trust God to meet their material needs.
The Christian population even today comes from the lower end of social stick and they have tremendous needs. They cannot send their children to school, they never have the luxury of seeing a doctor when they become sick, and they do not know what it is to have a vacation in life because if they do not work for the day, there would be no food in the evening. Life in this world to them becomes a burden from which they wish to be free and that’s why they trust the Lord Jesus for their eternal rest. But unfortunately, they have never been told that God has the ability to give them the glimpses of that blessed rest from the tyranny of poverty right here on earth if they could exhibit the same trust that they have for salvation and healing. Until today the Nepali Christian leaders have blinded the Nepali believers from trusting God for the material blessings by demonstrating that without the outside financial the Nepali church cannot exist. But, like the motto of the US, it is not the money that would give us the rest and peace and freedom in this world, but it is our trust that puts us in a higher plane of life where every need is met by the power of God. And therefore, Nepali believers need to learn to trust God to carve their new course for their own lives as well as for their posterity by placing their trust in God’s goodness and his ability to bless them and meet their needs. The God who is able to save them and heal them is able to meet their material and financial needs; and thus individual Christians can be free from the national curse that comes from breaking his commandments.

Church With No Songs

The Sunday came; I was not engaged for any ministry related matters. I decided to visit a church that I had ministered in a few years ago when I was a student. It was a lovely congregation of people coming from different nations, but mostly the English speaking Koreans or the Korean Americans. They had a pastor from an English speaking country.
This morning I arrived there early because they had moved the time half an hour late. The deacon that I knew was still there, fixing the place for worship. But when I saw a bewildered look into his face after shaking my hand, I did not know what to make of it. But he politely informed me that the church is no longer the way it used to be and not many people come. In Korea, most English or international congregations are either branches or the department of strong and powerful Korean churches. This particular church was no exception.
As I was sitting there for nearly 40 minutes, four mid thirties ladies came in and then three more men. The deacon had fixed the microphone and the chairs, in the bulletin, the name of the preacher and the presider was printed. Well over 15 minutes of the starting, no one showed up. Then a little girl of about 10 years old came in. She sat on the front row and called someone from her mobile phone. As she finished the call, in came the English department pastor, not the person from an English speaking nation but a Korean educated in UK with zero level of English communication. He fixed a small microphone for the little (apparently she could be his daughter, but we never had a chance to meet them) girl sitting in the front row. Neither was there any opening prayer, nor was there any one to play music, and believe me, this was the first time in my entire life that I attended a church service without singing a one line of hymn or a chorus, I mean not one song or a prayer (except benediction). The pastor went to the pulpit and motioned towards the deacon who was way back controlling the sound system. The pastor muttered a few words in Koreans and the deacon replied likewise. The first word in English from the pastor’s mouth was 1 Corinthians 1:1-3. After that he began to preach in Korean…and a sweet sound of English translation came from the PA system (I was the only foreigner there today), and it took me for a while to figure it out as what is happening and finally I saw the little girl in the front row reading the notes for her apparent father. He was reading in Korean from the pulpit and she was reading it in English from the chairs. He took about 20 minutes and sat next to the girl translating for him. I was so impressed with the little girl as how beautifully she read and had decided to meet her at the end and tell her how blessed I was to hear her read the sermon. The content of the sermon was…Corinthian church was full of division and immorality but still Paul called it “the church of God”. “The church of God” was the title of his sermon. While the preacher sat down, the deacon went forward and took the offering without any song. After the offering, he asked the pastor to pray and close with benediction. In Korea once the benediction is pronounced, you just don’t shoot yourself from the seat; you sit with eyes still closed and wait for the pastor to come to the exit so that he or she can meet the members as they go out. So, as we said “amen”, with eyes closed for few seconds and I looked around to see if the pastor was there. They were nowhere to be seen, the pastor and the little girl well. This church had the practice of having some snacks after the service, and nine of us who were still in the room, we gathered around the snacks table…and I could not help but told the deacon that this was the most bizarre church service that I have ever attended. With apology, he told me that the church is going through division and there is no communication between the pastor and himself. He said, “we are playing wait and see, hide and seek game”. As I moved out of that room, my heart became so heavy, knowing that I have witnessed the most destructive weapon of the devil in the church being fully used. Division has totally paralyzed and now possibly the English church will cease to exists and what kind of ministry will the pastor that can come, preach, and go without meeting his congregants can have in life. How could he come and preach? I just cannot fathom. How could he?