in nepal
Nepal is mostly a land of hills, but surprisingly, there is a large portion of it that is hot lowland next to the Indian border. The population is around 26,000,000, and it has been one of the most closed non-Islamic countries to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have been the only officially Hindu country in the world. You can be a Christian, but you cannot proselytize, and of course you cannot have a church or do anything Christian openly. The Seventh-day Adventist church has had an unofficial presence here for 50 years or so, all thru the auspices of a hospital in the capital. However, the hospital has been kept from spreading the gospel both by the govt. and by employees who were afraid of ruining the medical work here. So while not much has been done for the people’s souls, there were around 1,000 SDA members when the current SDA mission president was elected 7 years ago. Now there are 6,000 SDAs, praise God! And the most exciting thing, is that just this summer the people of Nepal overthrew their king, and are on the road to make a new country based on secular standards. That means the Three Angels’ Messages can be spread openly thruout the country! And this wave has spread to Bhutan, perhaps the most closed country in all the world, where the king has promised democractic reforms by year 2008. God is working mightily to open up the whole Himalayan region, and now we need to be faithful in fulfilling our duty to bring those in darkness to truth.
While not even being considered until about 40 hours before actually landing in this country, my trip to Nepal turned out to be the most exciting from the standpoint of opportunities and vision to spread the gospel, and is also the country where i was treated more royally than any other in all my travels.
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