Nepal Mission, 2018--The Questions Are Easy, But the Answers Are Hard

"The questions are easy, but the answers are hard." Pastor Gupta's (name changed for safety) mic-drop of a line stuck with me after we left Itahari toward our next and final week of ministry. Itahari is a medium-sized city in the middle of what some might describe as nowhere, but to the bustling residents Itahari is home, and to the remote areas all around, Itahari is the big city. Kathmandu, at 10 hours from Itahari by motorbike or car to the northwest, is almost unthinkably far away. (And apparently the trip to the capital is only 8.5 hours for the local buses since they drive like maniacs hurtling up the road in trapezoidal, steel boxes desperately in need of a full, four-wheel alignment.)

Pastor Gupta's stupendous one-liner was referring to the "coming trial," when the new law will go into effect in August banning public evangelism and religious conversion. The penalty will be 3 years in prison and 50,000 rupees (roughly $5,000). For comparison, the Internet--which is never wrong--says the average week's wage for a taxi driver in Nepal is 2,000 rupees. But Pastor Gupta's subsequent explanation was equally mic-droppable: "We figure that they can't arrest us all. And if they could, they don't have enough money in the government to feed us in prison for three whole years." That is easy to say, and difficult to face.

One day later, back in Kathmandu, we chatted with our driver--whom I will call Bitmar, who was a Christian pastor also--who gave us his testimony. He was the youngest brother of a family in a remote district of Nepal. But the whole family was chased from their homeland for "becoming cow-eaters." (I didn't ask, but I assume that being labeled as a cow-eater in the Hindu culture cannot be friendly banter.) In the middle of this (long) story, I recalled, "The questions are easy, but the answers are hard." 

Condensed and abridged, but in no way exaggerated, Bitmar's father was a Hindu priest in direct charge of the ritual sacrifices of water buffalo (yes, actual animal sacrifice!). But he and his whole household converted to Christ in dramatic fashion. 

As was customary, Bitmar's older brother went to the Hindu temple to participate in the worship of Shiva, and took the suggested hallucinogen associated with the god (i.e. demon) of destruction. But that brother, 13 years old at the time, lost his mind after the one trip. Though the drug had long worn off, Bitmar's brother refused to wear clothes for 2 years, because whenever he did he felt the snakes bite him (i.e. demonic possession). Even though the father tried to make additional sacrifices to relieve his son's torment, he only got worse. Brother had taken to preventing the unreal/real snake bites with a real/very real knife ... resulting in significant wounds. The family had given up hope and decided to take him to a mental asylum when they heard of a very old man nearby who didn't follow the old gods. The old man was a Christian who told them that Jesus alone could break the power of Shiva. "Why not?" they reasoned, "we have tried everything else and brother has only gotten worse."

It wasn't immediate, but the old man prayed for Jesus to break the power of Shiva inside Bitmar's brother. One week, two weeks, brother kept his clothes on. One month, two months, he resumed family life. Some relapses here and there, but brother was set free by the power of Jesus. The father could not deny the power of Jesus and, therefore, renounced his priesthood, publicly burning his amulets. The family was chased away, but not to the exclusion of periodic evangelistic returns to the village later on, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus. Not many, but some there have believed in the 20 years since Bitmar's family left. "The questions are easy, but the answers hard."

Advance the story to this morning to the church in Lalitpur, where we will be teaching our second Bible Institute. Apparently some time during the very normal church service where I preached a very normal (and quite unrelated) message, a woman from Bitmar's old city arrived at church. She came a long way to ask for prayer to Jesus for demonic deliverance. (Apparently, this is normal. One week ago, for instance, the police brought another lady who was demonically tormented to the church because they could not help her. She was prayed for and went home in her right mind.) "The questions are easy, but the answers are hard."

Maybe this woman, who convulsed while the church leaders "prayed the gospel" into her with Scripture and songs of praise to Christ--if her deliverance shows forth any fruit of a regenerated heart--will be like the "man of peace" that Christ instructed the disciples to look for when He sent them out two-by-two, who will give the frontier ministry a home base. This city is one of two cities the church leaders in Lalitpur have been praying for as a site for their next church plant. (They surely don't pick the easy places!) Once a year, for 20 years, the church in Lalitpur has planted a church in the remote places of Nepal. However, the pinch-point in Nepal, as it is in the States, is spiritual leadership. Who will lead the church plant if they decide to launch a new work in this hostile region? Will it be Bitmar? Will it be another? This is why pastoral training in theology and Bible is so important, for whoever goes must be able to navigate the Bible skillfully. "The questions are easy, but the answers are hard."