Rescued girls | Revival in Nepal

There is something I didn’t share with you, my dear friend. I meant to, but life is so busy. I think of you guys who get our emails and newsletters, and read our blog as part of the MMI team, so I feel like something is missing between us if I forget to share something with you.

In February, I went to Nepal. The trip was completely spontaneous. Elana and two of our girls, Sharon and Danielle, went there to partner with our dear friends, Troy and Leanna Brewer of Open Door Church and their team. The trip had one week left and they ask me to come. It ended up being a life-changing trip.

Troy is a rescuer. That is simply who he is. His ministry is funding several operations in Nepal where young girls are being rescued from the hands of some of the most evil people in the world. (more on that in part 2)

He is an apostolic leader with the heart of a pastor. I know Troy’s children—the ones in Texas—but on the second day of the trip he said to me, “Ron, meet Shavani—she’s my daughter.” Shavani is Indian—as in from India. Troy is a full-blown country boy from Texas. But I knew what he meant. He took Shavani in when he first began to work with orphans and gave her his last name. She calls him Daddy. She is a beautiful twenty-two-year-old young lady, who just finished flight-attendant school. If Troy and Leanna had not rescued her, who knows if she would even be alive.

Bob and Debbie

On our second day there, we took 10 young ladies to a shopping mall and forced them to shop. You see, these are all girls who have been from abusive situations. They have all suffered chronic incest from a father or an uncle. A couple of them have been rescued from the sex trade industry. They all lived in unbearable conditions. Now, they live with Bob and Debbie. Bob is not his real name. He is Nepali and I guess, at some point, he decided when working with westerners, it was easier to be just Bob.

Debbie is American but has lived there with Bob for nearly three decades. They are parents to these ten girls. Some girls have transitioned out of their home to university. One of them, Anu, was home from university to visit her sisters. You could never guess the circumstances out of which she came. She is bright, cheery, confident and is an amazing artist.

Many of them were skittish about shopping in a real mall. While they had been to the mall, they had never shopped for clothes there. They were each given $50 as a gift from Messiah’s Mandate, from you, and the only demand was that they had to spend it. We were told that many of them would simply save it, if we didn’t make them spend it. It was great to see Elana, Sharon and Danielle taking these girls from shop to shop. They were so happy.

The girls with Bob. On this night they made our whole team a delicious Nepali dinner.

Fell in Love

While I feel that we are called to spend most of our time in Israel—to the point that we have cut back on our trips to the US—I felt drawn to this place. Katmandu is one of the most polluted cities in the world. It is about 6,000 ft above sea level and sits in a bowl surrounded by mountains. There is no place for the soot and pollutants to escape. People walk around with surgical masks on, in order to not breathe in the dusty air. You can see me in the picture at the top with mine.

The people, however, are so warm. We fell in love with them. One family, which Danielle met on the street, took her home and made her dinner. Thanks to the generosity of Troy Brewer Ministries (TBM), the daughter is now in university! And they paid their rent for a year!

Revival in Nepal!

While I love to hear the stories of rescued girls, I was wondering why God sent me there. But then, Bob came to me and shared about the other work they have there—overseeing 70 congregations. I didn’t realize that there is a massive revival all over Nepal. In fact, Nepal has just passed China as the fasting growing church in the world!

In 2001 less than one percent of Nepal was Christian. Now it is over 10%! That means in the past 17 years, well over two million Nepalis have come to Jesus.

Going Back

Elana and I will be going back at the end of September to lead a two-day pastors retreat for 70 pastors. I will be teaching the first day on leadership, and the second day on God’s heart for Israel. I can’t wait!

My airfare and hotel has been covered by TBM—we just need to raise $3,700 for the conference—to bring the pastors and give them room and board. They will come from all over Nepal. Don’t feel any pressure to donate. I don’t want you—our precious friends and donors—to feel that we are always asking for money. Only give if you know God has put this on your heart. I know that God is going to speak to a few to cover the costs. You can give at www.standwithmmi.org by choosing Nepal Pastors Conference. But, again, no pressure. And we going to donate an additional $500 to take the girls from the girls home shopping.

Please be in prayer, as just recently the Nepal government has begun to crack down on Christians. Nepal is now a democracy, since the overthrow of the monarchy over a decade ago. However the government just made it illegal to convert to another religion or to encourage someone to convert.

“Nepali government [has] taken a regressive step as this law severely restricts our freedom of expression and our freedom of religion or belief,” said Tanka Subedi, chair of the national Religious Liberty Forum, to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). —Christianity Today

So these pastors have to choose between obeying the government or obeying the Great Commission. Keep them in your prayers! Oh, and I forgot to mention—Bob is going to turn over this work to another leader soon. His dream is to take his 13 main pastors that he has mentored to Israel before he moves on. I told him that if his 13 pastors could pay for their tickets, we would cover the land portion of the trip. I really want to bless these people. We have a year before they will come, but I wanted to let you know now.

In the meantime, agree with me that the understanding of God’s plan for Israel in the end times would spread through these 70 leaders throughout Nepal. The church is so young there; they have not been poisoned by European replacement theology. We will give them the tools to combat it.

Thank you for standing with us.