Photo via goatour.ru

Maoist regime provides unique haven for church planting ministry

American officials are reviewing a terrorist tag placed on Nepal's ruling Maoist party, reports MNN.

Nepal's Prime Minister argued that the Maoists should be removed from the list because they had given up fighting and promised to install a multiparty democracy.

The Maoist-led government will oversee the preparation of a new constitution by May next year, capping the peace deal that ended a war in which more than 13,000 people died.

While many believers see the Maoist party victory as a step towards greater religious freedom, Christians continue to face the crosshairs of political insurgents.

As recently as July 2008, members of the Nepal Defense Army, a terrorist group that wants Hinduism restored as the state religion, broke into the Don Bosco mission in eastern Nepal and killed a Roman Catholic priest from India.

Yet, a worker with Operation Mobilization, whom we'll call "Solomon," says while it has been a rough road, they actually have more freedom for ministry now. "When the Maoists were quite violent within the villages, the police who were the people who always used to arrest us and confiscate the literature, were no longer worried about our Christian work. With the Maoists taking over and declaring Nepal a secular state, most of their anti-religion activity has been against the Hindu fundamentalists."

Their diverted attention leaves the ministry team free to focus on evangelism training in the remote areas. "We're running a three-month training program, where we bring in between 100-150 students for some short training for about 14 days. Then we send them out on outreaches within the villages for about 30 days."

According to an OM report, a recent three-month Winter Outreach Program saw 120 Nepalis participate. After the initial training period, they went out into the towns and villages to share the Gospel. Six weeks later, they took a break and met together for feedback and further training.

Their report: Around 355 villages received literature, approximately 6,000 to 7,000 pieces of literature were distributed, and nine people came to faith.

In addition, the team helped at Sunday schools with new songs and shared their testimonies at house group meetings. They also taught youth groups new songs and dramas about outreach, shared testimonies, and preached at women's meetings, as well as taught new songs and drama for worship meetings.

The team further challenged local churches to get involved in outreach and were role models for them by going house to house visiting, performing outreaches in the marketplace, and in personal outreach.They also worked with street children, and taught about HIV/AIDS awareness in schools.

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TAGS: Nepal Maoist regime unique haven church planting ministry Operation Mobilization

[02/17/2009]

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