SUMMER MISSION 2012 – NEPAL July 8th – July 15th

Namaste is the first word you need to know when you’re in Nepal. It means “salam” or good

morning, good afternoon, good evening. Located at the feet of the Himalayan mountain with

its famous Mt. Everest, Nepal depends on tourism as the main income for the country. For

hundred of years, Nepal was a kingdom, but in 2008 it became the Federal Democratic Republic

of Nepal with a population of 27 Millions people. About 81% of the population is Hindu, 10%

Budhist, and 0.5% Christian (according to the government, but the Christians community

believe it’s around 7% now). Nepal is the center of the famous Siva temple, Pashupatinah,

which is the pilgrimage destination for the

Hindus from around the world. They

believe in myriad dieties, infact, millions of

them! And this year, the Summer Mission

Team led by Pastor Danny Hanafi and

Pastor Sugi Hendric from IFGF Pinole,

decided to visit Nepal for the first time,

bringing the message of hope and love of

Christ to the people in Nepal. The Team

(total 24 people) which consist of

businessmen, dentists, pastors, students,

and young professionals, dedicated their

live to serve God and His people in this 8

days mission trip, bringing the Gospel to 6,000 people and leading them to Christ.

The Team started its mission in Nala, a mountain village about 2 hours drive plus 15 minutes

walk from Kathmandu. It is not a “remote” village considering the distance from Kathmandu,

but the village seems far behind the modern time. Nala was completely unreachable a few

months back and no one there had ever heard about Jesus or Christianity before. The team

came to minister to the local people in that village

through free medical dental services led by dentist

Andrew Chandra Luwuk, one of the members in the

team. About 460 adults and 121 kids were treated by

the dentist. Big thanks to Golden Nest that took

part in sponsoring the medical dental services during

the 8 days mission trip in Nepal. While the patients

were in line to see the dentist, some of the team

members preached the Gospel to the community. So

many people received Christ for the first time; and the

Team distributed 400 Bibles for the people and school

children.

A bottle of Sprite? Isn’t that bad for your teeth? Well,

Sprite becomes handy for the “emergency” dental unit.

“We’re amazed at the creativity of the local dentist that

created the dental unit. They made it into a container

for water spray for the syringe,” said the dentist.

During their visit to Bakhtapur, which is an ancient city,

established thousands of years ago in Nepal, where the

spiritual demonic atmosphere is very oppressive, the

Team had to prepare special “exit” plan for this

outreach, just in case they’re being targeted by Hindu

people because of the Gospel. Praise the Lord the

event went very well, 2000 people attended the

outdoor outreach. They all listened and accepted the

Gospel for their first time in their lives! People were

healed miraculously from various diseases, including a

woman healed of cancer, and a paralyzed man who

could walk.

The team’s next destination is Gorkha, a city about 3.5

hours away from Kathmandu. There is only 1 church on

the hill of Gorkha, which took the Team 1.5 hours to

walk up to the mountain to reach the church. Up on the

hill, the weather was very hot, reaching to 37 degree

Celsius on that day. However, people were flocking to

the team’s outreach, regardless the weather. Even a group of police were so enthusiastic to

listen to the message of salvation preached by Pastor Danny. It was such a joyful moment to

see more than 2000 crowds listened to the Gospel, and for most of them it’s their first time ever

hearing the good news. More than 200 people

accepted Christ.

“Truly after seeing all of these, we thought we receive

more that what we give them. We receive the joy of seing people

being saved. We receive new friends in Christ. We understand how God loves this

people so much. We see examples of Christians who work tirelessly to get the

gospel to the mountains, and many more. Maybe you should come and see it for

yourself in the next summer mission,” says Mrs. Esther Idayanti, one of the Summer

Misision 2012 team members.

The Team’s visit to Jomsom was almost got cancelled due to bad weather. Jomsom is a small

village at the foot of the mount Nilgiri tucked in a valley surrounded by tall mountains. The

journey to Jomsom was treacherous. It requires experienced pilots to navigate the small

propeller aircrafts, which could not fly higher than the

mountains. The weather plays a significant role and

could present real dangers, as it could the pilot’s

view, affect the navigation and could cause a fatal

accident. For 7 days before the Team arrived, all

flights were cancelled. But God did intervene; the

team prayed really hard for hours in the hotel and

God answered their prayer.

Just before the Team landed in Jomsom, they saw a

small craft just like theirs was crashed into the

mountain above the village 3 weeks ago. The pilot of

that plane tried to make a turn inside the valley but

some low clouds blocked his view and he could not navigate correctly. The result was fatal; all

16 passengers on that plane perished. It’s just not the cloud, but rain and wind also affect

greatly the safety of flights to Jomsom.

The Team was expecting about 200 people at the most attending the outreach in Jomsom, but

ended up with more than 800 people! A lot of them came as far as from villages 4 hours away

by bus, and even from a place that took them 2 days walking distance to come to this crusade.

A lot of people from different tribes attended the crusade. Even more exciting, one of the team

members testified that one of those monks raised his hand when Pastor Philip gave the alter

call.

“Truly, preaching the good news in Jomsom was a historical event. For the first time Gospel

was declared in this ‘dangerous’ town. The whole village of Jomsom and people from

surrounding villages flocked to the hall to hear the Gospel for the first time. The summer

mission team had brought the good news of salvation, healing, and deliverance for the people

in this area,” said Mrs. Esther Idayanti.

After ministering to the people in Jomsom, the Team was supposed to fly back to Pokhara on

Thursday, July 12th, but again, the flight was cancelled due to bad weather and heavy rain in

Pokhara. The Team then decided to do children crusade in Jomsom. The team decorated the

hotel’s restaurant with balloons, prepared candies, and pizza for the children’s dinner. Two

youngest team members, Carisha Pranyoto (14 year old) and Sharilyn Kartawinata (11 year

old), shared their testimonies at the crusade that blessed the Nepalese children so much; 32

children received the Lord at that moment. Praise the Lord.

The next day, the team prayed so hard that the skies would clear up. However, it was very hard

to predict the weather. The first flight could take off, bringing 7 team members back to

Pokhara; but the rest of the team would have to stay another day in Jomsom due to unstable

weather. Every day the team members were praying and hoping for good weather so they

could go home. A single day of outreach had stretched to a prolonged into 6 day stay in

Jomsom. Most of the team members had to cancel and forego their return flight and bought a

new one way ticket from Kathmandu to their home country since they had missed their flights.

Yet, in this waiting period, they learned so much about God, learning to wait upon the Lord and

depend fully on Him.

On the last day before they departed from Kathmandu, the Team, partnering together with

Golden Nest visited an orphanage and donated $1,000 worth of food supplies, clothes,

and gifts to the orphans.

“Really, our visit to Nepal was an unforgettable trip. What made the trip so special was the

people we met, the friends we worked with, and the experience of seeing God working through

us. The trip is over, but the impact is for long term. To God be the glory!” stated one of the

team members after he returned home.

FACTS ABOUT NEPAL

They have a different calendar system. It doesn’t start with our

western calendar system. And while a year still has 12 months,

some months are 32 days long! The start of the week is Saturday,

not Sunday. So people go to church on Saturday, and Sunday is a

regular school/office day.

Complaining about you children’s homework? Wait until you see

what the Nepalese children have to learn. By 5 years old, they

have to learn 80 Nepalese alphabets + 26 latin alphabet = 106

alphabet..! This picture is taken in a school we visited in Nala

village.

How do you differentiate Christian and non Christian women in

Nepal? The Hindu women have a red dot in their forehead called

“tikka”. It is called the “third eye” from the Hindu’s belief system.

Christian women do not put red dots in their forehead. In our

outreaches, we see many women with tikka give their live to Jesus!

How do you know whether a person is a Christian or not by his

greetings? If he puts his hands together and says “Namaste”, he is

a non Christian. But if he says “Jaemashi” for sure he is a brother

in Christ. “Jaemashi Mr. Abraham...”