Five years ago I took a group from Bethany World Prayer Center into the central mountains of Nepal.  With that group was David Knox, from Grove, Oklahoma.  Since that time, David has pursued a vision to work in Nepal and he is doing a tremendous job.  We are beginning to work together to pool our resources for church planting.

I recently spent a thrilling five days with David and Rhonda in South West Nepal where an Unreached People group called the Tharu are experiencing revival.   Five years ago there were only a handful of Tharu believers but in the past year especially there has been a marked increase in Tharu people coming to the Lord, especially young people.  Quite a few miracles are taking place.

I ministered in a number of fairly large village churches.  In one, a woman had been healed of a brain tumor, after being sent home to die by doctors in nearby India.  Over 100 adults and young people are now believers in her village and the pastor of the church is a young 18-year-old who is on fire for God.  There is no one in the church more than 9 months old in the Lord.  Most of the believers in this congregation are 15-20 years old and they remind me of some of the house churches I visited years ago in China, fervent in prayer and dedicated to the work.  They embraced the vision of twelve and wept over the vision of souls.

Southwest Nepal is a tough region these days and is in the heart of the Maoist insurgency.  I did not realize it when I scheduled these meetings but a ceasefire between the Maoists and government forces ended the day I left.  A bomb exploded in the city the following day.

There are two village churches that desperately need a building.  They both meet in mud buildings with extremely limited space.  The people sit on the floor and in one meeting we crammed 100 adults in a 12 X 24 room!  For about $2,500-$3,000 each we can purchase land and build a structure to seat over 200.  We will supply the materials and they, the labor.  The Tharu are a giving people but for the most part poor, with limited resources.  It would be a huge boost to help them with a building.

Thanks for all you have done to help Bev and I to plant significant churches in the neglected villages of South Asia.  -  Rick