Dear Brothers & Sisters,
Greetings to you all in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With joyful tears, I am very excited to write about the work of the Lord in Nepal.
Before I write about the present work, I would briefly like to mention our past. Before partnering with HeartCry, our local churches were very weak and greatly influenced by false teachings. Our understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ was very shallow in the local churches. Moreover, we preached what is commonly known as the health and wealth prosperity gospel. The churches were in chaos and confusion because of our weak leadership. As one missionary always says,
“If the pulpit is weak, the church is weak.”
That is exactly what we were.
But in God’s sovereignty and in His providence, He brought us in contact and partnership with HeartCry Missionary Society in 2011. We are so thankful to the Lord for HeartCry and their willingness to support us in various ways (prayer, financial support, book translation/printing, trainings, resources, etc..). Even in the first three or four years of partnership, our men were not fully able to grasp the sound biblical teaching. It felt like we were all in the wilderness, like the children of Israel. It was a very hard time for me, and I struggled a lot with our men in trying to lead them. Honestly, sometimes I was very disappointed and felt like I could not continue helping the men. But God was gracious enough to work in the hearts of our men,
His word which is living and active; sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Heb. 4:12
Eventually, the men slowly started to understand sound teaching. The trainings from many brothers from the US helped our men to think seriously about their life, doctrine, and ministry. In the course of time, we have had a few men accuse us of false teachings and leave the group, along with others who acknowledged themselves as unqualified for the ministry and step down. However, the Lord is faithful and continues to lead us to press on. Along with these pastors, a younger generation of men are being influenced, learning together, and looking forward to serving the Lord. I believe some of them are being called into full time ministry.
Currently, all the nearby brothers gather together every week for sermon preparation. We are all sitting together, studying, and discussing the book of Philippians. We realize that it is very important and helpful, to sit together and talk through a passage as we are preparing for the sermon each week. We have had a class on Hermeneutics, but we still need more practical experience. It has been very helpful for the men.
In addition to meeting every week, the second Sunday and Monday of every month, all the brothers, including those from the mountains, gather together to study various topics. With the help of brothers from the US, we have looked at the “True Marks of the Church” along with another training on the “Doctrine of Church,” where we examined the topics of church discipline and church membership. These are very important and relevant to our local churches. To continue to look into this subject, the men decided to sit together and study from the book “Church Membership” by Jonathan Leeman that was translated into Nepali. We have been able to discuss many practical issues and challenges that we face today. Studying these subjects alone is good, but we realized that studying together as a group is far better.
Praise God that His church continues to press on to the goal that He has set before us. We thank God for the HeartCry partnership and the supporters who continually pray and support the gospel work in Nepal. We thank God for resources that have been printed in the Nepali language. We thank God for Reformed Baptist Seminary for sending professors to train us in the doctrines taught in the Scriptures. We are so grateful to the Lord that seeds are being sown in this needy land. May the Lord help us to bear fruit, a hundredfold. There is much work to do.
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Matt. 9:37-38
Please continue to pray for the gospel work in Nepal and please pray for the faithful labors that God sends into His harvest field. Thank You!
In Him,
Silas
