Thank you very much Yellowknife Vineyard Church for praying for us! Our mission was from May 17th to June 8th. Here is a short update that Climbing For Christ published from our trip:
A walk back to faith
By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ
Greetings in the name of Jesus! Megh Gurung, Dr. Matthew Fisher, and C4C Canada coordinator Brandy Fisher walked down the hill from where we were staying to two of the few houses in the tiny, remote mountain village of Amjilosa.
There was an old lady in one house and the woman’s adult son and daughter-in-law in the other. The daughter-in-law was “previously attending church when she lived in Dhading (Megh’s home district about a 400-mile drive to the west),” Brandy reported. “But due to persecution and lack of fellow believers, she walked away from her faith.”
Matthew treated the adult son, a man in his 50s, for injuries he sustained from falling during what was probably an epileptic seizure. Brandy then shared how God told us to come to this part of the Kangchenjunga area in eastern Nepal. The daughter-in-law’s eyes filled with tears as Brandy spoke. “I have prayed that Christians would come to our village,” she said. The Christians had arrived. Again.
For the second straight May, a Climbing For Christ team trekked into Kangchenjunga, the region that is home to the world’s third-highest mountain and a place where no other ministries are working. “The trek was sowing seeds in a hard Buddhist area where there are yet to be Christians,” Brandy explained. “But we need to continue to GO and pray and see how God makes His name great.” Mani stones, left, inscribed with prayers of Buddhist people. Right, money stones – Nepali rupees left under rocks to bribe the deities worshiped in the mountains around Kangchenjunga.
Our team, which included Samuel Gurung and myself, arrived in Amjilosa at the end of our first day of hiking. We’d flown for more than two days from North America, driven two days, and finally were walking up and down steep mountain trails following the path of a raging river. I had been sick and uncertain if I could make what would be a 38-mile trek with more than 32,000 feet of elevation change in six days. But God carried me to Amjilosa and then to the next villages after it.
As I rested on the hillside at the teahouse where we stayed that night, Megh, Matthew, and Brandy ministered to the three neighbors in the houses below. They delivered medicine, audio Bibles, and encouragement. “We told her (the daughter-in-law) that we would continue to pray for her, and that Jesus would reveal Himself to her again,” Brandy said.
Three days later, we were heading back into Amjilosa. We’d trekked up to Ghunsa, a village located at 11,200 feet beneath Mount Kumbhakarna (or Jannu) where we’ve befriended the village’s head Buddhist monk and his adult sons. It is a cold, dark place.
As I entered Amjilosa, I heard the late Charles Stanley’s voice reading Scripture. An audio Bible my teammates had left was playing. The encouragement was returned to us. “Let’s continue to pray for this lady in Amjilosa,” Brandy requested. The daughter-in-law was not the only one listening.
Our porters – Tshring, who also was with us last year, and Assok – seemed more open to the Gospel and joined us in times of prayer. “I will continue to pray for Buddhist people because I really believe a major work of God is needed before much fruit will be seen among them,” Matthew said. “Both in the areas C4C works and in other areas of Buddhist strongholds.”
Breakthrough prayer is required. Just as that daughter-in-law asked God for Christians to come to her village, we must ask God for Buddhists to be brought to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. We ask the Lord of the harvest to keep sending us to Kangchenjunga until we see the fruit of His labors.
When returning to Kathmandu after the trek, we were able to spend a day at our orphanage. The orphanage has two facilities, one for boys and the other for girls, housing a total of 40 children form the ages of 2 – 18 years of age. Pastor Tej Rokka, founder of SARA Ministries, was an orphan himself and now runs his own orphanage and has planted approximately 50 churches throughout Nepal and northern India.
Picture of Kathmandu Orphanage children, with Pastor Tej Rokka in the second row on the right.
Matthew provided medical treatment to a few children who were sick.
We also had the opportunity to spend some time with the church in India and hear testimonies of many miracles resulting in many people coming to Christ! It seems the church in India is growing in the same way the church did during Jesus’ ministry and that of his disciples immediately after Jesus’ ascension. As we met and heard the stories of believers they shared about much persecution, but also gave testimonies of peoples’ marriages being reconciled, physical healings, and hope being restored all from people gathering to pray. In India people are very aware of the spiritual realm as there are demons depicted in art on temples, house walls, bridges, schools, etc. People will often share that they were sick and called the Hindu priest to pray but they did not get better. They killed animals to offer sacrifices, but there was no change and now they have no more money. Then they meet a Christian, and they prayed, and they were healed. Some of our time was spent in the northern province of Punjab where there is currently a great revival among Sikh people. It’s so large that a reporter even wrote an article on this revival that made it into Time magazine. We saw evidence of this as the Pastor we were staying near was able to bring all but one of his neighbors in the small subdivision in which he lived (about 12 houses) into fellowship in his house church within about 3 years of moving there.
Time and time again the church in India modelled to us that Christ is their hope and that He is faithful.
Psalm 121: I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord - the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
May we continue to lift our eyes to the Maker of heaven and earth because He will watch over u, and He is faithful through every season in our life whether we are struggling through sickness, marriage problems, addictions, depression, or anything – lift our eyes to Jesus, He has us! Amen!
