Pt 4- Nepal: Prem Pradhan's Legacy

Here’s Pt 4 of Journey with Prem Pradhan, one of Nepal’s 1^st apostles: spent many years in jail simply for being a Christian, but turned his jail cell into an apostolic center from which the Good News rang out freedom throughout his nation.

About 10 years ago, Prem went home to be with Jesus. He fought the good fight, ran his course and passed the baton to his Timothy, Sundar Thapa. Sundar also came to our church in Canada, stayed in our home for a week and spoke to the church of Abbotsford right in our present City Hall! He now leads a growing fellowship of over 1000 churches, a Bible Training Centre, schools and orphanages.

Nepal has gone through revolution: both political and spiritual. In 2001, one of the princes massacred 10 of his own royal family, including the king and queen, sending shock waves through a once invincible traditional ruling hierarchy. Today, those who once rebelled against the Hindu kingdom are in power: Maoist communists control a parliament trying to govern a bitterly divided nation. The traditional religions have lost much of their respect and control, but Christ’s Church has multiplied throughout the land. Where there were once no known Christians 60 years ago, now hundreds of thousands (some estimate up to 3 million = 10% of the Nepalese population!) follow Christ and fill the streets of Kathmandu in Jesus Marches, witnessing and proclaiming the gospel!

Sundar told me that the situation had so changed in his nation that instead of persecuting Christians, the new government had approached him, as one of the acknowledged Christian Evangelical leaders, to give his input on helping rewrite the constitution! A far cry from the prevailing sentiments of most Western governments! However, Hindu extremists continue to utter death threats against him, his family and the work of Christ.

Two years ago when I 1^st visited Nepal, I met personally with Sundar and was able to see some of the fruit of Prem’s legacy first-hand. I was especially impressed by the orphanage: the children were so well cared for; they wore warm, clean clothes, looked healthy and even danced out a worship song for me. After 30 years, some of the original ‘orphans’ had now become its leaders. The torch had been passed down throughout the ranks. During these next weeks, I hope to reconnect with Sundar again.