Dearest Friends,
THE COST
When a person chooses to follow Jesus in Nepal, the expect to experience persecution. Usually, their families will disown them. They are expected to lose their inheritance. If they live in a village, they will be told that they are not allowed to use the well. This means that they will need to walk many miles to get water. People will look for any way to make their lives miserable.
Accepting Jesus marks you as an outcast. You are considered the lowest of human beings, with no social standing in the community. In some parts of Nepal, people have been jailed because they denied their traditional religion. Some people have lost their jobs and others have experienced divorce because they loved Jesus.
Considering, the price that many people pay for following Christ, it was especially sweet to hear so many adults call on Jesus. We heard many, many children asking God to rescue them. Please pray for all these new believers to stand strong in their faith. Ask the Lord to comfort them and to shield them from the atttacks of the enemy.
WHAT’S NEXT?
We always make plans to try and help the children to continue to hear the story of Jesus. We do not want our visit to be their only opportunity to hear about God’s love. I wrote about our last show which was in a very remote area. I left money so that our puppet team could return and show the Jesus Film. When Tik told them that he would be coming back to do this, they all became very excited. Apparently, someone had come more than a year ago to show them the film. However, the projector broke and they said they were all very anxious to hear how the film ended. This made me smile and cry because they knew so little about the story of Jesus. Tik carries a portable generator with him when he travels to these places because they have no electricity. They have never seen a movie. Imagine the first movie that you ever see is the story about how the living God wants to reveal Himself to you. Tik will be carrying Beanie Babies, little metal cars, and candy for the children. Please pray for this follow up visit. We want to see even more people in this village come to Jesus.
THE COATS
I want to thank all of you who bought coats for the children. I saw the place that Tik will visit to deliver the coats. Many of the houses were made of mud and very small. It is impossible for me to describe to you how poor these people are, these gifts will amaze them! We will also show the Jesus Film and do a program for the children. Please pray for these people to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
ON THE PLANE AND IN THE HOTEL
It takes us a combination of three flights to reach Kathmandu. On every one of our flights, we talked to people about Jesus. Some of them were very interested and some not so interested. Pray for all of them. God knows their names.
In Delhi, we have a long layover before we can board our last flight. There is a small hotel in the airport where we stay. The last young man who carried our bags from this hotel came to faith in Jesus. He moved this last year and handed off the job of meeting us to one of his friends. The young man was so happy to see us. His name is Nawab. He was so helpful and so very kind to us! He told us that he believed God sent us to him so that we could pray for him. I picked up a brand new Jesus Promise book in the Atlanta airport and gave it him after we prayed. When we returned from Nepal, he was waiting to help us again. He said that the words that he read in the book were the most beautiful words that he had read in his entire life. He was so happy with what he read that he loaned this book to his dear friend. Jolly gave him a Gideon Bible that she had that also included a plan of salvation. Please ask God to bless Nawab with understanding of the beautiful words that he is reading. Please hold him in your prayers.
In Jesus,
Linda for Jolly, TIk, and the Nepali Puppet Team