Written Feb 9th
As we partner with Prison Fellowship Nepal, our team had the unique experience to visit one of Kathmandu’s prisons.
We drove over in the van and left all of our belongings in the car. I traded numbers with the driver and we walked a few feet to the entrance. Since the prison is near the center of the city, the prison was packed on all sides by government buildings. Because of this the prison didn’t fit the standard image of razor wire, large walls and moats. We were directed to one side by a guard holding an automatic weapon. It was immediately clear that God was watching out for us as we had all left our ID in the van which had driven away. Our contact showed the guard a piece of paper and with a few stares and tense conversations in Nepali we were searched thoroughly (they checked every card in my wallet) and let through.
In this area there were two independent prisons operating. The common area was filled with police, motorcycles, guards, and family members of prisoners. Our contact told us we were going to talk to a few Christian international prisoners. So he split us boys and girls (I was not a fan of this), led the girls to one prison meeting place and took Kelly and I to the other. We sat and waited for our turn.
After about five minutes we were Kelly and I were escorted to one side of a half wall and told to wait. A few seconds later a white man with a french accent sat down and we had a nice chat. We talked about his family, his faith, why we were here, why he was there, and after about fifteen minutes he got up and left. I’m not sure if he ever told us his name. Only in the Kingdom of God can two American 20-somethings sit down and encourage a 33 year old Christian, french drug dealer in a prison in Kathmandu.
As he left another took his place. John was about 65 years old, his wiry frame and white hair covered by a sweat shirt and beanie. Because we assumed we were talking to a fellow believer, Kelly and I dove right in and began to tell him about our trip, asked how we could encourage him and so on. After we had to pause to take a breath, John politely reminded us that we had assumed he was a Christian. Well, he wasn’t. He explained that he believed in Darwinism and evolution. Woops.
So John dove into what he believed. He told us about the evils of religion, he mentioned names like Froid, Marx, Darwin, and . He talked about the ignorance of reformed Christianity, the dichotomy of science and god, he talked of moral relativity, big bang theory and universalism. I’m guessing this was the normal ploy he uses to scare missionaries. Most people get pretty nervous when some one mentions astrophysics, or quantum mechanics. Well, I don’t.
As the conversation continued, I think he was perplexed to find that I understood what he was talking about and was even able to offer counter arguments. He eventually asked what I studied, and of course responded Mathematics. His entire tone changed. He asked if I had studied astrophysics, while I’ve not studied astrophysics I have studied mathematical physics (the solid foundation of all modern physics). Suddenly I went from ignorant missionary to intellectual superior. He talked about the magnitude of the universe and the smallness of humanity, and I gave him the correct estimates. He talked about synthetic life and I explained that I’ve read the paper. He talked about religion and I agreed and compared it to established Darwinism. He was bewildered that after studying all of these things, that I still came to him as a follower of Christ. I explained my journey and what had brought me to the other side of the world. That I’ve turned aside from the career for a while to chase after a peasant revolutionary from the badlands of Israel. That social justice and Jesus was not a dichotomy. That the truth of Christ and the Kingdom of God is the only thing I could find that wrapped all truth together, from AIDS to the anglican church to string theory to jazz music to the supernatural and evolution.
John is not what I expected to find in the Kathmandu prison. I would have expected to have that conversation at a public university in the states or a unitarian universalist gathering. I expected to talk about Jesus and maybe even correct some flawed theology, but not string theory. It was evident that God was putting me in John’s path for a reason. It was clear that John didn’t expect me either.
“A king’s existence is demonstrated by way of subjection and submissiveness. Do you want to try and demonstrate that the king exists? Will you do so by offering a string of proofs, a series of arguments? No. If you are serious, you will demonstrate the king’s existence by your submission, by the way you live. And so it is with demonstrating God’s existence. It is accomplished not by proofs but by worship. Any other way is but a thinker’s pious bungling. “ -Søren Kierkegaard
I’d like to say that there was a grand conversion there in the middle of the prison. But there wasn’t. I’ve come to the reality that you can never argue a person to faith. There is not a five point presentation, a logical proof of the existence of and love of God. I wish I could go back and sit down with him. Build a relationship. Show him the difference between a follower and a worshiper of Christ.
