Gopal
I met Gopal when I was walking back from a coffee shop that I was at with some of my teammates. He was sitting by the side of the road that I was walking down. When I caught his eye he came running up to me. It is not uncommon here for Nepali men and boys to approach Americans just to practice their english. So Gopal and I started walking down the street together, talking just so he could practice. Little did we know that God had bigger plans for our conversation. Gopal starting asking me questions like, “How many of y’all are there?” and “What are y’all doing here?”. This kick started our conversation about the mission work we had planned for his country.
After our small talk about ministry, I felt the urge to ask him if he knew who Jesus was. Since Nepal is a religiously heavy country he had a good idea of who Jesus was, but I got a chance to further his understanding of Jesus and tell him what exactly Jesus did on the cross for him. By this time, Gopal and I had stopped walking and were just standing in the middle of the street. After our semi-heavy conversation, Gopal was just staring off into the distance. I could tell the gears were turning in his head. To end our talk I asked him if he had a bible which he respond with a yes. So I asked him to go home and read the Gospel of Mark and if he saw me again to tell me what he thought about it. After this I put my hand on his shoulder, said a small prayer with him, and then we parted ways. It’s been almost 3 weeks now and I have not seen Gopal since, but I hope he went home and read Mark. I know God used our conversation in his life in some way.
Rab
I got the amazing opportunity to meet Rab through some of the girls on my squad. One night at our debrief worship session, Juliana and Morgan stood up to make an announcement that they had meet a man earlier that day and started sharing Jesus with him. The man wanted to meet up with them again the next day and discuss Christianity with them even further. They asked if a guy could accompany them the next day. Jack and I volunteered to tag along. We all met Rab that next day in his hookah shop in the middle of Thamel.
Rab was a fairly established business man owning a restaurant, hostel, and the hookah store where he even exported pipes and bongs to the northern parts of United States. Us four Americans and Rab all sat together in his restaurant and discussed the different religions in Nepal and what they meant. He would tell us about the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and we would tell him about the cross. By the time we left we had gotten the chance to go through the whole story of the gospel with him as a team. Before leaving, we all gathered around and laid hands on him. We prayed that God would call him to do his work here in the nation of Nepal.
Goviedu
After ministry one day as we were walking back to the bus station, Goviedu, a high schooler, approached me on the streets. He had pretty broken english but we stumbled our way through a conversation. Our discussion was pretty similar to the one I had with Gopal. We exchanged names and ages. Again I felt the urge to ask him if he knew who Jesus was. Just like Gopal, being from Nepal he had an idea of who Jesus was but didn’t know anything about him. So we walked down the side walk together and I got to tell him about Jesus. Before I left I got to give him a card I had made a week earlier with some scripture on it and the words “Jesus Loves you”.
Domodarsherma
I met Domodarsherma at one of our squads favorite restaurants in Nepal. If I had to guess, he was about 55 years old and was all about politics, including America’s. He loved Donald Trump and had an opinion about everything. Our conversation started with him when four of my team members and I all set down for dinner. He was sitting at the table behind us and asked us where we were from as we were sitting down to eat. We told him we were from America and we are here doing mission work. So he asked “OH, so y’all are Christians?”. We told him yes and asked if he was religious. He told us he was Hindu but he respected all religions as everyone should and if you want to be a Christian here in Nepal that’s fine but you should not tell people that your religion is the only way to get to Heaven.
He also kept quoting Matthew 22:39 and saying, “Jesus told us himself that we should just love one another as you love yourself”… So Tate and I told him that is true, but Jesus also tells us the we should love the Lord your God with all that you are and that you should have no other gods before him. Needless to say, we had an excellent discussion with him and left with much respect for each other. But before he left I made a deal with him that if he would go home and read the Gospel of John that I would go back and study the Hindu religion. I have held up my end of the deal and I hope he held up his.
I never saw these guys again but I was told later that Rab messaged one of the girls on our squad and told her he wanted to feel Jesus. Domodarsherma’s friend told us that they enjoyed our conversation so much that they would like to meet up with our squad again and continue our discussion over religion. All I can do now is pray that God sends more people into their lives to continue what he has already started.
