So this month’s ministry has been insanely wonderful! We have had the opportunity to be involved in so many different communities. Our ministry this past Friday was especially incredible, as we got to visit with 6 refugee families here in the Kathmandu area.
Many families flee to Nepal for various reasons because of Nepal’s uncomplicated visa process. So, initially the families that seek asylum here are here legally for a period of time but when that said amount of time is up (usually 30 days) they stay because there is no where else to go and they rack up huge fines while they wait for permission to move to another country long term. In essence, they are in this weird legal limbo unable to provide for their families because they aren’t allowed to work, they don’t know the language (Nepali) so they can’t exactly find a community of friends at all, their kids are unable to go to school because the families can’t afford to send them and even if they had money in their home country Nepal doesn’t allow for any significant amount of foreign currency to cross in or out of its borders.
The day started out with having lunch with our dear friend, Zaogun, who is from Myanmar. He moved here 6 years ago to escape from the government corruption and to allow for his family to find a new life somewhere where they could freely worship the Christian God. He came over the Nepal before his wife and kids in order to try to find work and a home for them to settle in to. After a year of living on the streets, he finally found a job at a restaurant and I have to say that he makes the best MoMo’s ever!! (MoMo’s are a Nepali version of Chinese dumplings…delicious). He is constantly filled with joy and takes every opportunity possible to share the truth and love that Jesus Christ offers. One of my favorite stories he shared was when he first came to Nepal. He was homeless and didn’t know any Nepali aside from simple greetings. He met two Nepali men that (through hand motions and limited English) asked why he was reading his bible and if Zaogun could share the gospel with them. Knowing that it would be a nearly impossible task to be able to share the gospel with them without a common language, he agreed to do so the next day. ALL NIGHT he stayed up and prayed for God to help him share the gospel with these 2 men in some way. The next morning they arrived to meet Zaogun, and the Lord provided him with enough of a supply of knowledge regarding the Nepali language that he was effectively able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with these 2 men and they both gave their lives to the Lord, and are now serving the Kathmandu area as pastors.
After we had lunch with this incredible man and his family, he took us to another Myanmar family of refugees then two Sri Lankan families. Every single person we met was so hospitable and welcomed us into their quaint homes with loads and loads of milk tea, biscuits and prayers.
My purpose for writing this blog however was to introduce you to the last two families we met, who literally changed my life. Let me first share that after meeting with 4 refugee families we were already about 2 hours over the amount of time we were suppose to be at ministry and I (along with the rest of the team) were completely exhausted. The ministry day before (Christmas Day) had lasted 11 hours and none of us were exactly looking forward to 2 more house visits followed by an hour and a half long bus ride home. However, all of our attitudes completely changed when we met these families.
The first head of the house that we met, was Asif. Asif and his family (as well as the other family) are from Pakistan and moved here last year after facing a lot of religious persecution….A LOT. As he told us his story I literally had to hold back tears and if you know me, im not one for crying. Back in Pakistan, Asif and a friend of his started a non profit organization that focused on providing aid to those effected by the war, mostly orphans and widows. It was founded on a lot of his Christian morals because of his love for Christ and desire to follow the example he set but the organization itself did not evangelize, or have any association with Christianity.
Asif’s business partner’s brother, who was jealous of the attention and success of this nonprofit, found out that Asif was a strong Christian and without any evidence, cause or true claims he went to a mosque in Asif’s hometown and announced to everyone there that Asif had “Blasphemed against Muhammad”. Within a couple hours, there were over a thousand members round up in a rage against this innocent man that none of them actually knew and they all went to his business and burned it down. Asif, who was with his pregnant wife in the hospital at the time, got a call from a friend warning him that this mob of people believed he had blasphemed against Muhammad, and he immediately got his family to move location so they too would not be targeted. In Pakistan, there is no need to present evidence when the accusation is Blasphemy so when Asif was presented with the legal papers of his formal accusation (which we actually got to see the original copy of) he was presented with two choices. Leave the country, or be hanged until dead. So, he and his family left everything behind including their homes, friends and earnings (because you can’t transfer or carry foreign currency through Nepal) to Nepal which was the only country they could legally get into on such short notice.
Asif was so generous in telling us his story and sharing with us the trials he and his family went through…he even got out all of the legal papers he had on his accusation, the history on his countries current political issues and facts on Christian persecution he used to apply for asylum in Nepal and pictures he had proving the persecution he and his family fled from was real. He handed us pictures of two friends of his (Pakistani pastors) detailing their brutal deaths one being beaten by extremists and the other burned alive. Even though the pictures were hard to stomach, they represented the truth of what it takes to truly live in a place where satan has such a strong hold that freedom of any sort for the Christian community is nearly non existent. I know from the apostle paul’s letters that we are to stand strong in the face of persecution, but having grown up in America its never been as real to me as it was when I listened to Asif’s first hand experience.
In awe, our whole team sat and listened to Asif, his family and his best friends family as they all told us about what they ran away from and how God had provided for them in so many ways. Even though they went from living a luxurious lifestyle to sleeping in one freezing cold cement room unable to provide for themselves, they gave thanks to God over and over because they were alive and they were together. After a couple of hours of listening, fellowshipping, and singing praises to God in both English and Urdu our team left and headed to the main road to find some taxi’s (because we stayed way late and missed all the buses haha).
On the long walk back, I got to continue to talk to Asif one on one and he said something that I’ll never forget. I asked him if he was angry with the people that made him and his family leave their home, leave Pakistan. His reply was….No, I love my country and I love my country’s people. Jesus asked his father to forgive those that persecuted him because they did not truly know what they were doing. If he can forgive us, I can forgive them. We can re-earn and re-build what we had in Pakistan and even if we can never find a job or live legally here, earth was never meant to be anything more than temporary.
You guys, how true are these words?!?!?! It blows my mind that he and his family have not only forgiven, but have found love for the ones who forced them to leave Pakistan yet I have trouble forgiving those around me for simple things that were never even meant for my frustration. I hope that my experience hearing and learning from these families encourages you to look at those in your life whom you need to forgive aswell. Matthew 5: 23-24 says 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. God wants us to follow him, but for our own benefit he has us take care of our hearts first so that we can resist distraction from the enemy and go hard for him in his kingdom.
As we enter this new year and the second half of my world race, Ive decided to truly take this advice to heart and allow for God to use me in an entirely different way. Instead of allowing the enemy to infiltrate my race and steal my joy, I am choosing to forgive and follow after Jesus so freaking hard. The fact that I only have 5 months left on this journey is certainly dawning on me and there is no way that I’m gonna lose any more of my race consumed in anger or frustration towards my past, my present, my situations, my discomfort. Instead I chose to forgive and go hard for Christ. I chose life.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and don’t forget to…
FORGIVE and GO HARD
