TWR-Nepal worker, Mohan Masihi, visits and baptizes believers in a remote village
(July 2009)

Simle is an interior and remotely isolated hilly area. The inhabitants of this area and surrounding villages are Magar ethnic people. Most of them believe in Hinduism and animism. They have their own ethnic mother tongue but understand and speak Nepali very well. They are backward, illiterate, and poor and most of them are farmers. Life in this area is very difficult and tough. Poverty is one of the greatest problems here. Despite – or perhaps because of – this, they are very open to the gospel.

Yagya, a volunteer and fruit of the TTB Nepali program, is now leading the TTB listeners in his area where 60-70 believers attend. In fact, he and his congregation consider TWR as their pastor that not only led them to the Lord but is still nurturing and caring for them with God’s Word. Our main purpose for the visit was to meet his congregation, encourage them in God’s Word, and baptize them.

On 3 April 2009, I and Simon Subba, the Nepal National Director, started our journey to Simle, which is 80 km away from the TWR-Nepal office. We started our travels at 10am and only reached our target place at 7pm. The road was straight up till we reached our destination. After walking around four hours, we reached a small village where villagers gave us water to drink, even though they had to carry it for 2 hours so as to reach us. We were exhausted physically but happy in the Spirit as we were thinking of His great work in that remote, isolated area.

The next morning, around 60 people came from far villages after walking 4-6 hours to worship with us. Ninety-percent of these believers were our regular listeners who received the Lord Jesus and are currently being nurtured by listening to the TTB program. Our volunteer, Yagya, takes care of and leads them. Seeing their love and devotion for the Lord challenged our faith and forced us to check our life in the Lord. We were encouraged and refreshed.

We gave a baptism class for those who wanted to have a baptism. Ten people were taken to the river, and I and Yagya conducted the water baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

After the baptisms, we had a worship fellowship. All the participants sang songs and praised Him in spirit and in truth. During the service, Krishna Bahadur shared his testimony with tears of gratitude and joy. He remembered the day he and his family accepted the Lord through the radio programs, mainly TTB. He had faced lots of sufferings and persecutions, but he never departed from the Lord even though it was a great risk. He remembered how the TTB programs were with him to nurture and comfort him and his family and lead him as he started to grow from an infant to teenager in the Lord. He was happy to see the TWR team and happy to see a lot of believers worship with him, even those who were once against the Lord.

Then Simon Subba shared a challenging message of encouragement and comfort. Soon after, we partook in the Lord’s Supper together and all were involved in the remembrance of Jesus’ broken body and blood.