Nepal

Bishwas Thapa, a 10-year-old boy who has been regularly attending a children’s fellowship for the last year, received a children’s Bible during a distribution event. His mother, Kamala, was attracted by the colorful pictures and began to read the Bible herself. Through this Bible, both Bishwas and Kamala came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Anisha and Ashish, who married early in 2023, went to a local church in search of healing from demonic spirits that harassed Ashish. Church members prayed for them, and Ashish was healed. The newlyweds began to read the Bible they had received at the church and soon wanted to place their trust in Jesus Christ. When Ashish’s parents found the Bible, they insisted that the young couple renounce Christ and stop going to church. Ashish agreed, but Anisha did not.

When Manju’s husband became a follower of Christ, Manju and their children were very opposed to his faith and berated him to abandon it. But in May 2023, a pastor asked her to watch a film about Jesus. He installed a memory card with several videos on her phone. The family began to watch these films, calling the pastor to explain parts they did not understand. Manju invited the pastor to her house one day. While he was there, 14-year-old Sharda was watching one of the videos by herself when she experienced a demonic attack.

On Aug. 30, 2023, three churches in one district were attacked in the daytime by groups of 20-25 people each. One Christian leader reported that the groups pelted the buildings with stones and bricks, causing damage to windows, doors and gates. The groups chanted Hindu religious slogans during the attacks.

Jitendra is the only Christian in his family, and he earns daily wages as a driver. When his parents, who are wealthy, divided their property among their children, they did not give him anything because of his decision to follow Christ.

Pastor Bhim Tamang, 63, was visiting a new believer in Christ and sharing the Word of God with him on Sept. 4 when a group of Hindu radicals burst into the home. They hit Bhim, broke his hearing aid, burned his Bible and warned him to stop preaching. Police officers arrived to protect Bhim and his colleagues, but the radicals pushed through and smeared black paint on Bhim’s face. The police believed that, due to the aggressiveness of the radicals, Bhim and his colleagues would not be safe at the local station, so they took the Christians to district headquarters.

Five years ago, Bindu and her three children put their faith in Christ, becoming the first Christians in their village. Bindu’s husband, Hari, is strongly Hindu and actively tried to stop them from going to church. On Christmas day 2021, while Bindu and the children were preparing to attend a Christmas celebration, he began to beat them, knocking one of his daughters unconscious and chasing them out of the home. Bindu and her daughters decided to return home, and the persecution and abuse continued. Hari tried many times to open a case for divorce and finally left the village.

Local Hindus vandalized a church in an isolated area of Nepal recently and threatened its pastor, but the church continues to meet for worship and fellowship. When a group of Hindus busted the church’s windows with rocks in the middle of the night, the pastor, Amrit Mahara, began sleeping in the church to protect it from further damage. A short time later, the Hindus interrupted a worship service to demand that the church stop meeting.

Shiva and Kamleshor are leaders of a group of 20 Christians who have been meeting for fellowship in a Maithili-speaking region of Nepal. On June 24, a group of more than 40 Hindu radicals surrounded the home where they were meeting to threaten and mock them, live-streaming their abusive actions on social media for three hours. These brothers were discouraged but thankful for the body of Christ remembering them in prayer.

Pastor Amar Thapa reported that he received 25 Maithili language SD cards two months ago through one of VOM’s projects. Six Hindu monks in one of the villages in the district where he was working watched a video from the SD cards and learned about Jesus Christ.