Growing a Network in the Lockdown

Kathmandu is the capital city of Nepal, perched in the valleys of the mighty Himalayas! Kathmandu is acclaimed to be a city of inexhaustible historic, artistic and cultural interest, albeit one of the least developed capital cities in the world. Much like the rest of the world, the pangs of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced Kathmandu into a lockdown. There is a lack of infrastructure and testing protocols to carry out extensive COVID-19 tests and hence, Nepal as a whole has been reporting relatively fewer cases as compared to the numbers reported by its neighbour India.

Despite the relatively lower numbers, strict guidelines against religious gatherings have been announced by the government in Kathmandu forcing all churches to put a halt to meeting physically.

CTC Nepal's two-fold response to the pandemic

But in a season like this, a small group of CTCAP church planters and leaders have risen to their calling and banded together to make the best of the lockdown. Subash Pradhan, the CTCAP Network Leader for Nepal, has been at the forefront of adopting a two-fold strategy to respond to the pandemic: the first is to build up and equip a strong gospel community in Kathmandu, and the second is aimed at aiding the city with relief and social work.

1 - Raising up a Nepalis Gospel Community

After attending the CTCAP Asia Intensive 2019 in Taipei, Subash felt a tug at his heart to share his own gospel journey with the local pastors, leaders with the view to raising potential future church planters in his city. In the pandemic, he felt it was the perfect time to answer the call and he did so by joining hands with others who share the same passion and call. Together with Timothy KC (attended Asia Intensive 2019), Nawal Siwakoti (attended Asia Intensive 2020) and Mitra Dangol (prospective Intensive observer) Subash initiated two programs: a Gospel Renewal Study Group and a Learning Community Group.

Pastors Subash Pradhan (left) and Timothy KC (right) dedicate most of their time during the lockdown to the ministry of teaching and training in gospel renewal via Zoom groups to empower the believers and leaders in Nepal in bringing about a gospel revolution.

Gospel Renewal Study Group
This is an online group of teenagers, young working professionals and even a few pastors who gather every morning from Monday to Friday to discover the deeper truths of gospel and what that means for their lives and city. Subash and his team have been teaching on faith, repentance, idolatry, sonship, apologetics & biblical worldview and Christ-centered biblical interpretation. Word spread about this group and about 60-65 participants have been tuning in on a regular basis with the goal of a radical gospel renewal in the city. The beauty of the online nature of the Zoom platform that they are leveraging is that it allows participants to join in not just from Kathmandu but also from the cities of Pokhara and Chitwan and others from all over Nepal, and a few even from Malaysia, the US and Dubai. A few prospective church planters have been identified through this study group and we believe that this is truly driving towards a Nepalis gospel movement!

Acts 2:42 reads, "They [the believers] spent their time learning from the apostles, and they were like family to each other."* This is the gospel in action!

*Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Learning Community Group
There is a second group - this one comprises key leaders, senior pastors and NGO leaders who meet online to read and study books to build a gospel network in the city of Kathmandu. It is a space where leaders are encouraged to come together in reading and discussing ideas and insights with each other. They have studied two books so far: Gospel in Life and Prodigal God. The group is set to start another book today - Counterfeit Gods. As of now, two prospective church planters have been recruited from this group.

The gospel movement is growing in Nepal and people are loving it. On the first day of our Learning Community Group, we had a time of reflection after Pastor Timothy KC shared about how the covenant that God made with Abraham is linked to the cross where God made a new covenant with us through Jesus. A few pastors in the group were so touched by this revelation and were moved to tears.” Pastor Subash pointed that in all the years of ministry, the pastors in the group had not realized the connection of Jesus in the Old Testament.”

2 - Community relief work

Some of the most affected people in the community are the daily wage earners who have not been able to earn a living since the lockdown has been declared. The church community in Kathmandu has partnered with local governing bodies to gather as much aid as the Lord blesses them with.

The Gathering Church (planted by Timothy KC)  distributed relief packages to 15 families in the community. The package contained 20kg of rice, lentil, soaps and other groceries.

Dhapakhel Baptist Church supported 40 families of daily wage workers with rations and essential supplies. They did this in collaboration with local government agencies who are helping with relief and aid in the pandemic. Nawal Siwakoti is a part of this church.