 From the E-desk of
Bhaju Ram Shrestha
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Miracle or Black Magic? Stories Stranger than Fiction
Story 1
Riding on the rockaby bus on the
dusty road of the mountain top I came to a village called Dapcha with my intern
pastor friend Pukar Shrestha.. When we arrived in the village, I found it was a
sleepy place. The shops were closed and some people seem to be walking lazily
around. It was once a lively village but due to the new high way made by
Japanese down below the mountain, this village lost the luster of life.
However, there were still houses and cluster of villages. In fact Dapcha is
just 6 kilometer behind the world famous
Buddhist learning center, Namobuddha where I got to make two learned Buddhist
nuns as my sisters-one from Malaysia and another from Bhutan.
Dapcha is situated about 30 km from my
village Dhulikhel or 55 km from Kathmandu. But the two hours hard ride from my
village tells it must be 300 kilometer. Were I a pregnant, I would have deliver
a baby because of thumpty thump and rocky ride. But as I arrived in the village,
at first I was mesmerized by the imposing majestic Himalaya Mountains. Though
it was hundreds of miles away from me, I
could stretch my invisible long hands toward it and hug it by saying
“Thank you Lord for the beautiful 3 D art.”
I heard much about this village since I was
a child but this time I went to this village not because of the village itself
but because of what was in the village. My friend Pukar took me to a small
Tamang Budhist village where there was a cluster of a dozen houses having a
Buddhist flag sticking up in the middle of the village showing who is the
center of the village. At the edge of the village, looking over the mountains
were small attached houses. In one of those houses there dwelt a small family
that I heard much about it. It was the mother Sita of this house that
constrained me to come in this village.
Five years ago, Sita and her family were
like any villagers in the village. They worshipped their traditional religion-Hindu
and Buddhists gods and goddesses. Her husband drank, smoke as the culture and
religion gave license to do it. Her two daughters and a son went to the village
school just like any children. They had goats that were tended seven days a
week. Life seemed to be as normal as any villager there was. Name of Jesus was
shunned by this family as most other do. For out of 660 million gods and
goddesses, why would they need Jesus who is treated as a foreign God anyway?
Then one day thing happened that made u-turn of their life.
Sita
got little infection in her right finger. She tried to treat it locally as any
person do. But the little infection showed its ugly face as she had to go to
the Dhulikhel hospital to do a small surgery. Sita came home after the surgery,
but something happened after a few days. She experienced poison being shooting
out of that surgeried finger into her entire palm making it stiff and
unmovable. The poison spread into her right arm making it paralyzed slowly.
Terrorized by never be able to use her hand for daily chores of cooking, taking
care of family and goats and spreading her loving arms toward the children, she
went to the state of depression. The loving husband tried to do what he could
to soothe her, the children tried to comfort her, the neighbors tried to cast
pity on her. She spent days and months crying and crying and sleepless.
“Offer chickens to gods and goddesses” her neighbors suggested. So she
did. “Go to the shamans, witch doctors.” So she followed their advice. Over 50
chickens were offered, lots of not-have money were spend on trying to appease
the witch doctors, gods and goddesses. They took her surviving income away but
not her disease. She went to one doctor after another, one hospital after
another. “You have to cut your arm, if you want to live” was the 20th
century doctors advice she received from the hospitals.
Heavily discouraged, she knew she came to the end of her rope of life.
Her husband was (and still is) the truck driver for a village merchant with not
much salary. On top of that the smoking and drinking had made his pocket with
more holes. Sita knew she was dying as the pain terrorized her body.
Then one day.
Someone told her, “Why not go to the church?”
Church that she knew in the village was not a building with imposing
sign of the cross but a small company led by a man who was healed from mental
torture that he had for several years. This man too had gone through all kinds
of treatment and not finding relief, he finally went to Banepa where the
mission hospital was there. He worked as a porter in a village and went to the
church on Sabbath. With much prayer and fellowship, he got healed and now he
became a formidable believer in Jesus. But only one who eats an orange would know its taste, not many in
the village had the taste of Jesus. So he had a small company in his home where
they met every Sabbath.
Someone suggesting Sita to go to the church seemed to be her last hope
of survival. She talked with her husband. He said, “Well, if going to church will
do any good, you go, but when you go don’t stop going there. I and our children
will not go to the church.” That was fine approval. Her schooled girls said the same thing, “Mom,
you go to the church, we will not go.”
So doggedly, she went to the room where a small group of believers were
having Sabbath service. She was welcomed whole heartedly. There was no image of
gods and goddesses. Her mind was full of images of gods and goddesses and witch
doctors and modern doctors. As she started to attend the fellowship, she knew
all those things had to be emptied out of her heart and mind. She sat in the
middle and the believers began to pray for her. Within a couple of Sabbath, she
was able to sleep restfully for the first time in several months. As she
started to go to church, her dead fingers of right palms started to be revived
and she was able to move them. Then the arm began to move slowly. Within a few
months, she experienced the healing touch of Jesus and she was able to move her
arms. Miracle outstated the black magic and witch doctors! Her joy returned and
told around her healing to her village
friends and relatives. Flood of tears
rolled down from their eyes they listened to her.
“Hey! What is in the church that made my wife healed?" The question
ran like missiles in her husband’s mind. Then the man who abused his body
through deadly habit, went to the fellowship with intention just to peep into
it. That first peep was powerful enough to peep more till all his wrong habit
being thrown out and joined his wife in believing Jesus. Then the holy temptation to see what is in
the church gripped her eldest daughter, then to the second daughter, then to
the small boy.
Yes, today, I found they were one of the most committed believers of
Jesus I ever found. They are so strong in wanting to follow the teaching of the
Bible that even the goats take rest on Sabbath. They stay in their manger and
eat the foliage and grass that were brought by the end of Thursday. Sita’s
daughters Sunita and Sarita are leading a small church now. Because of Sita’s
testimony over a dozen accepted Jesus. Sunita,the high school graduate wants to
go to Spicer to study theology. The young daughter, Sarita who is in tenth
grade wants to do the same. “Because of my mother’s hands we came to love
Jesus.” Sunita and Sarita have been proudly testifying to the churches and
other occasions.
“I can leave my family, but never Jesus.” Said Sita as the tears rolled
down on this scribe. “I want nothing but my family be remaining strong and true
to Jesus.” She added. Uneducated, she does not know how to read and write. But
she listens to AWR radio program voiced by Pr. Umesh Kumar Pokherel. She feels
enriched in Jesus as she listens to it.
Sita is a proof that the faith lies not in the great learning but in the
heart.
Presently, I took a firebrand
retired Korean Church pastor who has been helping to build the church there.
The land was bought by the personal money from the man who go healed in the
church. The loving and committed
Adventists from the Banepa
hospital Church
How much the dream of the Mother Sita to
make her children and community continue
to grow strong in knowledge and faith in
Jesus Christ is yet to be seen by those who like to bear one another’s burden
(Gal 6:1).
Sita displaying her healed hand
as she shares her testimony
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Sita her daughter Sarita,Sunita
and cousin Anita who lead the church service
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Ran Bahadur shows the land for
the church
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Imposing Himalayas over the sea
of mountains viewed from Dapcha
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Story 2:
It was time for this scribe to
have a new day pack. So he went around shopping in the town. He prayed, “Lord,
you know I need a new day pack.” “I know” God seemed to reply. Anyway he went
for the window shopping. Of course, there were many inexpensive but soon to be
worn out bags in the market. Then he got into a shop that sold strong bags and
suitcases. He liked the one and asked the price. As soon as he heard the price,
he nearly got electrocuted. The shop keeper said, “Rs. 8000 or $80”. Saying
“Thanks” he walked out and deciding to decide not to buy a bag for time being.
Then one day his Spicer professor’s
daughter with her husband, sister and friends came to visit Nepal . He went
to Banepa church with them in their hotel van. He took them briskly to the much
talked about city of Bhaktapur after the church service in Banepa. It was
evening when the trip was over. As this scribe was saying good bye, his Spicer
friend Sally pulled out something from the car and handed over to him. It was
the day pack! He asked her, “How did you know, I needed a bag?” “The Holy
Spirit told me” was the quick reply. Not only that she gave him some warm socks
that made his Christmas present for him and his family.
“You walk with Me, I will walk
with you” How can a person misses out this loving and tenderly words of Jesus?
Story 3
“I am looking for someone who can
write a series of life of teaching of Jesus Christ in my e-newspaper, will you
be interested to write? You won’t get any money of course.” Said the human
right activist and the Hindu editor and author to this scribe. “Wow!” this
scribe thought. “People spend so much money to spread out the Good News about
Jesus. And here I got to do it without any cost except my time.” “I will think
about it.” He said to the editor. “Please consider it to write. I like your
ideas” requested the editor.
This scribe has been virtually swimming in
own solitude world. His mind is like the restless sea lamenting like Apostle
Paul having no like minded (Philip 2:20) to share what goes on in his mind. Burdened to produce many materials to feed
the sheep and lambs as Apostle Peter requested the church, he had hardly time
to produce food for the goats. Yet, goats too are God’s creatures. So after much prayer and skeptically, he
wrote to first article on Jesus and sent to him. He liked it and published it
in his secular e-news (www.enepalikhabar.com). The feed back from the first article was from
a Bhramin person “I like the article, please continue to write so that we can
know more about the religion of Jesus.”
The editor requested to write the articles in both in English and in Nepali so
that both language group could read them.
It has been several weeks since he started to write. A militant Hindu
protested him, “Why are you giving space to Bhaju Ram in your newspaper?” The
editor replied, “I am a journalist. I give space to every body including you.”
Interestingly this man has been writing article against Christians in the same
newspaper. This scribe wrote four issues on Birth of Christ. He wrote the
article on why Nepali politicians are having problem. He wrote on Daniel two to
address the issue. Every thing he writes the editor publishes. Unfortunately he
is still the NSL (Nepali as a second
language) and EFL (English as a fourth language) student. So he had to pray
that the reader would wink at the dissonance English and Nepali in articles. Due to the deadline and several
things, he had to write the article in hurry several times giving no chance to
the second person to correct the languages.
He got the press ID card as a columnist so that he could go to people in
all walks of life as a reporter. The latest article: Jesus gets lost:
Story 4
Neither the freedom of conscious
is constitutionalized nor the production of Sabbath School lesson is
institutionalized, yet both Patronized by God, this scribe produced the first
quarter SS lesson on discipleship for 2014 written by Dan Solis. He has bee
producing this Bible study guide for the last 8 years purely on faith base. At
the end of translation, he comes in tet-a-tet with the Lord saying, “Here I
finished it. Now it is your headache. If I don’t get to publish it, I will just
make a few photocopies and circulated to the church where I attend.” Since the
Lord is the only One who loves complaining, He does seem to mind this scribe’s
threat. So far He has been helping through the Adventists who are the most
generous of all Christians (EGW),he hopes that that will continue as 2014 moves
on and so does his age.
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Discipleship Cover Page
Story 5 and final for now:
“Thank you for sending your
publications. Because of your materials and the Bible study that I am giving
two Nepalese Bhutanese refugees have accepted to be baptized into the Adventist Church
Final word for now:
Every work I do,
every friend I make. I like to be able to say, “Won’t it be wonderful to go to
heaven with these people who learned to come to close to Jesus through my
passionate work for Him?”
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