India Mission Trip
Lake Forest Church
Northern Himalayas, 2006
Introduction
This is a journal written during a trip that Charles McGalliard and I (Steve Brumm) made to the Himalayan Mountain region of India in the fall of 2006. It was my second trip to this area. The first trip was with Mitch White three years earlier. I also wrote a journal about the 2003 trip which provides background information that would be helpful in understanding the things I talk about in this journal.
We went to India on behalf of Lake Forest Church with the primary purpose of
evaluating the progress and needs of a training center for pastors that was
started as a result of the first trip.
The curriculum for the training center was from an organization called Bible
Training Center for Pastors (BTCP) that was actually started by Pastor Mike
Moses’ uncle. I would like to thank
Bob Dyer, Don Meredith and the others at Joe Gibbs Racing for the significant
financial support
they have provided to this ministry.
We went to India on behalf of Lake Forest Church with the primary purpose of
evaluating the progress and needs of a training center for pastors which was
started as a result of the first trip. The curriculum for the training center
came from an organization called Bible Training Center for Pastors (BTCP) which
was actually started by Pastor Mike Moses’ uncle. I would like to thank Bob
Dyer, Don Meredith and the others at Joe Gibbs Racing for the significant
financial support they have provided to this ministry.
The person we went to see is a man named Pastor
Nandu Gurung. He is also the founder and head of the training center which he
calls the “Himalayan Leadership Institute”.
I was first introduced to Nandu by Dave Grimes, an elder at Lake Forest. His son, John Grimes, is a missionary working with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Nandu had helped teach John the local language of “Nepali” and John subsequently helped arrange for Nandu to come to North Carolina to attend a training seminar at The Cove (Billy Graham’s Training Center in Black Mountain).
My purpose in sharing this journal is to inform the reader about what God is doing to spread His word in an area which for centuries has been a stronghold of Hinduism and Buddhism. I also pray that if you are reading this journal and have not yet gotten involved in ministry, you will be inspired to do so. There is nothing this life can offer that is more rewarding.
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Charles and I arrived at the Bagdogra airport at noon and were picked up by Nandu and taken to his home town, Kalimpong. Nandu dropped us off at the hotel at about 4 pm and said that he would come by in a couple of hours to take us to his home for dinner.
It was great to see his wife Anu (Anupama) since it had been over two and a half years since she and Nandu had come to visit us in North Carolina. Their baby, Apphia, was now a 15 month old toddler. Apphia is beautiful. I wanted to pick her up so badly but I could tell she would cry (being experienced in making babies cry), so I decided to be patient and let her warm up to me. Hopefully she would let me hold her later in the week
During dinner,
Nandu introduced us to a boy by the name of Prithivi who had come to live with
them about two years earlier. Prithivi, now 16 years old, had been sent to
school in Kalimpong by his parents who lived in Nepal. His parents had made a
deal with Nandu that Nandu would provide room and board in exchange for Prithivi
helping with household chores. This type of thing is pretty common in India.
Kalimpong has a number of good schools and also seems to be the place where many
of the more educated people in this region have settled.
Nandu told us that when Prithivi came to Kalimpong he was a devout Hindu which was the religion of his family. After some time staying with Nandu, he became ill and asked Nandu to pray that he would be better. This may sound strange, but since Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, they generally believe that the more gods on your side the better off you are. Nandu explained to Prithivi that his God was the one true God and for him to receive God’s power he would have to give up his other gods. Nandu also told Prithivi that he would need to remove his necklace which contained many small symbols of some of the Hindu gods.
Prithivi agreed to remove his necklace and soon after made the decision to follow Christ. Under the mentorship of Nandu, Prithivi has grown strong in his faith. He has been scorned by his parents for turning away from their family’s beliefs. Prithivi told us that he wants to go to seminary when he finishes high school and become a preacher.
Sunday, October 1st, 2006, Kashyong Kaman (a village near Pedong)
We drove to Pedong and from there hiked one
hour to a village for worship and fellowship. Since the trip Mitch White and I
made in 2003, I had looked forward to getting “off road” and seeing the more
remote parts of the region.
This place was very remote. There was no
electricity, no phone lines or utilities of any type. They cooked with wood or
kerosene, used kerosene lamps and got their water from the river. What was
really strange though was that we had cell service and actually a couple of
people in the village had cell phones. Imagine the first phone you ever have
being a cell phone. We learned later that you could get a cell phone for about
$3/month and that cell towers had been erected to provide good service
throughout the region.
On our hike to the village, we were met by
Pastor Dil Kumar Tamang (Kumar), a BTCP graduate of the class of 2005. Kumar is
an evangelist. He had already started three home churches that he had turned
over to local men to lead. We were very impressed by Kumar’s faithfulness,
energy and drive to spread the Gospel.
We worshipped in the village and then had lunch
in the pastor’s home. They must have worked hours to prepare this meal. It was
delicious.
As we walked back from Kashyong Kaman, Kumar
stopped and showed us and area that he planned to evangelize next. He told us
that he would simply go to each home and shared the Gospel of Christ. He would
then start a home church which would typically grow from there.
On the drive back to Kalimpong, Nandu also pointed to a large area of the mountain side and said that area had very few, if any, Christians and it needed to be evangelized.
I was starting to get it. These mountains are full of people who had never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They had maybe heard about Christians, but had never been told about Christ dying on the cross so that they could have life and fellowship with Him. Until this moment, I think I really found it hard to believe that there were still people on earth who had not heard this message. Living in the Bible Belt with television,
And so I asked God to show me what we could do to help. What is our role? Certainly the pastor training center that we helped get started is important. What else would God have us do?
Monday, October 2, 2006, Rorathang and Rangpo, Sikkim
Today
we visited two places that Mitch and I had visited during our trip three years
earlier. Things had changed.
Rorathang is the place where Lake Forest began its investment in this area by
funding construction of a church and school building.
While the building still sits with an unfinished third floor, the school,
which had not been started in 2003, was going strong with 40 students.
The class rooms reminded me of the one room school house my father went to with
small wooden benches all lined up in rows.
We spoke with Nandu’s brother, Madan, who runs the school and his sister, Sashi,
who teaches. We learned that there were also two
other teachers on staff.
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Classroom in Rarathang |
Student, Sashi & Nandu |
The operating budget of the school comes from tuition paid by the students of 100 rupees (about $2) per month. They are struggling financially but surviving. The school provides lunch for the children, which is mainly just rice that is grown by Nandu’s father and mother.
There is clearly a need to finish off the third floor to provide extra
classrooms on the second floor. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of joy at
seeing the good use that was made from a relatively small investment by Lake
Forest. I also felt a sense that the building needed to be finished.
What a thrill it was to
see what has been happening with the ministry of Pastor C.K. Rai in Rangpo.
This was one of the highlights of our trip in 2003. Pastor Rai had just started
his ministry and, at the time, was meeting on a concrete slab covered by a
tarp. You may recall if you read the previous journal that Pastor Rai was the
man who had resisted the call to the ministry because he had a good job that he
was afraid to leave. When his wife was stricken with a terminal illness, he
told God he would enter the ministry if He would spare his wife. The story
reminded us of God’s pursuit of Jonah.
I couldn’t wait to get back and tell Mitch of the tremendous vision and growth of Pastor Rai’s ministry. Not only is his church busting at the seams in his beautiful new building, but he had launched three (soon to be four) new pastors into the ministry. The first three were sent to Kalimpong for BTCP training and then teamed with pastor Rai to evangelize an area that would progress into a home-church fellowship and eventually a full fledged church. The fourth man is planning on going to the next BTCP class in 2007. We were led to a map that Pastor Rai had prepared that showed the location of the mother church and the various church plants with a symbol as to their stage of progress.
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Pastor Rai’s Strategic Diagram |
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Tuesday, October 3, Kalimpong
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Charles was able to diagnose a myriad of issues with the computer. With the
help of a local technician, they were able to fix everything. I had no idea
when Charles said he wanted to go on this trip that his I.T. skills would be
used in this way. Nandu also expressed a desire to have a web site, which
Charles is more than capable and willing to develop.
While working on the computer, Nandu told us that they have had a great deal of success evangelizing people through the use of 2-3 day free medical clinics. Apparently hundreds of people would come for the free clinic and Nandu and several others would take this opportunity to tell them about Christ. He said that many people would listen and believe. Charles was very interested in this since his wife Phyllis is a nurse. He thought that maybe this would be something she would be interested in organizing.
We
also revisited a subject that came up when Mitch and I were here last, which was
Nandu’s desire to continue his education. Nandu had graduated first in his
class when he obtained a BTS (Bachelor of Theological Studies) at the
theological seminary in Kathmandu, Nepal. During our last visit, we discussed
the idea of Nandu coming to North Carolina or Boston to go to Gordon Conwell for
his masters. We decided that it didn’t make sense to pull him away from what he
was doing here in the Himalayas.
Nandu has since found a seminary in Bangalore, India in which he would be able
to obtain his masters in theology by correspondence. He would be required to go
to Bangalore for 15 days each year. If he worked hard (which is the only way he
knows) he would complete the program in three years. I asked him if he was
planning to go and he said that he would like to but that he needed to find a
sponsor. He had contacted one organization which he heard provided educational
sponsorships for this seminary but he had not received a reply.
The cost of tuition, books and travel to
Bangalore totaled $2500/year. This is clearly something that Nandu feels would
help him in his life’s work. I had no doubt he would make the most of it if
given the chance.
At the end of the day, we had a monumental breakthrough. Apphia let us hold her!
Wednesday, October 4, Rabongla
The drive to Rabongla was supposed to last 4-5 hours. Since we were to meet with some pastors for lunch we left at eight in the morning. Along the way we had a flat tire. We then discovered that the spare was also flat. The delay meant lunch turned into dinner as we arrived at close to 5pm.
We ate at the home of Pastor Emanuel and were met there by Pastor Matthew. We had a nice dinner and then went to the hotel. Pastors Emanuel and Matthew came with us and we were also joined at the hotel by a man named Pastor Jonathon. All three of these men had gone through BTCP training. We asked them several questions about how the training had helped their ministry. They talked about the training in a way that made me believe that it was a life-changing experience for them. The section on “Personal Spiritual Life” was one they said helped them with their daily walk. They also talked extensively about the part of the study called “Evangelism, Discipleship and Church Planting” and how that had both equipped and inspired them.
I couldn’t help but be amazed at how God had used Pastor Mike Moses’ uncle to
develop this training. This is a long, incredible God story which is worth
reading about in the BTCP website [ www.bibletraining.com]. The story of how
God worked to bring this training to Nandu is also a miraculous story covered in
the journal of the trip Mitch and I made here in 2003.
As we closed the interviews we had a time of singing and praise. The pastors shared some of their struggles and Nandu offered advice. Nandu’s network had grown substantially since the time of our last visit. He is a friend and advisor to dozens of pastors in the region. It is a responsibility which he seems to have been made for.
October 5, 2006, Rabongla, South Sikkim
After breakfast, we hiked straight down the mountain to the church of Pastor Jonathan. Charles and I had on hiking boots and still slipped several times. We noticed that Pastor Emanuel had on dress shoes. Emanuel, Jonathon and Nandu all took the hike like a stroll in the park, while Charles and I could barely catch our breath.
The area that Pastor Jonathon lived was similar to the village we hiked to near Pedong. Again, there was no electricity or utilities of any kind. The roofs were made of thatch, and, as we found at lunch, the cooking was done over wood fires inside the hut. In the yard outside the home they had a cow, a couple of goats and a few chickens. They grew rice, vegetables and some of the spices that made the food so wonderful.
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Pastor Jonathon and Family |
Jonathon’s wife, cooking |
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This is what rural life is like in
the Himalayas. A very simple but hard existence, reminiscent of what I think
life was like for the early settlers of America.
We hiked up the mountain after
lunch and drove with Pastor Emanuel to a small village that he had targeted to
evangelize and plant a church. We prayed for the people of the village and for
safety for Pastor Emanuel. When entering a fresh area, it was not uncommon for
the Hindu extremists to try to stop things before they start, sometimes through
violence.
A few kilometers from Rabongla,
Nandu stopped to show us a large statue of a Buddhist god that apparently drew
tourists from quite a distance. There were a couple of Buddhist Monks standing
guard. I knew from watching David Carradine as a child that these men were not
people we wanted to mess with.
Charles was fiddling with his hand
held GPS and the two monks came over to see what was up. I was pondering their
simple life, uncluttered by technology and how this GPS must seem so foreign and
amazing to them. As I gazed at their simple robes and shaved heads I was
perplexed to hear a noise coming from one that sounded like music! The monk
looks over at me, holds up the “just a minute” index finger and pulls his cell
phone out of a fold in his robe. Uuuuugh!
On the drive back to Kalimpong, I questioned Nandu about what seemed to me to be a heightened level in evangelism and church planting. He quickly attributed it to the BTCP training. I honestly did not understand immediately how this could be the answer. It was too simple.
Later on we talked about the group of teachers he had assembled to do the BTCP training and I was very impressed with their credentials. I then asked Nandu which section he taught. He told me it was the section on Evangelism, Discipleship and Church planting. Ah ha! Now I understood. Of course it was the BTCP training that had stimulated this increased level of church planting. But it wasn’t just the material, but the teacher’s zeal for the subject and subsequent shepherding that inspired the students.
Friday & Saturday, October 6th and 7th, Darjeeling
Satisfied that we had interviewed a good
representation of BTCP graduates, we went to Darjeeling for a little sight
seeing. Darjeeling as a very festive city that is a “must see” if you are
coming to this region of India. The tea is the best in the world.
When we returned from Darjeeling on Saturday evening, Nandu told us he had some things to do so Charles and I walked into Kalimpong for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We managed quite well and even had a nice conversation with the people in the table next to us. When asked why we were there, we always needed to say we were just touring. Even though the anti-conversion laws had not yet hit Nandu’s state of West Bengal, we didn’t want to draw unneeded attention to what he was doing.
Sunday, October 8th, Kalimpong
We worshipped at Nandu’s church, the Full
Gospel Church. The service was shorter than normal at only two hours. As I had
done at the other churches we visited, I gave a greeting and short message
comparing what I had observed with the church in this area to the early church
described in Acts. I talked of the miracles, the rapid growth and the
persecution they faced which was likely to increase as they grow and become more
of a threat to the political leaders. I don’t think they were hearing anything
that they didn’t already know, but I wanted to let them know that we supported
them and to draw inspiration from what the early Christians had faced.
Later in the evening we met a friend of Nandu’s
who owned an internet shop. Lake Forest’s Pastor Mike had come up with the idea
of calling on Sunday morning (evening in India) and do the greeting during the
worship service at Lake Forest. Charles, being an IT dude, upped the stakes by
suggesting we could use a web-cam. He had been working hard on this with Randy
Henning and Darren Fowler.
Everything went incredibly well with the
transmission. We actually were able to listen and see the worship service which
made me even more homesick. I have to admit that at first I thought this was
more effort that it was worth, but somewhere along the line I realized that a
big purpose of this trip was to communicate the things that were happening here
to the congregation back home. What better, more memorable way to let everyone
know than a live feed on Sunday morning!
During the second service, Mike prayed for Nandu and his ministry which I know touched Nandu’s heart.
We were all very relieved and excited that the transmission went well, especially Charles. After Sunday morning service with Lake Forest, we went to Anu’s mother’s house for a very late supper.
Monday, October 9th, Kalimpong
We were leaving tomorrow morning so we needed to make sure we wrapped up all the loose ends. The main agenda for the day was to look at the BTCP teaching facilities and meet with the board of directors.
Given the long distance most of the pastors traveled for the training, it was necessary for them to live in Kalimpong for the four months of study. Nandu rented a couple of rooms in a building and assembled bunk beds which served as the dormitories. Each annual training class held about 20 pastors. Nandu told us that he was going to have to find a new place to do the teaching since the place he rented for the 2006 class was no longer going to be available.
We had dinner with the BTCP board which was very helpful in understanding their vision for the “Himalayan Leadership Institute” which was the formal and legal name they had given the training center. The name fits since their vision is to train church leaders in areas beyond what is part of the BTCP training. Some of the topics that they discussed the need for were marriage seminars, health and hygiene, nutrition and church management.
One huge benefit they see in bringing the pastors back for more training is to continue to bring together church leaders and bind them as a support network. We talked about the facility issue extensively. Their dream is to buy or build a permanent training facility.
I have to say that when we (at Lake Forest) started funding this training, we thought that we were training a finite number of pastors in a small area and that it would only last a few years. How embarrassingly short sighted this thinking was. In fact, by increasing the spread of Christianity in the region, this training was creating its own market. The number of pastors in the region was increasing in size like a snowball rolling down a hill. I was also surprised when I learned that the geographic region this training was covering was much greater than I originally thought. The work here was only getting started.
I was very impressed with the leadership Nandu had assembled in both his board and the instructors. They are men of vision with a sincere desire to serve God and spread the Gospel.
As the evening came to a close, Charles and I said our goodbyes to everyone except Nandu and his and our friend Anup who would both be meeting us for breakfast.
Tuesday, October 10th, coming home
The three-hour drive to the airport in Bagdogra was quiet and uneventful. We were all tired and a little sad. I was starting 36 hours of flying and airport layovers heading home. Charles was on his was for a four-day jaunt to Bangalore to meet some work colleagues. He was also going to meet with Harsha, the head of BTCP in India, which should prove to be both informative and enjoyable.
As I sat in the airport in Delhi, I was reminded again of the huge disparity between the classes. Outside the window, two ladies in traditional dress and flip flops were carrying baskets of gravel on their heads, dumping them into a concrete mixer. As they worked, a naked child followed her mother every step of the way, crying to be picked up.
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| Charles with kids he met along the way | Nandu, Apphia and Anu |
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| Charles and Steve with Buddhist Monk | Charles and Pritiksha |
Conclusion
I have
found peace and clarity about both Lake Forest’s and my role in all that is
happening with this ministry, at least for now. Our role is to encourage, offer
advice and provide financial support. We need to continue to ask God for
direction and to wait for God’s timing. I can’t help but to be very happy about
what has happened so far with this ministry and to get excited about what the
future holds