Church Planting…
Greetings from Nepal! Well… After a flight leaving LAX at 6AM on Thursday, July 25th, four hours to Chicago, a 15 1/2 hour flight to Hong Kong, then a five hour flight to Kathmandu… I arrived at my hotel at 10:45PM on Friday!
A sprawling metropolitan population of 6 million, Kathmandu is famous for Durbar Square and Mt. Everest – just 75 miles (121 km) away!
Upon landing, I was joyfully informed of the second baptism of the fledging Kathmandu Church at 8:30PM that same evening – Goma!
Goma has already endeared herself to all of the Kathmandu Sisters!
In LA I was asked, “Why are you so excited to get to Kathmandu? The answer lies back in the early 1990’s when the ICOC was “forcefully advancing” like no other Christian Movement had since the first century… On this long series of flights, I took out my notes that I have carried for years!
I then read in tears a poem written to me by a very dear friend and partner in the Gospel entitled, “The Kathmandu Poem:”
Could I meet you in Kathmandu
As we go on our way
To save this world
Which has been hurled
Toward that last doomsday?
I’d stand by you in Kathmandu
And toast our dying breath
Pledge all it takes
For Jesus sake
And not shrink back from death.
Or meet me near the Southern Cross
Or find us in the East
As long as we’re mid hungry souls
And spreading out the feast
As long as we’re mid open hearts
And visions fill us all
Then Kip please know
That for you
I’ll meet anywhere at all.
Of course, when I landed this brother was not there as he had surrendered his love for God and a “movement to change eternity” and had reverted to autonomy and lukewarmness – the same conditions I rescued him from 15 years before.
Meeting Kip in Kathmandu were his faithful ‘til death New Movement partners in the Gospel – Luke & Brandyn Speckman and Raja & Debs Rajan!
The Lord gave me a great night’s rest, and a terrific quiet time on Saturday morning, July 27th – the day of the Kathmandu Inaugural Service!
Kip woke up in Kathmandu at 5:30AM on July 27th, and gazed out at “other-world” beauty from his eighth floor room at the Fairfield Hotel!
My first appointment was a noontime lunch with Luke & Brandyn Speckman! Here Luke shared with me about the noble Gurkha Warriors! Wikipedia records this about Gurkhas: “Historically, the terms ‘Gurkha’ and ‘Gorkhali’ were synonymous with ‘Nepali,’ which originates from the hill principality Gorkha Kingdom from which the Kingdom of Nepal expanded… The name may be traced to the medieval Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath, who has a historic shrine in the city of Gorkha…” In the British Army for 200 years, the Gurkhas were and are considered the most fearsome fighters on earth. Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw of the Indian Army said, “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or a Gurkha.”
The prized weapon of the Gurkhas has long been the khukuri!
After the inspirational lunch with Luke & Brandyn, I looked at my iPhone for the weather report… 100% rain at 3:00PM and 90% at 4:00PM when the service was to start! Remembering to Elijah’s prayer and the miracle of the Hong Kong Inaugural, I prayed for no rain until after the Inaugural began! (James 5:16b-18)
The view of Circle Road from the second floor of the venue window a few minutes before the Inaugural!
The Kathmandu Service opened with three songs: two in English and one in Nepalese! Then I was blessed to give the Welcome and introduce the Kathmandu Leaders after the Speckman Family of five leave – Roger & Yassa Green! The Greens enthusiastically went over the Order of Service!
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