Saturday is the one day off in Nepal's working week and therefore has become the holy day for Nepal's growing Christian community. At the Nepal Isai Mandali-Gyaneshwor Church in Kathmandu about 300 Christians gather every Saturday to pray, sing hymns, listen to bible sermons and praise the Lord, many of them reverently raising their hands to the ceiling and shouting out "Hallelujah," "Trust in Jesus" and "Amen." The Nepali congregation provides a glimpse of what early Christians communities might have been like -- simple, friendly and egalitarian -- before Rome took over.
"One thing I like about Christians is they believe all Christians belong to one family," said M.J. Shah, whose own family are descendants of the Shah monarchs who ruled Nepal for more than two centuries. When the country's absolute monarchy ended in 2008, so did the reign of its last king, Gyanendra Bir Bokram Shah Dev, and the former Hindu kingdom was set on the path to a secular democracy.
"When I was growing up I was told Christianity was not for us. It was only for lower caste people," said M.J. Shah, who "found Christ" in 2005. His family initially disowned him but have since reunited with him, in acknowledgement of his much-improved personal conduct since his conversion and marriage to another Christian. "Before, I was a gambler, a fighter, a drinker and a drug user. I used to beat people up. I was terrible," he admitted.
M.J. Shah remains somewhat unique among Nepali Christians. Most significantly, he is related to the royal family and is therefore of a higher caste than most. Christianity has been on the rise since Nepal went secular, at least in name, in 2008. Previously Christian missionaries were banned from the kingdom. Now there are over 8,000 Christian churches in the country and more than one million converts, although exact estimates are difficult to find.
Need for acceptance
A more typical convert is Dil Maya, a 70-year-old woman from the Dalit, or "untouchable" caste. "My husband Dhan Bahadur fell very sick once and no doctor could cure him," she said as she attended the Nepal Isai Mandali-Gyaneshwor Church in Kathmandu. "Someone told me to go to a church and pray and that was how I first came here. It healed my husband, and I felt healed, too because for the first time in my life, I felt accepted by a community. No one accepted me before. I feel accepted here."
"One thing I like about Christians is they believe all Christians belong to one family," said M.J. Shah, whose own family are descendants of the Shah monarchs who ruled Nepal for more than two centuries. When the country's absolute monarchy ended in 2008, so did the reign of its last king, Gyanendra Bir Bokram Shah Dev, and the former Hindu kingdom was set on the path to a secular democracy.
"When I was growing up I was told Christianity was not for us. It was only for lower caste people," said M.J. Shah, who "found Christ" in 2005. His family initially disowned him but have since reunited with him, in acknowledgement of his much-improved personal conduct since his conversion and marriage to another Christian. "Before, I was a gambler, a fighter, a drinker and a drug user. I used to beat people up. I was terrible," he admitted.
M.J. Shah remains somewhat unique among Nepali Christians. Most significantly, he is related to the royal family and is therefore of a higher caste than most. Christianity has been on the rise since Nepal went secular, at least in name, in 2008. Previously Christian missionaries were banned from the kingdom. Now there are over 8,000 Christian churches in the country and more than one million converts, although exact estimates are difficult to find.
Need for acceptance
A more typical convert is Dil Maya, a 70-year-old woman from the Dalit, or "untouchable" caste. "My husband Dhan Bahadur fell very sick once and no doctor could cure him," she said as she attended the Nepal Isai Mandali-Gyaneshwor Church in Kathmandu. "Someone told me to go to a church and pray and that was how I first came here. It healed my husband, and I felt healed, too because for the first time in my life, I felt accepted by a community. No one accepted me before. I feel accepted here."
Comments