Nepal
(MNN) — 11 years ago this week, Nepal's Maoist guerrilla war began
with an attack on a police post. It has officially ended with the
insurgents laying down arms under United Nations' supervision.
Interserve's Doug VanBronkhorst says, "It's a time of
transition, but it's relatively peaceful in Nepal right now. The Maoist
insurgency is more or less over and they're working some sort of new, shared
government."
June elections will see an assembly chosen, charged with the
task of re-writing Nepal's
constitution. From there, the constituent assembly will decide if Nepal's
monarchy continues.
There is a shift toward independence that's being felt by
ministry teams, too. VanBronkhorst says because they go with the mindset
of being a Christian professional, the church has steadily been growing for a
time like this. "There's a transition in Nepal now, too, from the
traditional NGO expatriate organizations being led by foreigners to them being
led by Nepali Christians and the Nepali church taking the initiative in some of
those programs."
Yet, there's a lot that western Christian professionals can
still provide working alongside some of the new emerging Christian Nepali NGOs. It's training, mentoring and discipleship,
all rolled into one ministry.
Interserve works with educators for expatriate children as
well as local schools and universities.
They also collaborate with other organizations to increase effective
student work, as well as provide programs for English as a Foreign Language.
On the other side of their ministry, Interserve provides medical,
nursing and dental training. That's also
supported by community development/Micro-enterprise Business education.
Please pray for maturity and unity among church leaders. Pray too for excellent training programs for
new leaders. There are many
opportunities available to support their work in Central
Asia. Short-term teams are
forming. Click here if you want more
information.
