Nepal (MNN) — Seventeen U.S. citizens and one citizen from India were detained in Nepal in early February. The accusation? Attempting to convert people to Christianity. The group was in Nepal with 15-day tourist visas and participated in a construction project on a local church. Authorities confiscated their documents for further investigation of the allegations.
“I think it’s very possible it’s misconstrued, because what I saw in the report was they were just doing social type work. They were [being] the hands and feet of Christ, which is awesome. We need more of that, and that lays a foundation for evangelism to happen,” says Joe Handley with A3.
“On the other hand, it’s possible that they weren’t given some wise counsel and went ahead, shared their faith, and just didn’t know what they were doing.”
(Stock photo obtained via Pixabay)
Handley explains that Nepal has leaned more and more toward neighboring India’s stance, reinstating an anti-conversion law. It wasn’t always like this though.
“[Nepal] had an interesting history where anti-conversion laws were strong — very prohibitive. Then the church gained favor with the government for a season because of the way they reached out in the name of Christ to their fellow members of the society,” Handley says.
“[Christians] were tackling human trafficking on a scale that was impressive to the government. The government said, ‘Hey, we could actually use your help, because various religious groups are mad at us, and some are angry at you as believers. So we think we need religious tolerance in this country.’”
A religious liberty clause was established in Nepal’s constitution in 2007. But today, with strict anti-conversion law in place, Christians have to navigate a fine line if they speak of Christ.
“Longer term, I’ve found it to be better to empower local national leaders,” Handley says, “and then they have the discernment of when and where is ‘safe’ to be able to do that kind of work.”
Despite pressure, the church in Nepal is growing. Please join in prayer for the group that was detained, as well as for local Christians serving Christ in Nepal.
“[For the] short term, pray for this team. Obviously, we want the best for them. Pray for those that they’ve served alongside that they don’t get caught up in some mayhem related to this,” says Handley.
“For the long term, pray for those that are on the ground, not just there, like [some] going in for a week here and there, but for those who are living there and plowing the soil and really doing the work of the Kingdom on the ground.”
Header image of Buddhist temple doorway in Nepal is a representative stock photo courtesy of Swodesh Shakya via Unsplash.
