Over 250 Church planters ready to share the Gospel in Nepal

Jardine Malado Saturday, October 01, 2016

A ministry has announced that it has just finished training 256 new church planters to preach the Gospel in Nepal where only 1.4 percent of the population are Christians.

"Our key man there has identified 4,000 villages and towns that are in need of Gospel witness, and from this there has been a very clear vision that has emerged." said David Shibley of Global Advance.

Patan Durbar Square in the town of Patan, Nepal in August 2005 | Wikimedia Commons/Clemensmarabu

Shibley told Mission Network News that the initial plan was to train 150 church planters by 2020, but the ministry has already exceeded the goal last week. He stated that the ministry has also recruited seven coaches and seven prayer coordinators for each of the seven states in Nepal.

He also revealed that Global Advance is planning to plant at least 75 churches in the country by the year 2020.

Shibley said that the ministry's plans are not limited to Nepal. He believes that the Nepali believers will also be able to plant churches in other nations.

Nepal is a popular tourist destination which makes it a strategic location for sharing the Gospel.

Last year, the Nepalese government adopted an anti-conversion clause into its constitution which makes it illegal to convert a person from one religion to another. Eight Christians, including one pastor and two teachers, have been arrested in June for preaching to children.

Global Advance is still planning to continue spreading the Gospel despite the risks.

"There are still certainly some restrictions that the church is facing over these last several years, [but] there has been unique opportunity for the growth of the Gospel, and we're still in that time period for Gospel advance that can move very rapidly in Nepal. So we're striking, in a sense, while the iron is hot," he said.

Over two hundred Nepali women have also been trained under the Esther Initiative to be prayer warriors and spiritual leaders in their respective communities.

Shibley stated that the training events have been well-received. He believes that the prayer warriors could become "a tremendous strength and force of the advance of the Gospel throughout that nation."