Faith in Action – our Christian Family in need

I am a pastor from Bhaktapur Shalom Church, near Kathmandu. I have a congregation of 250 members. We worship in a rented building.

When the mega earthquake hit Nepal on 25th April 2015, we were in the church service. Suddenly the church building started shaking, I announced everyone to stay inside praying and covering the children. It was about a minute for 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Just after this, we asked everyone to evacuate the church building and come to an open place.

We were scared because there has been continues aftershocks. I requested the members not to leave the place until there is normal situation.

Next day, I went to visit few members of congregation. We have majority of congregation members who are laborers. They have come from nearby village for work in the valley. They have rented the old houses because the rent is cheaper than the concrete new houses.

Due to the mega earthquake of 25th April, I found majority of the members have lost their shelters because the building were collapsed. Many of them did not have food to eat because they are dependent on daily work for their hand to mouth.  Few of them were hungry with their children. It was pain for me as the pastor. I could not stop myself and prayed to the Lord that I should do something to the families in this situation.

With conviction, mercy and love to do something to the families, I coordinated with local government for the help. But the local government responded that they can only help to them who are permanent residence to the location. It was frustrating to me. I prayed and asked for guidance on what to do for the families. Then my wife shared why not contact TFN for the support. I called TFN and Pastor Mukunda to support these needy families and thanked God that my prayer answered. TFN agreed to help these families with rice, lentils, oil, salt and others.

We gathered the families and provided them the relief materials inviting TFN director, staffs, church volunteer of Bethel Church. It was great support for the congregation members. This support will last for a month and I pray that God will make the situation normal that these families can return back to their work for future livelihood.

Note: TFN (Transformation Nepal) support came from AFA exclusively.