No one accepted us, Agni Amrit said, hanging his head so low it almost rests on his checkered tie.
Amrit asked 10 people in Kathmandu, Nepal, if he could share a story about his God. Everyone he approached told him to scat. No one wanted to hear about another God — they already have plenty in Hinduism.
“You were rejected 10 times,” Drew Neely, a Southern Baptist representative and church-planting trainer, repeated. Amrit nodded.
“I hope that gives you joy,” Neely said, pausing for Amrit to meet his gaze. “Brother, when those 10 people rejected you, you shared in the suffering of Christ and that should be cause for rejoicing.”
Both Neely and Amrit feel called by God to see new churches start in Nepal. Amrit is a Nepalese student at a Bible college in Kathmandu. Neely is an American who teaches Nepalese believers how to plant new churches effectively. They met after Neely was asked to teach the Bible college students how to plant churches.
Neely hopes that as a result of training at the college, a few of the students will take up the calling to help see the Great Commission fulfilled in Nepal.
Neely doesn’t intend to train them and walk away. The training is designed to help him spot those called as church planters, those he will continue to disciple. At the training, he found Amrit.
Amrit, a former drug addict, spent many days, many he can’t remember, abusing substances and ignoring his future.
He grew up in a Hindu and Sikh family. His mother was healed after she believed in God.
“I went to church, but I never believed in God because I thought that was my responsibility to go just because of my mother,” Amrit said.
A pastor asked Amrit if he knew about the sin in his life. Amrit didn’t realize his sin condemned him. He soon made a commitment to follow Christ.
Now he’s a little older, has a faint shadow of a mustache and hopes to plant a church that will minister to his drug addict friends.
Amrit said Neely’s training showed him how to reach out to his friends. He’s learned effective ways to share the gospel, how to find someone to invest in and how to disciple in a way that leads to church multiplication.
During a training session, Neely invited Amrit and his classmates to join him in a journey of joy. “I’m pleading you, for your joy and the joy of those people who will come to know Christ … take this and make it a part of your life and for the glory of God.”
Accepting the call to plant churches sometimes will lead students to unfamiliar territory and far-flung villages, Neely said.
“I’m going to warn you … it’s going to be difficult and the culture is going to be different and you are going to suffer,” he said. “But in exchange for that suffering, you get to tell someone who has never heard the gospel about Jesus Christ.”
At the end of the training, Neely gave a final call to the students. “Are you the grain that’s willing to fall to the ground and die to self so that a great harvest could emerge from your life and influence?” Neely asks as he looks around the room at each student.
The room is silent, save for the whirring of the fan. Amrit nods his head yes. He understands the gravity of the situation. He’s already been rejected 10 times, but he knows it’s worth it.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Names have been changed for security reasons.
(IMB)
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