Bibles for Nepal Launches in Midst of Political Turmoil
Political turmoil in Nepal isn’t stopping Bibles for the World from launching their new Bibles for Nepal project this year.
As the tiny country transitions to a democracy, BFTW’s co-founder and president, Mawii Pudaite, told The Christian Post that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in a country that is 75 percent Hindu.
Right now the ruling party is Communist, and Pudaite said she isn’t sure how long freedom of religion will last there. “We have this season so we need to move ahead as quickly as we can,” she said.
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The project was set in motion in May of last year when a pastor from Nepal came to visit the BFTW offices in Colorado Springs, Colo. He leads the largest church in Nepal and partners with 55 other churches in the country.
The pastor had recently conducted an evangelistic outreach radio program and afterwards had so many people requesting Bibles that they ran out.
Because of this, he asked BFTW to help them finish giving out Bibles to the 25,000 people who still wanted one; and Bibles for Nepal was born.
Now other mission agencies like Youth With a Mission are helping out with the project. Pudaite said they have already mailed some Bibles to telephone subscribers in Nepal, but they are still waiting for all of their funding before they start printing more Bibles.
“We raise the money, then we print the Bibles,” she said. So far they have raised almost 75 percent of the funding for the project.
There is about a 48 percent literacy rate in the country of Nepal. BFTW targets those who can read as a way to evangelize and distribute the Bibles. This often has effects on the illiterate population as those who have received a Bible in turn search out others in their community to share the Gospel with.
Pudaite sees the political turmoil in Nepal as a good springboard for the project because foreign missionaries and Bibles are allowed in.
Nepal has been trying to draft a constitution for over a year now. They were once a Hindu monarchy and after a bloody Maoist insurgency they have become a democratic nation.
The only problem is that now the power of the new democracy is divided along several political parties and they don’t all agree on how to draft a new constitution for the country.
Back in 2008, a special legislative body called the Constituent Assembly, was created to draft Nepal's new constitution. Since then, the country has been involved in intense political negotiations over how to shape their new constitution.
But four CA extensions later, the task is far from a resolution. The CA is supposed to adjourn if a deal is not reached by May of 2012.
This week, the government and the judiciary debated on whether or not to extend the CA term one more time past May, but the courts, tired of the slow progress, rejected another extension.
The Supreme Court gave three options if the CA failed to draft a new Constitution before May 28, 2012. This includes taking a referendum, conducting fresh polls to elect a new body to draft the constitution, or seek some other alternative.
Regardless, Bibles for Nepal will continue with their mission. Pudaite is very hopeful, and said she feels God is telling them that the time is now for their outreach. Especially, she said, since the Nepali people have a “tremendous hunger for the Word of God.”
