Our team has returned from three weeks in Nepal! If you followed our trip updates on our GNN Facebook page, you know we spent time in and around Nepalgunj, where GNN is headquartered, as well as in two different mountain districts. Our trip entailed a total of ten flights, with aircraft ranging from a Boeing 777 to a little old plane made in the Czech Republic. Each flight was smooth and uneventful, thanks to the power of your prayers.

Shortly after our arrival in Nepalgunj, we received word that a school bus had rolled over about 40 km west of the city. Many children from GNN’s River Church were on the bus, and several were seriously injured.

Among them were Pastor Hansa Rokaya’s 15-year-old daughter, who suffered a lacerated liver. Our team went to the Nepalgunj Hospital to visit and pray for her and the other students.

We visited the boy’s parents at their home the following week. At first only the father was there, but later the boy’s mother came through the back field carrying a heavy load of hay on her back. She sat and cried as we surrounded her with prayer. Words could not express our feelings as we grieved with her over the loss of her precious son. Please keep this couple in your prayers.

No sooner had we departed Nepal than disaster struck again. As many of you know, on the night of November 3 the country was shaken by a large earthquake that killed more than 150 people. A second earthquake followed three days later. 

Both earthquakes occurred in the district of Jarjakot, where GNN has twelve churches. The office in Nepalgunj has had communication with all of our pastors there, and so far we have not heard of any church members being injured. Praise God!

However, the need is great! In addition to the 157 people who were killed, hundreds more were injured as rocks fell and houses collapsed. The Nepali army has mobilized to assist in transporting the injured by helicopter or small planes to Nepalgunj Government Hospital—the same hospital where the children were taken when their school bus overturned. We visited there just a few weeks ago; now untold numbers of earthquake victims occupy the hospital’s beds.

Thanks to the work of Pastor Dipak Singh, GNN is able to reach out to those flooding through the doors of the hospital. Pastor Singh manages GNN’s Madhu Fund, which is stationed at this hospital. Established to assist pastors and church members with medical needs, the Madhu Fund also functions as a disaster relief fund.

GNN rents three rooms near the hospital and offers them free of charge to families who cannot afford a place to stay while a loved one is being treated. Many of these families come to Nepalgunj from the mountain areas of northwest Nepal, where few people have heard the name of Jesus Christ. It turns out that meeting their needs in this way also gives us a great opportunity to share the Gospel with them!