As we prepared to leave Kathmandu, our work there nearly completed, one thing remained. We had not yet “debriefed” the pastors and leaders who had invited in us – invested with us in the spread of the gospel through our ministry training, biblical teaching, and encouragement of future endeavors. During this time of reflection, we often enter what I call listening mode while trying to “hear” the field speak. And as always, the field did not disappoint. “How can you help us keep our young pastors from leaving and not ever coming back?” The weight of this question, asked by our guest house host, Madan Prince, has pounded me personally, like few other field-speak petitions have in my twenty years in missions. The several hours of plane flights remaining gave plenty of time for my co-workers and I to work this through our individual hearts and hear from God himself as we considered the outcry. We had just spent days, teaching God’s word, training leaders, and pouring out of ourselves the calling, from which God had sent the us. I remember saying to myself, “it’s not enough.” Teaching, training, and sharing are great, but a necessity is missing. As I poured into God the brevity of the matter, He fueled me in understanding. The missing piece – vocational training and support. The young pastors who were leaving did so, due to the intense matter of lack of financial well-being, They simply could not overcome the persecution of the local communities which blocked their progression to use their church planting skills – they eventually succumb to the “sharks,” who in reality, are “labor traffickers” sending many young men and women into a form of indentured servitude into places like Dubai and Singapore! As we continued to listen to the field we began to cry out to God for wisdom, for a real answer. For me personally, I knew it clearly. We need to be the help. We need to bring a model of support in some way which, has a sustainable end and can eventually be located within the respective country. Business-as-Mission (BAM) has many faces to it, but at MissionConnect, our goal of “activated grass-roots Christian leaders empowered for gospel centered service,” has gravity only when the leader has movement in symbiosis with the finances to carry out the particular calling (in this case to plant churches). For the past year, I have been seeking an answer of behalf of the Christian leaders’ pleas for help. Currently, I am preparing to go to southeast Asia with a Venezuelan pastor to view a BAM model which is actually working in a “restricted” country. My prayer is to ascertain the method and then build a repetitive movement which will aid the Nepalese church planting force. Praise God alone, for who could give an answer to such a weighty question – who could do something about it? Like Nehemiah’s wall, there is opposition to all spiritual callings, but as the prophet stated, “…Our God will fight for us.” (Neh. 4:20).
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