Dhangadhi, Nepal is the warmest place in the far western regions of the country. It is very remote and simply not a place where those who seek comforts, pleasures and the tourism of this world would ever consider to go and see. How thrilled MTM was to find in this faraway place a hungry people to hear the Word of God taught. Blessed be God!!! Our dear coordinators attempted to limit this conference to leaders…but to their dismay this was impossible. They literally came out in multitudes and packed out the small, mud and grass building, of a church. Our native coordinator brothers requested that we bring messages on the Godly marriage and family. In laying a foundation for the home, both Brother Raymond and Merle were getting ready to preach messages on the attack on the first home by the serpent. Neither of us had prepared a prop with a live serpent, but the Lord provided one just minutes before the sessions began.
The Ministry Team At Dhangadhi, Nepal L-R; Merle Flory, Pastor Deepak, Pastor Ishwar, Pastor Raj Kumar & Raymond Burkholder
In the days of Jesus ministry they removed a roof to let a sick man down into the presence of Jesus. In this our day of ministry they broke down the outside wall of a mud and straw church building to let the extreme heat out and make space for more people inside and outside of the church. On only the second day of the conference as we arrived at 9:00Am there already were 200 plus people packed inside the small mud church that only had one small entrance door. They were sitting on the floor, with the men on one side and the sisters on the other side. The sisters were mostly all veiled and all were prepared to drink in the teaching on the Godly Marriage and Home. The temperature was already soaring inside to 100 plus degrees as the hot sun was beaming down on the low ceiling tin roof. Many people were also on the outside with absolutely no room inside.
The Best Photo We Have Of the Conference Group (there were many more on the outside)
The coordinating Brothers had decided the day before that they were going to cut a door into the wall, but the church was already full of people very early in the morning. Therefore they waited until the praise and worship time was over. They had all the people exit the church and they began hacking on the wall with an axe. Dust was flying off of the mud covered sticks and bamboo. A nice looking door was etched out but as the hacking of the door continued, expectantly 75% of the entire side wall of the church came down with one big whoosh and an eruption of dust. Wow! Now the whole sanctuary was exposed on the one side, and more people could get into the church, and let more ventilating air inside.
A Serpent In The Church
Suddenly there was intense striking and hacking on the fallen wall by several brothers as it was lying on the ground. There was a live 5 foot cobra snake within the wall of the church. When The Wall Came Down The Serpent In The Church Was Exposed. The cobra was dealt with according to native ways of overcoming such deadly threats, and carried away as a corpse into the nearby rice field.
Another Serpent Exposed…
Our sessions ended on only the second day with both Raymond & Merle calling all the attendees to make a public commitment to choose God’s way for their marriages and homes. This kind of public commitment is normally reserved for towards the end of the conference. Little did we know that another serpent was going to stick up its ugly head!
Only minutes after the MTM teaching team departed from the church, 3 van loads of police arrived. They ordered the 200 plus attendees to quickly run, scatter and hide for Hindu radicals were coming to inflict damage and harm to the attendees of the this conference. The people quickly scattered and were gone. Soon the radicals arrived and got into confrontation with the police. Chanting, “down with the Christians, down with the Christians”…and asking, “Where are the people, where are the foreigners?” One man who took a blow, from a radical, was a plain clothed policeman. He then pulled his gun and ordered approx. 25 radicals into the police van. So it seems that the serpent remained alive and well in the world, and is still winning a battle here and there, but the Victory is the Lord’s!
Later in the evening in a secret meeting our native coordinators gave us, as the MTM team, the full story. The police told them the conference must stop for they simply do not have enough of police support to protect so many people. So with 3 more days to go it seemed so premature, until they shared with us the rest of the story. God used this two serpent event to stir up the hearts and faith of the multitudes of the attendees. The two days of preaching on the marriage and the home stirred up more than one serpent. The first one was the live snake the second one was the radicals.
To God be the Glory! Our coordinators said that God used this as a great work of revival in this area. It will fire up and inspire the church in a way that 5 days of teaching may have never accomplished. God does all things well in His time and for His glory, and we are praising Him! BLESSED BE GOD !!!
