The following email brought tears to my eyes, not because he said anything bad, but because I wished he had said those good words about the Lord Jesus Christ himself.  Prior to this email, I had taken the appreciation for granted, but this night I was forced to think about my motivation for being a good teacher or a preacher.  If I have somehow failed to bring the glory to the Lord by drawing people's attention to myself, then I have failed.  Tonight, I asked the Holy Spirit to take all that I have and all that I am to bring glory to the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.  Needless to say that I do enjoy conversing with the people who would pay me a hearing, but from now I have decided to let Christ shine and draw people to himself.  Please pray for this wonderful family, especially for Badal; he is a very intelligent and a king of a gentleman we rarely see in a Christian world, least of all in a non-Christian world.

Sunday, May 11, 2008 9:19 AM

From:

"badal bhattari" <nilabadal@yahoo.com>

To:

brbhatta@yahoo.com

Respectable Bhojraj sir,

Jay Messiah!

            With God's grace, I m well n hope u the same there.

U were, indeed, true to say that it was not easy  for "the new comer" to put on your shoes. I greatly miss u while attending "worship" in Youngnak church. Your words had magic that would hold the audiences spelt-bound. Your lecture was not only alive with spiritual knowledge but also informative/educative even for non-Christians.

I have been highly impressed with your simplicity, abundant knowledge with references n depth of feelings with artistic expressions.

            The story of your tragic childhood life n the vicissitudes in life to overcome the challenges touched the core of my heart n drew due respect n love towards u. The way u explain the Biblical verses with contemporary world affairs and interesting n inspiring stories is so beautiful. I appreciate u with my whole-heart for your devotion to God. I would like to say," La ge ra ho Bhojraj sir."

            I used to eagerly await Sundays just to enjoy your lecture on Bible in Jubilee shelter n in the church. I would approach u with a thirst n would return quenched .

 Nevertheless, I m still vague about what a true religion is. Needless to say, to frame the religion in one-accord definition is the most challenging task in the world. However, the life of Jesus Christ, His role and sacrifice for the welfare for the mankind promotes love n peace in lives of human beings to great extent.

            There r mushroom-like religions each claims to be the best of all. This kind of religious extremism think, is the root cause for the hatred n violence among the people .I, though born n brought up in Hindu culture, don't abide myself with any belief, unless my heart from the depth accepts n feel positive. I pay deep respect to the religious sentiment of Christianity and other religions. 

            Now, I have been working in a glass company in NamDong Kongdan, Incheon. I have rented a room in Sanhak station.

Ju Didi, Rekmi bhai and others r all well.

            Nila, my better-half has said "Jay Messiah n Namaskar to u.

Optimistic that u would encourage and throw light to me in course of feeling and finding the presence of God and his purpose for man-kind, in my heart.  

Incase of mistakes, your corrections, comments and suggestions r warm-welcomed.

Curious about to know your howabouts.

Looking forward to receiving your mail so soon. "JAY MESSIAH !"

Truely yours,

Badal

On 10th April, Nepal voted for the constituent assembly that will write a new constitution for New Nepal.  Nearly 300 years old Monarchy is done and dusted as the people overwhelmingly voting for the Maoists who are determined to turn Nepal into a federal republic.  Votes are still being counted all across Nepal, but the result so far tell us that the communist party of Nepal (Maoists) is heading to a landslide victory.  Top leadership of Maoists is still trying to calm our fears of international isolation and internal labor camps, but we never know until we know what they will do when they start ruling the nation under their sickle and hammer.  The slogan of New Nepal is everywhere and the people who were tired of an autocratic king and corrupt politicians of the past are now willing to see if there is really a chance to have a new Nepal under the leadership of the Maoists.

Therefore, dear friends, continue to pray for us and our nation that we will truly have a new Nepal where there would be peace and security with the human freedom of speech and practice of our faith.  We do believe that it is God who raises the kings and dethrones them…the kings of Nepal had always been against the church of Jesus Christ and today they have seen their end come.  Lets hope and pray that the communists of Nepal will not try to do the same as the kings of the past.

After spending many years in theological education, I am still wondering what has gone wrong with our theological schools and seminaries!  Every other field of education (academia) has a direct correspondence with the real world of practice.  An engineer uses the tools of his or her learning into his profession.  A medical student is able to put all his or her know how into practice and treat a patient. An economics, a linguist, a scientist and you name it; all of them feel equipped to function in the real world.  But a theologian…when he or she enters into the real world of his field finds that the years of learning are about to betray him or her!  Yes, the theologian is prepared to argue his case, yes he or she is well prepared to explain all that is there to explain about the Bible, history, philosophy and you name it.  But when it comes to ministering to an individual who is in real need; all such knowledge flies out of the window.  The only thing that can save the theologian is if he or she has learnt to live and do things in the power of God and this is what is missing in most of the seminaries that I have attended over the years.

After I returned to Nepal, so many people have come with so many kinds of needs and somehow they expect me to be the person who can meet their needs.  How many times I had to fall on my face and ask God to show me how to face the person who comes with need.  Every day we have no electricity for 8 hours.  Even when there is electricity, we can not go out of our homes after 7 PM.  But last night a member of our church rang our door bell after 7 PM and informed me about a family that was in a dire need of someone to come and pray for them.  Their daughter (already married) had been sick for the last one year and they had done all they could in terms of medical and their traditional (religious) treatment and there seems to be no cure.  She is still a young lady, but her husband finally told her to go to her parent's house.  The parents took her in but from the last three days she lost speech and from tow days was in semi-consciousness. With no other option, they had heard about Christians.  In God's providence, one of their distant relative had just begun to attend our church and by the time they came in touch with that person, it was 6 PM.  Then they tried to telephone us, but our telephone would not work.  As a last resort, the new believer (not yet baptized) walked 30 minutes (no vehicles at night) and came to us.  My wife was about to serve our family dinner, but seeing the man and hearing the story, I took my flash light, asked a couple other nearby believers to join me and walked another 30 minutes to reach the house.  As we sat in their little house, we could feel the smell of death.  After a few minutes of prayers, it was obvious that the sickness was not physical but demonic and the lady who was not able to move began to stair at me with her white eyes and her body began to be shaken violantly.  It was at that time I saw my theology run out of window!  All I could hold on to was the very simple words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 10:19 and John 14:12-14, Mark16:16ff.  As we rebuked the evil spirit, the lady began to speak and asked for water.  After drinking a full glass of water, we led the lady to accept Christ.  Her body was weak and frail but after our prayer the parents confessed that she looks so different than how she was before we had arrived. 

I have spent well over 12 years in seminary life, but not even one time do I remember learning how to cast out the devil and heal the sick.  But in the real world, this is what brings a soul to the knowledge of God and helps one to minister to the needy.  I am afraid that our theological system has been trying to outsmart the Lord Jesus by thinking that demons and sickness belonged only in the past.  If Jesus being the Son of God needed to demonstrate the power of God by healing the sick, casting out the demons, how much a theologian needs to depend on God for these things in order to minister his people!

All across Nepal, people just seem to be depressed for one thing or the other.  I have met a few people after I returned and none seems to believe that any good things will come out of Nepal at this time.  Every young man and woman's dream at this time is somehow to get out of the country in search of better luck, no matter where the journey might take them.  Luckily, some end up in hospitable places but most are not that lucky.  Some commit suicide in Korea; some are killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.   Some spent their time in unknown jails of various countries.  But the outbound human traffic continues to grow everyday.  So much so, that the government itself has accepted that the export of human labor is the only thing Nepal can contribute to the world community.  Instead of looking for creating jobs in Nepal, the government is now seeking lucrative destinations where it can sell the most productive years in the lives of young Nepalis.

Since the rulers themselves acknowledge the hopelessness of this nation, the subjects can have no hope at all.  Sectarian violence has crippled the land for the last two weeks, but the government cares only for its survival, not the survival of a common man on the street.  Lawlessness, kidnappings, extortions and violence of all kind awaits us at our doorpost.  In the midst of it all, there is a group of people in Nepal that is hoping against all hopes that God is going to heal this land very soon.  We are now reaping the effects of the sins of our former generations; who had expelled the last remaining gospel witness nearly two hundred and fifty years ago and shut the doors against any further influence of the gospel.  As a result, the nation remained in the middle ages while the age of enlightenment swept through Europe and Asia.  Only in 1990, a Nepali person could believe in Jesus Christ without going to prison for that and today the Lord is building his church in Nepal.  Believers are crying out to God, confessing the sins of their forefathers so that the Lord will heal this land.  When we visit the churches, it is clear that the Lord is not going to forget this land and that is why there is hope even if depression is the mood.

Every local church is unique and has its distinct characteristics, but there is one unmistakable similarity among all churches (with rare exception); the vanishing percentage of the age group from 18 to 32.  The Korean Church in particular is aging so fast that after 20+ years children will be scared to hop in the church.  If the mistakes are not corrected, the church will look like a ghost house!  There are several factors contributing to this erosion of the young people from the church, but two of them have the most destructive power. 

Naturalism or Secular Humanism: As young people get out of high school and their secure family environment, they step into the world of universities and spiritually hostile world.  For the last two hundred years, a European myth of secular humanism has been masquerading in all non-Islamic cultures as the only intelligent option for a thinking man.  Man has become the measure of all things.  An intelligent person is assumed to be a naturalist and any confession of faith in a higher power other than man is leveled as superstition and human weakness or ignorance.  Religion has become the best topic of ridicule in every department of even so called Christian universities and intellectual atheism became the hallmark of scholarship and academia.   Rational mind was replaced by natural mind and reality reduced to what one can see, touch, hear, taste and smell.  Life has no meaning except that which we give to it and there is no purpose except procreation. 

Now, contrast this with what the children were taught in their homes and churches, and you can feel the pain and ambivalent feelings in these delicate young minds.  Prior to their baptism in such a hostile university environment, they were never told or equipped to counter such intellectual onslaught from the sophisticated professors and the senior students.  In order to prove that they are no dummies, these fragile minds sooner began to buy the pseudo-intelligent position of atheism.

Commercial Christianity: First, let me give you a real case of a church that I attend once a while here in Korea.  Membership is about 800 (in their bulletin) and the church is about 40 years old.  They have a beautiful and luxurious church building (I don’t have exact figure, but not less than 50 million dollars.  With some exception, most of the members are from the low-income families and the building is built with debt from the government and every week members are bombarded with ads and announcements for paying that debt. Senior Pastor’s salary alone is 110,000US$ a year and church gives him the most luxury car in Korea.  Church provides him the penthouse apartment, church pays the fuel for his car and all medical and whatever insurances for him and his family.  When he travels within Korea or abroad, church pays for that too.  Now, talk about this pastor’s vision for young people! There are less than 30 young adult in his church!  And these young people can not use that beautiful church building for their programs.  The church has an ordinary building for these young people and the children.  That awesome sanctuary is used only two days in a week (Sunday and Wednesday) only by the real church members (above 32 years old).  They have everyday Morning Prayer, but it is held in a basement.  Any church member that talks about investing on young people is sidelined by the pastor.  I knew a medical doctor’s family that attended that church and they had a teenager son who was no longer interested to go to Church.  When the father complain of no interesting activities in the church for such young people, he was told to find another church (possibly the whole family now does not attend any church).  The pastor keeps a well documented record of the members who pay their tithe and offering and his ultimate mission is to keep these members happy and satisfied (in every service the names of the people who give money are announced from the pulpit).  To become an elder in that church you have to pay 7,000 to 10,000$ offering to the church and to become a deacon, 3,000 to 5,000$ (depending how rich you are).  The majority of the membership now is over 55.  Imagine what is going to happen to this church after 20 years if there is no significant change taking place!

This case may sound extreme to some, but it is not in Korea and I am sure it is also happening in most of the advanced and wealthy nations where materialism has replaced spirituality (poorer countries are no exception. Rather this problem is compounded with greater temptations in the face of the abject poverty).  This Church can be the representative to the majority of the churches.  There are a handful of exceptional churches where the pastors and the churches are willing to invest in reaching young people (but with little success).  Otherwise the youth ministry is only an after thought and if it is done, it is done in an old traditional style where I myself (42 years old) find it so boring to sit. 

Korea is one of the most literate nations in the world, but the intellectual climate in the church I find is very much wanting even in the face of the phenomenal numerical and commercial growth of the Korean church.  The Korean church boasts of being one of the largest missionary sending churches in the world, but their missionaries continue to suffer from the lack of cultural understanding and adaptability and the focus of these most missionaries is fund raising so that they also can live the kind of lifestyle that the Korean pastors are living in their homeland.  Church has absolutely become a commercial hub and God is absent in most of its programs. 

The intellectual atheists who make the mockery of the genuine religion, when they find the real mockery in the church; it’s a gold mine for them.  The young minds that had so far trusted the church, their family, and their community are now left with no option but to be cynical and skeptical towards the church.  The leadership in the church is not capable of presetting to these young minds any solid counter arguments to ward off the skeptical onslaught.  In fact, the reason the church can not confront the secular humanism is because the leadership in the church is so weak intellectually.  In most cases a person wants to become a pastor or a missionary when all other options in life had failed (I recognize that there are few genuine pastors and missionaries who have heard the divine call in their lives).  Then such weaklings see themselves in the light of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and somehow justify their lack of competence.  The idea of preaching the pure word of God is used to conceal this greed and ignorance in the church Rather than becoming a role model (symbol of pride) for the young people who are battling the world of intellectual atheism and pantheism, these greedy and ignorant pastors and missionaries (church) provide sufficient causes to be ashamed of it.  The church leadership (church) becomes the weak link in the battle of capturing the young minds and no wonder European Cathedrals are now a thing of the past and there is no reason to hope any better for the magnificent modern church buildings if the young people are left to fend for themselves and church continues to be the case of shame.