Nepali Christians Make Their Own Holiday
ICC Note: Update on Christians in Nepal
2/01/10 Nepal (ANS) -- The people of Nepal celebrate their favorite annual holiday with family gatherings, parties with friends, vacations from work and thousands of bloody animal sacrifices to their favorite goddess. The people drench her statue in blood for the duration of the festival, which was the last week of September.
Nepali Christians stop worshiping the goddess when they choose to follow Christ, but their refusal to participate in the country's most popular public holiday has caused problems for some of them. Now they celebrate with a festival of their own: They worship Jesus and His shed blood instead.
During the week-long event, 124 Christians from churches led by GFA-supported missionaries came together for revival meetings, Bible teaching, fellowship meals and plenty of worshipful thanks for Jesus' salvation in their lives.
Attending a Christian revival meeting was a new experience for most of these first-generation believers. It was also special for many of them who had never worshiped in such a large group before. Most of them attend small village churches led by GFA-supported missionaries. The event filled a need for these men and women and helped them to step away from the frenzied commotion in the streets and draw closer to the Lord instead.
The believers are grateful for this new tradition and hope that instead of offering animal sacrifices, many more of their friends and neighbors will join them in worshiping Jesus in the days to come.
