Nepal's parliament missed a May 28 deadline two years after
being given a mandate to write a new constitution. They re-expressed commitment to prepare the
integrated draft of the new constitution by August 31.

However, one element of the new draft is causing great concern
amongst believers. Carl Moeller with Open Doors says, "Christians had been experiencing freedom
that they hadn't experienced in past years. Now, this seems to create an
additional level of legal constraint on
anyone who would convert from one religion to another." An attached bill is a kind of an
anti-conversion law, which Moeller says is "always going to particularly single
out Christianity."  

Since a full constitution won't be ready to implement by
August, the mandate has been simplified to hammering out a first draft for the
public to see. On June 23, officials
presented new penal codes that could see the return of a ban on religious
conversions. Many of the revisions were
to revamp outdated codes, but the timing is critical. "How this impacts the
formation of a new constitution is going to be very much on our radar
screen," notes Moeller, adding that "there are groups that are going to try to get in and create situations in the
writing of the constitution that are advantageous to them."

The new codes would effectively re-criminalize
evangelization and religious conversion. "Some of the Hindu extremists in that area–those that are far more
fundamentalist–are pushing these things forward. That's taken a lot of the
Christian community there by surprise."

The lack of a Constitution and the presence of a confused government lulled people into a false sense of
security. "Christians there have been
blindsided by this, but they are pushing forward to try to make their case
before these changes take place in the Constitution."

There is still a possibility that believers can turn the
situation around. "In any situation
where there's a protracted lack of governing authority like a constitutional
process, it becomes less and less respected as that process goes on, and
some of the direction of the new have
not yet been fully formed," Moeller says.  

Adding the revised penal codes as written would reverse the
secularism embraced by the Himalayan country in 2006. Moeller agrees. "Wherever we see these sorts of restrictive
laws, it puts a strain on evangelistic efforts."

Now that the anti-conversion vocabulary has been added back
into the conversation, it could change the definitions of ministry. In
speaking to a Nepalese Christian worker, Moeller says one of the greatest
challenges is already on their doorstep. "It's not necessarily just the passage of the
laws, but the change of the common dialogue to where any evangelistic efforts
are viewed as bribery against people."

In other words, an open dialogue that involves truth claims
about Christ will be viewed with suspicion. Any effort to meet both physical and spiritual needs puts a ministry at
risk. As a result, Moeller says, "People
are going to experience a lot of ‘chilling effect' when it comes to
evangelistic efforts."

However, the new codes are not yet set in stone. "We really have to consider what it means for
us to stand with them and to let our voice be heard to say, ‘This is the right
thing to do.'" Other than the August 28
deadline, there is little public information about the time frames of the
Constitutional re-work.    

Pray that the freedom to share the hope of faith in Christ
will remain established in this country.

Nepal's Prime Minister argued that the Maoists should be removed
from the list because they had given up fighting and promised to install a
multiparty democracy.

The Maoist-led government will
oversee the preparation of a new constitution by May next year, capping the
peace deal that ended a war in which more than 13,000 people died.

While many believers see the
Maoist party victory as a step towards greater religious freedom, Christians
continue to face the crosshairs of political insurgents.

As recently as July 2008, members
of the Nepal Defense Army, a terrorist group that wants Hinduism restored as
the state religion, broke into the Don Bosco mission in eastern Nepal and killed
a Roman Catholic priest from India.

Yet, a worker with Operation Mobilization, whom we'll call "Solomon," says
while it has been a rough road, they actually have more freedom for ministry
now. "When the Maoists were quite violent within the villages, the police
who were the people who always used to arrest us and confiscate the literature,
were no longer worried about our Christian work. With the Maoists taking over and declaring
Nepal a secular state, most of their anti-religion activity has been against
the Hindu fundamentalists."

Their diverted attention leaves
the ministry team free to focus on evangelism training in the remote
areas. "We're running a
three-month training program, where we bring in between 100-150
students for some short training for about 14 days. Then we send them out on
outreaches within the villages for about 30 days."

According to an OM report, a
recent three-month Winter Outreach Program saw 120 Nepalis participate. After the initial training period, they went
out into the towns and villages to share the Gospel. Six weeks later, they took
a break and met together for feedback and further training.

Their report:  Around 355 villages received literature, approximately 6,000 to 7,000 pieces of literature were distributed, and
nine people came to faith.

In addition, the team helped at Sunday schools with new songs and shared their
testimonies at house group meetings. They also taught youth groups new songs
and dramas about outreach, shared testimonies, and preached at women's meetings,
as well as taught new songs and drama for worship meetings.

The team further challenged local churches to get involved in outreach and were
role models for them by going house to house visiting, performing outreaches in
the marketplace, and in personal outreach.They also worked with street
children, and taught about HIV/AIDS awareness in schools.

Pray that local churches would
continue to cultivate their outreach programs and the new believers.

At stake is the retooling of the entire government. Newly-elected lawmakers are expected essentially to turn Nepal into a federal
republic.

Gospel For Asia's KP Yohannan says, "The kind of people
that are going to be appointed to create the constitution will have huge
significance, especially on religious freedom in the country. That's why everybody
is waiting anxiously to see what happens."

However, secularism does not guarantee freedom of religion,
or an open door for missionaries. Regardless
of who leads the government, GFA leaders urge Christians to both pray and take
action while a window of peace is open.  

GFA Radio is
broadcasting the Gospel on stations across the country, including the
government's Radio Nepal. GFA primary
schools also serve as a major avenue of outreach to Nepal's people, especially
the Dalits.

Yohannan says, "Pray that the government will have at
least a handful of Christian representatives in their work on creating the new
constitution for the country. That is,
of course, significant. Pray for the missionaries, pastors and believers that
they would have wisdom to responding to the situation correctly in the midst of
the uncertainties."

The Maoists have been a source of instability within the country even after they joined the interim government earlier this year. They are now laying out demands that have permanently
postponed the elections that were scheduled for November 22. Christians unwilling to side with either the government or the Maoists have often found themselves in the crossfire.

Partners International is trying to help the fresh movement of Christianity in Nepal. They assisted the National Churches Fellowship of Nepal to build the Tikapur Training Center in
western Nepal. 

The challenge for the growing church had been a lack of training for leaders before the center was built. Now, those who train at the center often plant visionary churches. "One of the first priorities, then, of that new church is to reach the neighboring tribal groups where they have normally some kind of a kinship relationship to bring the Gospel into that group. So this is a very grassroots level kind of movement," said Tom Chandler who traveled
to the center in September.

Chandler says that in this situation, leaders who come to the training center have risen up
naturally since there are no elders to choose them.    

Chandler helped with training while he visited. He met a man who was formerly a Maoists but
had become a Christian. "When he came to faith in Chris, the Maoists actually put him in a cage in the jungle for a year, and they mentally tortured him," said Chandler. The man luckily had memorized the first three chapters of the book of Colossians that he repeated over and over to maintain his strength.

Another young woman ran away from her non-Christian family to come to the center. When Chandler asked what would happen when she went home, she said, "I will be beaten, and in fact, I could be beaten very severely."    

The journey to the training center is not an easy one for those who wish to attend from any distance. During Chandler's visit, there was flooding and extreme heat, not to
mention a malaria outbreak. 

Chandler says that persecution is present in the west but that it often has the opposite of the intended effect. "Now that the church has begun to grow, there's been more and more of an acceptance of the fact that Christianity is going to continue there. So a little bit of the persecution has dropped off since then." 

Interserve's Doug VanBronkhorst says, "It's a time of
transition, but it's relatively peaceful in Nepal right now.  The Maoist
insurgency is more or less over and they're working some sort of new, shared
government."

June elections will see an assembly chosen, charged with the
task of re-writing Nepal's
constitution.  From there, the constituent assembly will decide if Nepal's
monarchy continues. 

There is a shift toward independence that's being felt by
ministry teams, too.  VanBronkhorst says because they go with the mindset
of being a Christian professional, the church has steadily been growing for a
time like this. "There's a transition in Nepal now, too, from the
traditional NGO expatriate organizations being led by foreigners to them being
led by Nepali Christians and the Nepali church taking the initiative in some of
those programs."

Yet, there's a lot that western Christian professionals can
still provide working alongside some of the new emerging Christian Nepali NGOs.  It's training, mentoring and discipleship,
all rolled into one ministry.

Interserve works with educators for expatriate children as
well as local schools and universities. 
They also collaborate with other organizations to increase effective
student work, as well as provide programs for English as a Foreign Language.

On the other side of their ministry, Interserve provides medical,
nursing and dental training.  That's also
supported by community development/Micro-enterprise Business education.

Please pray for maturity and unity among church leaders.  Pray too for excellent training programs for
new leaders.  There are many
opportunities available to support their work in Central
Asia.  Short-term teams are
forming.  Click here if you want more
information.