Asian Missions

What is God Doing in Nepal? | Thir Koirala

Today on the Evangelism Podcast I interview Pastor Thir Koirala, a Nepali pastor who is doing incredible work reaching the Asian diaspora in the United States. Pastor Koirala shares how he is training local church leaders to be “peace ambassadors” and establish peace centers in their communities. He also discusses the unique challenges facing the younger generation of Asian Americans who struggle to connect with their parents’ native language and culture.

Summary:

Pastor Thir Koirala is from Nepal and has been working as a pastor there for over 10 years, as well as being involved in various mission ministries. Since 2019, he has been working as the Asia Regional Coordinator for the Peace and Reconciliation network of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
The Peace and Reconciliation network aims to train local church leaders and Christians to be “peace ambassadors” and establish local churches as “peace centers”.
There is a large Nepali diaspora, with an estimated half a million Nepali people living in the United States alone. Many of these Nepali immigrants are not yet Christian, representing a significant opportunity for evangelism.
Pastor Thir encourages American Christians to reach out to immigrant communities, build relationships, show them the love of Christ, and invite them to church activities

Transcript:

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me. DeThir Koirala from Nepal, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Pastor Thir Koirala (00:12):
You’re you’re welcome.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:12):
And so you are from Nepal, but you are also working in the United States and have a church there. So tell me a little bit about your ministry and what you do for the Lord.

Pastor Thir Koirala (00:27):
I work as a pastor in Nepal for more than 10 years. And then I involve in the mission ministry, different mission ministry. I work with the Micah Global in Trivial Mission. How can church be light and salt in the community and serve the gospel, change and transform the life of the people? That is our goal. Then since 2019, I’ve been working as a Asia Regional coordinator on Peace and Reconciliation network. That means reconcile with guard, reconcile with people.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:57):
And so that’s under the

Pastor Thir Koirala (00:59):
WE,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:00):
The World Evangelical Alliance, which I was there last week at the conference at So Wrong

Pastor Thir Koirala (01:07):
Church

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:09):
In Seoul, Korea. It was so beautiful to see all of the pastors from around the world gather together. And the work that you do with the WEA is so valuable. And so tell me a little bit about that work and what it involves.

Pastor Thir Koirala (01:24):
Normally we promote peace and reconciliation work through the local church and Christian peace builder. We want to train people who keep local leaders to establish peace in the community. We want to see if every local church be a peace center and every local pastor, local leader, every Christian become a peace ambassador. What kind of this world we can see, today’s world is factored, broken everywhere you can see. So we need to heal this. Most of the time we focused this word, but also we need to solve. We need to focus body and mind. This world is completely going to broken war, loneliness, singleness, a lot of things are there. So how can we address them? How can we saw them? Our love through Jesus love, through our life. That is our focus. So we work with local church, we work with the denomination, we work with the National Alliance, regional Alliance, Israel. We work with theological institution with its peace and reconciliation, Bible college.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:33):
Now you also work with the Asian diaspora, which people from Asia have moved all over the

Pastor Thir Koirala (02:40):
World.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:41):
And you’re from Nepal. And you told me that there are many people in the United States from Nepal. How many people would you estimate?

Pastor Thir Koirala (02:49):
Estimated half million Nepalese people. They live in America only. So in Canada, huge number of people that are living and all over the globe. Nepali people everywhere. I travel more than 50 countries. And then everywhere I found at least one Nepal church.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:05):
And many of those nepalis don’t know Jesus.

Pastor Thir Koirala (03:08):
Many very minority people are accept Jesus because Nepal is in the dominated country. Even in Nepal it’s a more than 80%. People there follow Hinduism. So in America who lives as immigrants in America. So I think it’s about 1% only Christian are there.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:27):
Wow. So this actually represents a huge opportunity for the church.

Pastor Thir Koirala (03:31):
Exactly.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:31):
Because in Nepal there are certain restrictions on sharing the gospel. Sometimes there is persecution,

Pastor Thir Koirala (03:41):
Sometimes

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:41):
There are difficulties in telling people about Jesus. But with the diaspora, God has brought these Nepali people from Nepal right. To America. And they might be your neighbor.

Pastor Thir Koirala (03:54):
They

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:55):
Might be living next door to you. I know there are a few Nepali people in Tulsa where I live. And this represents an opportunity for the church to show love to these people. Exactly. And to introduce them

Pastor Thir Koirala (04:08):
To Jesus. Exactly. That’s a great opportunity. So mission field is there in North America and Europe, many, many immigrants are there. So we need to build a relationship and show love of Jesus through our action and we can share gospel and good news and save life.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:29):
Amen. So what message would you give to Christians in America who maybe are at the grocery store and they meet someone from Nepal? What would you say to them? What encouragement would you give them?

Pastor Thir Koirala (04:41):
Actually, yeah. I’m encouraging or I’m messaging to most of the American church. I would like to thank them because they send the missionaries to our country, Asia, Africa, and other countries. That’s why we are here. But now Mission field is in their home country. Huge, huge number of immigrants are there. So just go there, meet them, build relationship, love them. And so the love of Christ, that is a great opportunity. And if you see any immigrants in a grocery store or they are, most of them, they are culturally shocked or they’re lonely or something, they’re seeking something, you can show

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:35):
Your love. So invite them over to your house for dinner, maybe build a relationship with them, have a coffee together. Oh, that’s invite them to some type of activity at your church.

Pastor Thir Koirala (05:45):
Yeah. I found that there’s a gap between American and immigrants. Most of both side immigrants also. They feel something like a culturally or socially they fill gap there. And American also, they field. So we need to fill the gap. We need to be breezed between. I know many American sisters and I visited huge Mega Koreans are there and some streets and they’re doing amazing, but still need to connect each other, love each other, learn each other. Like a thousand members in Ohio, one of the man mans there. They have thousands of members like Russians are there, Chinese church are there. So how can I learn each other? And big challenge today, young generation who are growing in America, they have a big challenge. That’s a language. Their parents came from other country like in Nepal or India. Anyway, they speak their own language. They want their children to speak their language, but they grow. They go to American school. They already,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:00):
Maybe they know some of their understand their Nepali language, but they speak English. And then third generation, only English,

Pastor Thir Koirala (07:08):
They don’t feel comfortable. And there are 200 plus Nepal church in America. But young generation, they go to church, but they don’t understand what is pastoral preaching, what is singing. Some they know the song,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:22):
But

Pastor Thir Koirala (07:23):
Most of the preaching, they don’t understand When they grow, they are not entrusted to go. So how can we connect with American church and build them new generation in English language.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:33):
Wonderful. Well thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast.

Pastor Thir Koirala (07:38):
Thank

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:38):
You so much. And I’d really encourage you as you’re listening to this, to reach out to diaspora, to the people that are not in their home country, that have gone to another country. And that represents a great opportunity for the church to minister to them, to reach them, and to bring them ultimately to faith in Christ.

Pastor Thir Koirala (08:01):
Amen. So

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:02):
Thank you. God bless

Pastor Thir Koirala (08:03):
You. Thank you. Thank you Daniel.

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Arise Asia | David Ro

Today on the Evangelism Podcast, I interview David Ro. He has been leading a movement called Arise Asia that is having a massive impact on young people across Asia. We’ll hear all about this inspiring work and David’s vision for the future of Asian missions.

Learn more about Arise Asia: https://www.ariseasia.org/

Summary:

Arise Asia is a movement that has brought together over 11,000 young people from 37 countries across Asia, challenging them to “go where there’s no gospel.” This has resulted in over 1,600 commitments from young people to long-term or one-year cross-cultural missions.
The goal of Arise Asia is to “catalyze this generation, gen Z” and see the movement spread to other regions like the MENA region and Latin America. The aim is to give young people a “God’s heart for the nation” and a sense of purpose.
Rather than “softening the gospel”, Arise Asia takes the approach of “lifting the bar high” and challenging young people to be willing to give their lives and potentially face martyrdom for Jesus.
This bold approach has resonated with young people, with large numbers responding by committing to long-term missions, even to places with difficult or dangerous conditions.

Transcript:

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, David Ro. Yes. It’s wonderful to have you on the podcast. Thank you. Yes, nice to meet you, and great to be here. And so you have been leading a movement called a Rise Asia and having a massive impact with the young people here in Asia. Tell me about

David Ro – Arise Asia (00:23):
It. Yeah, so Arise Asia started about two and a half years ago. We brought together 1800 young people from 37 countries across Asia, and we challenged them with one message. We have one life, one challenge go where there’s no gospel. And it’s interesting, we’ve just seen young people respond. Hundreds came to the front, given their lives to long-term cross-cultural missions. We’ve seen now a 15% response rate to that. And now many are also given their lives to one year. And then we’ve seen now this movement continue from country to country, city to city. We’ve now been in 10 countries, 29 cities, close to 11,000. Young people have come to our events now and about 1600 commitments.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:08):
And what is your long-term hope for this movement? What would you like to see God do?

David Ro – Arise Asia (01:14):
So we want to catalyze this generation, gen Z, and we’re also hoping to see what happens in Asia could multiply into other regions of the world. We’re going into the MENA region. We’re going to start in the rise Latino, actually in January. And so hopefully one day it’ll be in all across the globe. But we’ll start with Asia just to get young people first excited for God. Revival is important, excited for God, but they want to do something for the Lord. They want to have a purpose in life. So we give them God’s heart for the nation.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:45):
This new generation faces some of the greatest challenges in history, but they also face some of the greatest opportunities. What do you feel are some of the keys to getting a younger generation involved in what God is doing?

David Ro – Arise Asia (02:02):
So most of the Gen Z ministries that we’ve heard in the past are more trying to soften the gospel, lowering the bar to get young people to come to church. We go the opposite way. We actually lift the bar high. We say give your life to go, and it would be a sacrifice or suffering and possibly martyrdom. So we’re asking young people to give their lives to die for something, which then they say, wow, there’s something worth dying for. So there must be something worth living for. And that’s the gospel. They’re a purpose driven generation, just like any generation, but especially this generation. They want to give their lives to something great.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:40):
Your ask is pretty intense. All we’re asking for you is be willing to give your life for Jesus,

David Ro – Arise Asia (02:46):
Be willing to die for Jesus. That’s the message we share. And we thought, well, maybe that’s a little bit too strong, but that’s the gospel message. John chapter 12, A seed must die in order for it, and they’re responding to that message. Of course, we have many speakers that give their lives. To show an example, we’ve given our life to an unreached people group. We myself, we gave our lives to China. And so we’re giving just many examples of people who have done that and they’re saying, wow, I want to give my life. And I’ve seen people doing it now and I want to do it in my generation.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:18):
Share with me a testimony. What have you seen God do in some of the young people who have come to these events?

David Ro – Arise Asia (03:24):
So I’ll just give you one example. We just did a Rice Sumatra, which is an island in Indonesia. I mentioned two American missionaries came in 1833. They were actually killed and cannibalize. They were eaten. But that tribe, the Batak people eventually became Christians. Now it’s 80, 90% Christian on that island. And that tribe now is getting ready to send. So when I preached and we shared the gospel message, they had many Anton who’s leading the conference, was actually from Botta. And then one of the younger ladies who was part of our rise movement in Rise, Indonesia a few months earlier, gave her life to serve in the border of Thailand and Laos. She came back to share. She said, I couldn’t speak much English, I couldn’t speak any Thai, but I just gave my life to serve. And young people responded to that message more than all the senior. They saw a young person responding to that message, actually going and serving people, coming back and sharing that you can do it too. And young people responded. Like I said, the response rate was out of 221, young people, 80, 90 young people gave their lives to long-term or one year commitment. That’s kind of like, do you remember that Mount Herman 100, the student volunteer movement started with 251 people and 100 people gave their lives to world missions. That’s what launched a student of volunteer movement. So we’re seeing that kind of response in Asia.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:51):
Wow, what a powerful testimony. If someone wants to find out more information about what you’re doing, what is a good website or way to get in touch with you?

David Ro – Arise Asia (05:01):
So we’re a rise asia.org. You can see. And then just click the movements. You’ll see all the dots in all the countries across and just see what’s heck happening. Philippines, we’ve done 13 events now, and so there’s also some countries that are more, we’re not putting online, but because of sensitivity, but the movement is taking off.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:23):
What a great blessing. Let’s finish by praying for the young people of Asia and the young people of the world. Would you lead us in a prayer for Gen X, gen alpha and everything that God wants to do through this

David Ro – Arise Asia (05:34):
Generation? Yes. Father, we just thank you God for a new movement of God among the Gen Zs who are really hungering for purpose in life. And Lord, as hundreds of them, thousands of them are coming and hearing the message that has been preached from the very beginning, go and make disciples of all nations. And Lord, we want to see not just the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, but to the ends of the earth. And with the spirit of what Paul said, I make it my ambition to go where Christ’s name is not known. Lord, we pray, God, this next generation would capture that God’s heart for the nations lay down their lives. They saw in the early church, they have seen in the missionaries today, but most importantly, they’ve seen an example of Jesus Christ who came down on earth, gave us an example of laying down his life for us. May this next generation follow in Jesus’s footsteps. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:29):
Amen. Brother David, thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Thank

David Ro – Arise Asia (06:33):
You, brother.

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Indonesia

Kupang, Indonesia

I am excited to share with you about our Gospel Festival held recently in Kupang, Indonesia. At this outreach we witnessed a powerful demonstration of God’s love being poured out upon the city and God performed incredible miracles of salvation and healing.

Kupang, Indonesia, is a vibrant city located on the western tip of Timor Island in Indonesia. It serves as the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province and is known for its picturesque coastal views and lively urban atmosphere. The city boasts a rich cultural heritage with a blend of indigenous Timorese traditions and influences from Portuguese and Dutch colonial history. Kupang’s bustling markets, friendly locals, and scenic waterfront make it a charming destination. Our Gospel Festival was held in a plaza at the waterfront at the foot of a beautiful lighthouse.

The Gospel Festival Almost Did Not Happen

Twenty-four hours before our Gospel Festival in Indonesia was scheduled to start, we did not know if it was even going to happen. The problem was the lack of a permit. To host an outdoor event in Indonesia the government requires churches to get official permission. This permit cannot be obtained locally. It has to be issued in the capital city of Jakarta. Our team applied for the permit long in advance, but because of bureaucratic red tape our permission was delayed.

The problem is that the churches are not permitted to do any advertising until they have the permit in hand. If they put up any posters or banners without the permit, the local police will take down the advertising. So, not only did we not know if we could do the event, but we were unable to do our normal level of marketing.

But, right in the nick of time, we received word that the permit had been issued! Halleluiah! We leaped into action to start advertising. Sound cars immediately started driving around the city of Kupang announcing, “If you need a miracle, come to the Gospel Festival and Jesus will heal you.” All the Christians started texting invitations to people on WhatsApp, a popular messaging application. We used Facebook advertising to tell people about the exciting event.

Even with the last-minute advertising, we were blessed because the location of our event is in a public square right in the middle of the city. The plaza is located right next to the ocean and it is popular place for young people to hang out as the sun goes down. Many people come to this location to eat, to walk along the beach, and to spend time with their friends.

As our music team played upbeat songs, people were attracted from near and far. They enjoyed watching our choir of young girls waving flags and playing tambourines. After the music attracted everyone’s attention, a local leader opened the event by striking a gong. All the pastors released doves into the air. Once the birds were set free, I preached about how Jesus can set sinners free. When I gave the altar call, many people gave their lives to Jesus.

Jesus Sets People Free

Each day at the Gospel Festival, the message of Jesus Christ was proclaimed with boldness and clarity. Hearts were touched, and lives were transformed. The Holy Spirit moved among the crowd. Many people responded to the call of salvation and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It was a moving experience to see so many come forward to the front, surrendering their lives to the One who loves them and who died for them.

In addition to the salvations, we also witnessed many miraculous healings. By the power of Jesus, individuals were healed of various physical aches and pains. People who had been suffering for years walked away disease-free, and others experienced a restoration of health that only God can provide. These testimonies of healing are a testament to the living power of Jesus Christ, who continues to work signs and wonders among us today.

We are grateful to everyone who prayed for and supported this event. Your faithfulness and prayers played a crucial role in making this festival a success.

Jogjakarta, Indonesia

Watch Daniel King in the nation of Indonesia as he reaches out to Muslims who need Jesus. At our Gospel Festival in Jogjakarta, Indonesia we were in the shadow of a Muslim Mosque. Our message was clear. Only Jesus can save people from their sins. When the name of Jesus was mentioned, some Muslim leaders became upset and a riot almost started. But despite the opposition, many lives were changed forever!

Deli Tua, Sumatra

Kisaran, Indonesia

Daniel & Jessica King went to Kisaran, Indonesia for a Gospel Festival.

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