Ripple Effect: Meeting Needs, Reaching Hearts

As we continue to talk about seeing God’s glory in communities across the world, we want to bring your attention back to Nepal, where Mission ONE has spent a significant amount of time alongside local partners, doing life together and helping meet the needs of the local community.

We believe that both body and spirit matter to God as we were created in His image and for His glory. When we serve communities near and far, we’re helping them meet their most basic physical needs such as shelter, empowering them to create opportunities to be fruitful in dignified work, and caring for their own community. We are simultaneously bringing back hope and pointing them to our creator, who loves them and has given them a purpose here and now.

The Chepang (or Cave People) of Nepal, have experienced extreme conditions—including living in caves, until recently. Helping empower even one person in a situation like that brings purpose and joy to them, their family, and can transform a community., It becomes a powerful example of Gods love for those who witness the transformation

When surrounding villages see the impact God’s people have on communities like the Chepang—seeing Christians helping them—no strings attached, it creates a curiosity. In turn, it becomes an opportunity for them to truly see the Father’s love in action. You see, physical needs are just as important as spiritual ones because we are made whole in both spirit and body in Christ, and each opportunity to share the gospel can bring about restoration and hope transforming entire communities without borders and beyond our comprehension.

Thanks to your support and our global partners, the Cave People now have a community garden to grow their own food, and have begun distributing goats to breed and sell, developing a microeconomy of their own living more like the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Bringing Hope to the Hardest Places

Nepal is notoriously hostile towards Christians. Out of the entire country of 30 million people, only 5% of the population identify as Christian, with Hinduism dominating as the major religion. In fact, the country has an anti-conversion law that prevents anyone from being evangelized to; breaking this law is considered a criminal offense, punishable up to five years in prison.

In a dangerous faith context like this, most people would have turned away. Yet despite the risks, a pastor of a nearby village, and Mission ONE partner persisted to bring hope to the Cave People, in this difficult corner of Nepal.

The Worth Of Our Work 

Work has always been part of God’s design for His people; however, one aspect of poverty that is often overlooked is the ability to participate in meaningful, dignified work that allows someone to meet their basic needs—and eventually use their God-given skills to live fully into God’s purpose for their life. That changes everything!

The best humanitarian projects are those focused on the end goal, not a short-term relief project that inevitably causes communities to slip back into poverty.

We stand by this, and that’s why Mission ONE creates projects alongside communities to develop long-term local sustainable ventures that the community itself owns and can grow. What started as a relief response to a landslide that displaced the Cave People, has developed into a holistic development project poised to be duplicated in 3,900 communities in Nepal. 

Like the Cave People, many of these groups are remote, located at high altitudes, and disconnected from the rest of society but despite these conditions, conversations about God are taking place in small spaces around the world just as much as they are in larger gatherings—that is powerful.

God didn’t just provide a solution to a problem for the Cave People, in His perfect plan He brought people together to collectively create something unique and bring about hope and joy again to a great number of people.

To find out how you can make an impact and help our mission, visit our website.