Our Himalayan team treks for days to share the Good News with mountain-dwelling peoples. In our last story from the region, we shared that the team felt it prudent to leave one village early because some there were afraid of outsiders during this time of Coronavirus.

Leaving early gave them time to visit a small village of 18 homes where a teammate had been discipling a family towards Christ. At the outbreak of the pandemic, Dalha, a follower of Jesus, moved back to this remote village where she had been raised. Many others did likewise, opening opportunities for followers of Jesus to share their faith with unreached family and friends whom they rarely see.

At Dalha’s invitation, the team stayed overnight with her family. They led the family and a few others from the village in a Discovery Bible Study and prayed over them. The next morning, as the team turned to leave, one man stepped forward and said, “Pray for us because we are becoming like you.”
  
Glory to God! This man recognizes that he and his family are turning toward belief in Christ and away from their traditional religion. Pray for this family as they are being discipled toward Christ.

*pseudonym

BEYOND’s Himalayan team treks out to meet and build relationships with families and disciple them toward Jesus. One family they met had relationship problems and asked for prayer. A team member prayed aloud for God to intervene in specific ways.

On the following trip, the family greeted them enthusiastically. “Everything you prayed for happened just like you asked!” One answered prayer had been the marriage of their daughter. 

The answered prayers allowed the team to share more about Jesus and becoming his follower.

Before the team left, the family shared that the daughter had miscarried, and the baby had been deformed. They believed they were cursed. Again the team prayed, asking for a healthy baby and blessing on the family.

This year the team found that a beautiful baby had been added to the family. God had answered their prayers again.
A few hours after arriving, however, some villagers told them to leave. Outsiders were not allowed during the pandemic.The family’s grandmother stepped forward: “These are our visitors, and they will stay in our home. If you are worried, don’t come around our family or house for two weeks after they leave.”
 
The team only stayed one night but are thankful for that time of discipleship. 

*Joel has been leading a disciple-making training in the Tibetan Himalayas. One of its critical components is reproducibility. The participants are immediately released to practice the principles and train others to do likewise. Out of all the groups Joel has trained, this one has been the quickest to obey Scripture. They are all eager to see God’s kingdom come in their communities. 

In lesson two, they looked at the Great Commandment from Mark 12 and at Deuteronomy 6. Based on these passages, Joel trains people to do and say intentional things in their daily lives that show others they are followers of Jesus. 

The following week, they discussed the results. Several had had spiritual conversations with people they had known for years but with whom they had never before shared their faith. One woman was able to share what it means to be a follower of Jesus after someone saw the way she handled a disagreement with a coworker. Another person shared how he led two people to the Lord that week by following God’s commands in Deuteronomy 6!

Pray for this group to continue their exuberant obedience to God’s teachings. Pray they would see abundant and lasting fruit.

*pseudonym

When Joel,* a cross-cultural worker in Asia, arrived at the Disciple-Making Movement (DMM) training, he was shocked to see Paul*. “Why is he here?” Joel wondered. For six years, he’d tried to get Paul, a Tazig* believer, to attend a training. Joel had invited him multiple times, but Paul had never come. Why, then, was he at a training Joel hadn’t invited him to? 

The answer was Sami, an influential local pastor who had attended an online DMM training Joel had conducted. Sami had been so impressed that he wanted his whole network to take the training. Joel and Sami met to plan it. In the course of conversation, Joel mentioned his work among the Tazig and Sami remarked on his recent contact with Paul. Briefly, Joel shared his history with Paul.

That’s how Paul ended up coming to the training! Sami had invited him. God is using Sami to draw people otherwise unwilling to respond. 

In every movement documented, God has used the combined strengths of cultural outsiders and insiders to catalyze the movements. God is touching Sami’s heart to look beyond his church and pursue seeing every people group discipled. That includes the Tazig people and Paul!

*pseudonym