Gangs of Nepal
Pokhara, Nepal is one most beautiful but hardest-to-reach places that we work with. Thirty-six hours, four plane rides and twelve time zones after leaving Denver I finally reached my destination. The travel is long but the time spent there is well worth it. This was my second time visiting Pokhara in the past 12 months. As my teammates and I began our time in Pokhara things seemed to move on as they had in our previous trip, but little did I know I was about to see a more violent side of Nepal than I ever expected.
One of the things that my good friend Hom Tamang, Young Life director in Nepal, likes us to help out with when we visit him is his outreach camps. While we were there, Hom put on a three-day outreach camp where he asked me to be the main speaker. We held the outreach camp at the top of a hotel in the north side of town. Approximately 110 kids came for the camp and according to Hom at least 75 of them were Hindu; never having hea
rd the Gospel before. Thomas Haines and Packer Crosland put on a great program with skits and games and I did the message sequence. After each message kids would break out with their leaders and discuss the talks that I had given. What wasn’t expected was what happened next. At the end of the second day a fight broke out between two kids from opposite sides of town. Thankfully it ended quickly but it was enough to cause serous concern among the local youth leaders. After all the kids had left for the night we meet with the leaders f
or at least an hour to debrief the fight and discuss what the possible outcomes might be. There was strong consideration among the Nepali leaders to cancel the camp completely. The concern was the escalating anger and violence that might occur tomorrow at camp, risking the safety of the other students involved. Both parties involved in the fight had connections to large politically and socially motivated gangs. With only one talk left in the Gospel message it was decided that it would be worth taking the risk so all the kids would have an opportunity to hear the w
hole message. Hom and Lehk, two of the key adult leaders believed they had a strong enough relationship with these kids to persuade them not to come back to camp the final day. Later that night I learned that Hom and Lehk had spoken with these kids and they seemed apologetic and agreed not to come the next day. Everyone felt ok with the decision not to cancel camp.
The next day everything seemed ok. Every kid came back except the kids that were asked not to. I proceeded with my last talk of the camp. Half way through my talk the main gang leader of yesterday’s escalation burst into the back of the room. Without missing a beat in my talk I watched all the leaders get up and quietly escort him out. As I continued speaking I remembered having an unusual experience of being completely occupied with what was happening outside and being fully engaged in my talk. My mind was engaged in prayer for what was happening with the gangs and the leaders but my actions fully into my speaking. A
fter my talk was over we dismissed the kids to lunch and discussion time with their leaders. I learned that the gangs had come back three separate times with increasing numbers and with backpacks presumably carrying weapons. The leaders finally negotiated that the gangs leave for the time being. We decided to end the camp early and send everyone home before they decided to come back again. Thankfully we were able to send everyone home without any kind of incident. As leaders left I had a chance to speak with them about their time with their kids. I was thrilled to hear that God shined through still and the kids were responding to the talks and began to give their lives to Christ for the first time.
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