Hear from one of First Colony’s Nepali mission partners, Ramesh Sapkota, who leads Our Daughters International. Ramesh grew up in Nepal and speaks Nepali, but we are fortunate to have him speaking in English for us today. Hear what the current situation is, how they are progressing in the fight against human trafficking and how our church can be praying for them.
*Note the phrase, “our daughters” refers to; girls that are being or have been trafficked.
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Anchor Point, the daily podcast of the First Colony Church of Christ in Sugarland, Texas. I'm Ramesh Sapkota from Nepal. Thanks for joining us today. So friends as I mentioned earlier, I'm currently in Nepal and would like to take this opportunity to talk about the current situation here during this COVID-19 pandemic. Nepal as most countries is currently facing a total lockdown, while the numbers of cases are significantly low. I think it is because of the lack of rapid testing. The nation itself is experiencing a very difficult time during this government-imposed lockdown. Movement of any kind has been banned, leaving several people out of jobs and out of a way to return home. I live in the capital city (Kathmandu) where many migrant workers from rural parts of the nation temporarily live in search of a job and employment. This government-imposed lockdown has made it impossible for these migrant workers and their families to return home. The lack of any kind of aid has led them to risk their lives in quest to return home on foot. I have seen some of the people, some of the family have set on a journey of 400 to 500 miles on foot.
So as you begin to understand the situation, it would come as no surprise that the church and the ministry has also been quite impacted by this situation. A huge part of our ministry is fighting against human trafficking and Gender Based Violence in the country (Nepal). We focus on rescuing our daughters and guiding them alongside a restorative pathway. With the borders closed the fight against this evil has been difficult but it has definitely not stopped us. Can you imagine this is how fallen mankind has become? Traffickers are using this lockdown as a greater opportunity to internally traffic vulnerable daughters both in Nepal and India. Just this week our team rescued two daughters in India who are now awaiting to be brought back home, and two others internally (in Nepal) that were being exploited during this lockdown.
While these acts of evil deeply sadden us, our hearts; it has definitely not stopped our team from working and making ourselves better. Our staffs are currently working on capacity building, they are taking this opportunity to analyze and reflect on everything to ensure how they can better serve our daughters in the days to come. Our daughters in the safe house and the training centers are more optimistic than ever before. They have taken the opportunity to really dive into God’s Word and learn to be calm, resilient and trusting in this difficult time. It comes as no surprise that they too are concerned about their families back home, but this has opened up a new opportunity for our pastors and leaders to reach out to their families. To check on them, help them, and share the message of hope, love and faith with them. Our pastors are making incredible strides towards the use of technology. There is no limit to how they are sharing God's Word; Facebook, Whatsapp, Podcast, YouTube videos -- they are taking this opportunity to reach out and are becoming pillars of hope in this difficult time.
My biggest prayer request during this time would be for peace, faith and strength in our staff as well as our daughters during this time. This season is painful, this season is challenging, it is something we have never seen before. These are deep waters that we are navigating. When
