Pastor Peter Gurung 

for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 

Greetings!!

My name is Peter Gurung, but my given name is Ghan Shyam Gurung- which is one of the Hindu gods named (shree Krishna, who had 8 wives and more than 16,000 concubines.) I was born 1st November 1980 in a very rural and closed village called Ojha Besiphant. There were 56 houses in this village, and all belonged to the Gurung tribe people.  The Gurung tribe is known for bravery and honesty. In the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16, the British were so impressed by their discipline and ferocity that they decided to recruit Gurkha soldiers starting in 1815. Since then, the Gurkhas have fought on the side of the British Empire in almost every war, including both World Wars. Gurungs are still serving in the Gurkhas regiments in India, Britain, and the Singapore Police.

Mission & Church Planing.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: ‘Andalus’,serif; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; background: #FCFCFC;”>Hence, I was born and grew up with an army background. Among the 56 houses, except for a single house, every man was in the military, British, Singapore, India or elsewhere. We have our own Gurung dialect which is one of more than 123 languages spoken in Nepal. A funny part is that in our primary school the teachers must first learn to teach us the Gurung language before they teach in school. The reason is this village is totally the domain of Gurung and no other language was promoted.

I was born and brought up in a Hindu family where they worship everything as god. It means there was nothing that we didn’t worship. When I was child, I was very curious to know where I came from and about human existence on the earth. So, one day I asked my mother where I came from. Unfortunately, it was a dark night with heavy rain, thunder, and lightning in the sky. My mother replied to my question and said on a night like this an old man with full grey hair, a long grey beard and a long white robe holding you in his arms and said take care of this boy and he left. Since then, I am taking care of you. If you ask me again this kind of question, I will ask that man to come and take you with him. Then I promised my mother that I will not bother her again with such a question, and I followed what she said.

But still in the back of my mind was playing continuously and louder the same question I had. While I was in grade 4, we had a subject called social science and there we were taught about Charles Darwin’s theory of human evolution. The human is being developed from a monkey (gorilla) which contradicted what my mother told me. As I came from a military background, there used to be pictures posted on the wall of the house of our family tree those who had served and are serving the military with uniforms and medals which they have obtained during their service. When I came back from my school, I was staring at their photos posted on the wall and they all looked the same. To me none of them looked like monkeys or gorillas. That placed my faith towards my mother in jeopardy. After I finished high school, I was going for computer training and during the orientation in the class the trainer was saying that when the first computer was invented, it was the size of a house, but from continuous development now it is so portable and accessible. So, the process of development never stops. Again, it triggered in my mind if humans are being developed from monkeys why are there so many monkeys in the jungle and the temples. If it is so, there should be no monkeys and humans should be something else other than as we are.

Without knowing and understanding the truth, I was simply following and believing what our ancestors were doing. In fact, I had no idea whether we were following Hinduism or Buddhism because it was mixed all together with so many other thoughts and ideas.

In order to pursue my higher education, I moved to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, which was so difficult and unusual for me.  I had no idea how life in the city would be. But it was so different than in the village, and I came from a middle-class family so my father wouldn’t be able to support my study to be a pilot. Hence, he had to look after my other siblings, and I was the first son among three of us. After some time, I really needed a job to pay my rent and food and fees. It seems the job was my number #1 priority. Until I found a job, I was in a very bad condition, and I didn’t want to burden my father more. While going through this tragedy I was fasting and praying to all the gods whose names I knew but it looked like all of them were sleeping. At every temple I offered flowers, water, burned incense, and I rang the bell. I hoped they would help me, so I spent time and money to buy those things though I didn’t have money to buy my food and pay my rent. After a while I went to my far grandmother’s house for food and shelter, and maybe I had a good meal finally after 20 days. I was a shy person which is my greatest weakness and it’s hit me so many times. I went back to my village and started doing exercise and self-training to join the military. I had exercised very hard and went to the appointed date and place because I had been selected by the local recruiter officer and given a gate pass to fight in area competition. After a month, I went there and was selected for final competition in the British Gurkha camp in Pokhara where I had training and physical testing every day. In the camp it took a month for the final selection, and I was just 16 years old, but I made my citizenship 17.5 years as per the requirement to join the military. One morning the area recruitment officer asked me if anyone is there in the camp whom I know. But truly, I had no idea, and none responded to him. The next morning all the boys were called in the field. And the area recruiting officer announced he will be calling out those names who were disqualified and I was one of them, though I was very good in everything, and my marks were excellent.

 I was disqualified because the ARO was expecting some bribe from me which I had no idea because I was immature for this kind of dirty game. After that, again I went back to Kathmandu and stayed with my relative, helping her in housework. And later I met a friend who was my classmate during my Japanese language class. He helped me to find work and I stayed with him, but every Thursday was my day off. On that day I used to fast and take my old grandmother to many different temples to worship, to bring offerings, to burn incense but still the question was there in the back of my mind. I don’t know how my friend got to know Christ He used to share the gospel with me. but I was ignoring and fighting with him for this. One day he invited me to go to church and I followed him, but I didn’t understand anything. Again, he insisted join a small group and meet some people there. It looked so nice, and they treated us like family, and I felt very much at home. During that time, I was applying to go abroad to make money support my family and for bright future. I had some interviews and shared with them the same prayer request and they prayed over my request. After 3 days I received the call from the agency from where I applied saying congratulations, you have been selected, please submit your passport and parents’ consent in order to apply for your visa. I submitted and after ten days I flew to the UAE and joined the company. But my friend and people from the small group who were continuously praying for me and worried about my spiritual life. Later my friend met a strong believer and told him about me and sent a Gideon Bible to me. And during one of the trainings, we met in Abu Dhabi. He was assigned there as merchandiser, and I was assigned Al Ain as a warehouse operator. But God is so good after a week he called me, saying he is coming to Al Ain and said please find a place for him to stay. I talked to my room mates, and they agreed he could stay with us. Since then, he pushed me to have fellowship and prayer meetings. that was so unusual for me, but I cannot say no to him as well, we had a difficult time finding the church, for there were very few Nepalese in Al Ain and even the whole UAE. we went to a Catholic church and many other denominations and other & language speaking churches to attend worship for there was no Nepali church back in early 2003. The bother of mine met a Phillipino friend at his workplace, and he invited us to a church he was attending, which was church was an English-speaking church. We continually went there, and I had a chance to know more about God and clear understanding about the human existence from Genesis 1:27-28, Which I was seeking my whole life. One day a pastor preached about “Salvation” through Jesus Christ and only how we receive salvation and eternal life. To receive salvation, we must invite Him in our life and accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. And I accepted Jesus on the same day. I felt so good and there was an incomparable joy in my heart which I never experienced. The persecution started in my life when my room mates and friends came to know I became a Christian, I had a very hard time and terrible things happened I really didn’t like. But that brother of mine keep encouraging me for he had already left from that room.

I went to Nepal in 2005 for a two-month vacation. until that time in my family no one knew about my faith and believed in Jesus Christ. during 2003-2005 I had lost two of my uncles. One of them was elder than my father and the other was younger, and both died with hypertension. I was so much afraid to share my faith though I know how important it is to be saved. But still there was fear in my heart. In case my father come to knew I became Christian got shocked and died from to hypertension like his brothers. I was afraid to be kicked out of our home and cut of community. To stay away from all kinds of idol worship and the ritual things was a big challenge for me because when the family member would come home from abroad, we used to offer an animal sacrifice to a god and that person should be very much involved in these activities. But I was praying earnestly to my God to save me from these kinds of acts, and He really answered me. During the mealtime, my father noticed and observed my lips are moving and my eyes closed. He asked my mother that I became a Muslim for the UAE is a Muslim country. Some time back my mother cried and asked me why I chose to be a Muslim. I responded to her I am not a Muslim, but I am thanking God who provides food for us and every provision in our life and He is the source of everything. He is worthy to be praised and receive thankfulness.

To test my faith my Father asked me to pray over the sick goat of my aunt. He took me to a place where in the night no one dares to go to Pray over the people who are possessed by demonic spirits, thank be to God, he never put me to shame. People were delivered, and they were healed. I was okay snice somehow my father thought positively about this, and I came back to UAE and went to church here continually.  I was sharing the faith to other Nepalese and inviting them to church. The church where we attended started an outreach in Nepal and I was appointed as coordinator. On 2006 October I went to Nepal for vacation at the same time the church family from UAE also plan to visit their outreach church in Nepal. And that was where I met my wife Ronima on that mission trip. She was a worship leader in that church, and we got to know little glimpse of each other and once back in the UAE we were engaged for two years seeking God’s guidance and will in our relationship. After we received confirmation through our prayer, we decided to marry and on 23 August 2008 we had our wedding in Cebu City Philippines in the presence of God and with Godly people.

We continually serve God and share His Gospel. God blessed us with new souls and the Nepali brethren are increasing in quantity and quality, so we started the Nepali congregation in November 2009 officially named Nepali Bible Fellowship. And we began gathering in our rented house from 2007. I had a burden to lead the group of people since the brother who leads me has already left the country. Theology studies are so much needed in the ministry and leading the congregation, so I have taken online classes though I had no time at all because I used to have off one day in a week and I needed to complete all my laundry and church activities on the same day. God is faithful as He never let me down nor left me alone. By His grace I had completed my BTH year 2015 with A+ position. I was very much worried about my family for they were not saved. It seems there was no chance they will follow Jesus unless someone would share the Gospel. So, I invited my parents to UAE to visit us in 2015, and shared the gospel and showed the love of Christ and was able win their souls to Christ and they accepted Christ as their personal Lord and saviour. After three months, we organized water baptism and baptized them along with some other people, they returned home to Nepal, but they suffered a lot of persecution as even they were kicked out of the society and cut off from community. But thanks be to God for their faith is so strong. Slowly all my family became believers except my younger brother and his family, but we are praying to God that they will also accept Christ.

Now I am serving God as senior pastor in the Nepali Bible Fellowship with my wife supporting all the areas of women and Bible studies. Post covid we gathered every Saturday from 120-150 people. During covid we did online services and bible studies. After covid we have two services where every Saturday we gather 75-90 people, and on Sunday 30-40 people in the church. Aside from that, we do labour camp visits, park fellowship, house fellowship, hospital visits and going out for sharing the gospel.  Every Friday we do overnight prayer meetings.

My wife is an optometrist, and she was working in an optical shop, but later she got an offer to work at Kanad hospital formerly known as Oasis hospital. They were the pioneer of the eye clinic at Kanad. I had been working in a prominent company for almost two decades, During Covid this Bible verse came to my mind “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Mark 8:36, This word continuously hit me, and I shared with my wife, and we prayed over and over, and I felt deep in my heart to go to Nepal and help the community with a health care facility. where people are dying, are disabled, affected the deformity due to not being treated on time. On the other hand, there is no health insurance but only all cash and this makes it easy for the health care facility management to produce more money rather than taking care of the patients’ health and their safety. I strongly felt it’s really needed in Nepal in order to help the people who are not able pay for their bills and abandon treatment. So, it became a burden for me, and we both earnestly prayed to God and sought His will, and I was given a chance to share this burden to Kanad Hospital former CEO Dr. Tim who responded pray and fast one month more then we will discuss in next meeting. We did and the next month before we discussed he welcomed me. Since then, I joined Kanad Hospital in April 2022 as administrative resident for the purpose of learning how to operate a high performing health care ministry. Dr. Tim Introduced me with Dr. Greg Neal CEO of Kanad Hospital. Since then, under his mentorship and guidance I am so privileged to learn and expand my knowledge. In fact, Dr. Greg, and his wife Beth are great example in the community, and they display the crystal clarity of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. we are forever thankful for this couple of their great support, love and being an inspiration in our lives. they will be always in our prayer list.

Me and my wife been fast and prayed for the institution name, that would represent his kingdom calls and the “ARK OF HOPE” is finally nominated. Why the ark of hope? “That will be the place of refuge and the promise of Go’s covenant” during the flood where Moses and his family sheltered, and all the clean and unclean creature got saved whoever in it. And it was the promise of God wherever the Israelites moved He was in the ark with them all the time.

In order to prevent Nepali Church ministry from mission drift we would place the fence and guard rail. where they can be strengthened Spiritually, financially, and technically, we would stay more 4/5 years. that will also help us to save some money to build the building. by the year 2027 we plan to go back to Nepal and pursue His calling and ministering among the people saved one and unsaved. While Jesus was on earth He teach, preach, heal and deliver so many people apart from that, He fed them as well. we want bring the hope those who lost, provide the shelter who lives in open places, wanna be the parent and guardian who lost their parents, willing to be Children those who desperately longing children in their old age. Our ultimatum goal is to proclaim the kingdom God and His righteousness.

 

Below is the tentative plan of the Project, but we cannot do anything if God won’t allow, so please join us in our prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With faith and hope we are looking forward to seeing His work in Nepal as He has placed in my heart.

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