A “peak” into CCI Nepal as they scale new heights to reach the unreached
Greetings!

Nepal is roughly the size of Tennessee and is landlocked between Tibet and India. With approximately 75% of the country covered in mountains, it is home to the widely known Mountain Everest and some of the most rugged mountain terrain in the world. Although small, Nepal boasts rich diversity with 142 ethnic groups. This multi-lingual, multicultural nation is 81.2% Hindu, 8.2% Buddhist, 5.1% Muslim, 3.2% Animism, and 1.8% Christian.

With treacherous mountainous terrain and Hindu extremists, the CCI Nepal team faces both geographical setbacks and persecution. Motorbikes are Nepal's primary mode of travel, which can be challenging to navigate on this mountainous terrain. During the summer, motorbikes are hazardous due to the monsoon rains leading to landslides. Then, during the winter, it is frigid, with risks of hypothermia.

Nepal is overwhelming Hindu, and the Christian community often faces different types of persecution from Hindu extremists. Even though Nepal declared itself a secular republic in 2008, the Nepalese Constitution makes religious conversion from one religion to another a punishable offense. While very few are prosecuted by the law, Christians who converted from Hinduism still face persecution from Hindu nationalists and experience family/clan oppression. Christians are looked upon as a negative influence, not considered as truly Nepali, regarded as untouchables, and ostracized by society.

More than 75% of pastors in Nepal have had no formal training, and with the Christian community making up only 1.8% of the population, Nepal is considered unreached. Unreached means there are less than a 2% Evangelical Bible-believing presence.
Tek, an Area Coordinator is pictured teaching a CCI class
Despite these odds stacked against them, our CCI Nepal team
is reaching their nation for Christ. Sabin (Full identity concealed to protect participant.) became the CCI Country Coordinator for Nepal in February 2019. Sabin was born into
a Hindu family, but in 2000, he heard the gospel through missionaries and has followed and served Christ ever since. I
met him in 2018 at a Teacher Training Workshop (TTW). Sabin has been teaching the BTCP curriculum since 2014, and his experience and connections were a great fit for our ministry.

Today, Sabin is the National Director of Nepal. Serving under Sabin, we have three Area Coordinators, Tek, Khell, and Prakash, who teach CCI classes, promote the ministry, and conduct TTWs. (Full identities concealed to protect participants.) With the geographical challenges, the team often travels for two days to reach their classes. Currently, in Nepal, we have 13 CCI classes with a total of 186 students. Last year, we added four new classes with 62 new students and held
25 God's Financial Principles (GFP) seminars, reaching more than 1,000 people.

The GFP seminars have also significantly impacted families and the community. This seminar training has helped people learn about giving, saving, and debt handling and has even changed perspectives on work. Some families have recently established savings funds for their children's futures, something they never thought possible.

In addition to weekly CCI classes and seminars, Sabin and his staff oversee a Training Center where students from around the country can attend an accelerated CCI training program. During the 5-month program, all ten courses of the CCI curriculum are taught in a discipleship relationship.
Sabin is pictured with 16 graduates from the Training Center
Please enjoy this testimony from one of the graduates pictured above:
"I live in a remote, unreached area where many families and households still worship nature or idols. I praise God that most of my family members accepted Christ two years ago, and we started a small fellowship in our own place. It is good to add more people to His Kingdom, but it was challenging because I had to properly teach them His Word and guide them toward their eternal destination. This was very hard because I was not trained, nor did I have formal Bible training. I praise God and thank CCI Nepal for providing me with the opportunity to learn His Word through five months of training in western Nepal. This training helped me learn how to study the Bible and interpret it, prepare biblical messages, determine our goal and role as a pastor, administer and organize the church, and why we should disciple people. I am very excited for my next journey and leadership after this training. I felt a transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly in my life. I thank God for the CCI Ministry in Nepal."
Our Nepal team has also partnered with local churches to spread the gospel through smokeless metal stoves. In Nepal, more than half the houses still use firewood to cook, many of which are open stone stoves without chimneys. These open stoves fill the homes with black smoke from resin-rich pine, which leads to eye and lung infections. The new smokeless metal stoves have a chimney to remove the smoke from the home and burn more cleanly using a fraction of the wood. This smokeless metal stove project is reaching tribes in the mountainous villages in north Nepal. As our Nepal CCI team delivers these new smokeless metal stoves, the door is also opened to deliver the gospel.

Sabin said this about the smokeless metal stoves, “It helps men, women, and children extend their lives and reduce health
problems. It is changing their health, economy, social life, and spiritual life. This project is the doorway to take the gospel to these villages. It is like a bridge to reach the community and shows them Christ’s love practically. It helps build our trust with them.”
A Nepalese lady carrying a smokeless stove on her back
Please enjoy this testimony from one of the smokeless stove recipients:
“I am from a village in a mountainous district. I used open traditional firewood stoves. I know it is very unhealthy and wood-consuming, and it pollutes our lungs. I had a cough for almost seven months of the year. I desired to get a smokeless stove, which cost $120, but it was out of my control to get it. So, I almost gave up on getting it and thought I would die because of this wood. Praise God that last November, some of the Christian people brought gifts to our village. I got a stove with a chimney, and they not only brought it, but they installed it also. I used it right away. It consumes very little wood. I am very thankful and happy to get it; now my cough has been less. My children enjoy not having smoke in their study room; it also helps to make the house warm during winter. It is such a great blessing to my family.”
Sabin and his team have used this smokeless stove outreach
to share the gospel, and from these efforts, many have joined
nearby church services. Moreover, these efforts resulted in
two God’s Financial Principles seminars with 145 believers. In
addition to stoves, Sabin and his team have used solar lighting to reach the people of Nepal. Solar provides clean and affordable lighting, a safe alternative to kerosene lanterns. The solar project installed solar lighting into homes, resulting in 105 people gathering to hear the gospel and a new small church.
A Nepalese man receiving solar lighting
CCI Nepal wants to expand the CCI ministry nationwide, but
to do so, they need to add more area coordinators and teachers. They are praying to acquire at least six new teachers and two more area coordinators to start eight new classes in five locations. Coordinators are the primary means of expanding the ministry and are essential in training and guiding our teachers, establishing new classes, and nurturing the growth of our ministry.

In 2023, God repeatedly showed us that He is faithful and able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. This year, we are focusing on multiplication. We will continue to EQUIP national church leaders to EMPOWER faithful men to serve as coordinators overseeing trainers and classes and to EVANGELIZE the lost with the gospel so that God is glorified. In Acts 6:7, we read that “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in
Jerusalem.”

To cultivate and sustain multiplication, we need support for coordinators, who are “on the ground,” expanding the ministry to all the corners of the world. It takes $300 a month to support one coordinator. Would you consider committing to sponsor a coordinator for one year so he can continue his work of disciple-making? Visit www.cciequip.org/donatetoday to begin supporting a coordinator. Additionally, we have a National Coordinators Fund, which raises support for all coordinators. You can give at http://weblink.donorperfect.com/Coordinators.

Please consider investing monthly to support coordinators like Tek, Khell, and Prakash. Your financial support allows us to train thousands of people—making mature disciples to reach more people for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace,
David Nelson
President & Founder
Crossing Cultures International
Announcements
From September 1 to October 7, David Nelson will be on a Fall Tour with three National Directors from Southeast Asia. They will be visiting churches and ministry partners in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and Canada. If you are in these areas and are interested in a visit, please contact Amanda Boston at aboston@cciequip.org.
In June 2025, CCI is co-leading an inspirational tour in Israel. We would love for you to come and join us. For more information, click here to go to our information page or click on the video above.
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