Damak, Nepal
Where God Leads, We Will Follow
The Luke Society currently partners with 33 physicians around the world. Although the number may seem small, the process to begin the partnership is extensive. Crossing cultural and sometimes language barriers, we look for Christian indigenous physicians with vision, integrity, courage and skill. Our most recent partnership is a wonderful example of the providential process our partnerships filter through.
The first part of the story is how God worked in the life of Dr. KM to prepare him for ministry, and the second part is how the Luke Society was led to partnership with him.
Dr. M was born in Bhutan, a small mountainous country east of Nepal. His family was Hindu, despite Buddhism being the official religion of Bhutan. His family belongs to a native Nepalese tribe. As a child, his family’s Hindu beliefs did not provide satisfaction to the questions he had about life. “I asked so many questions that I would get into trouble at school,” he says. At age sixteen, he met a Christian doctor from India who finally answered his questions. “For every question I asked, he was able to give a good answer directly from scripture.”
After Dr. M realized the Bible was the source of Truth, he accepted Christ as his Savior. “I still had a lot of Spiritual maturing to do,” he said, so he found a Christian man who mentored him and later became his father-in-law. During his late teens, he led his parents and other family members to Christ.
Bhutan went through a period of political upheaval in the 1990s during a movement for civil rights. The Bhutan government responded violently, especially toward the native Nepalese people. Many were raped or killed, and large numbers fled the country. Dr. M and his family are a part of an estimated 125,000 refugees from Bhutan living in eastern Nepal. As Dr. M lived in the midst of the refugees, seeing their poverty and suffering, he felt called to pursue education in medicine to be better equipped to help them. While attending medical school in northern India, Dr. M and his wife took a nine month class in evangelism training from Campus Crusade.
Upon his return to Nepal, Dr. M formed a medical mission to aid the people in eastern Nepal. He now provides health education, basic medical care, and the saving knowledge of the Gospel. It is illegal to spread Christianity in Nepal, and Dr. M has been taken before the local police several times because of his activities. He told me, “I didn’t deny what I had done, nor did I say I wouldn’t continue. So far they have just let me go!”
The second part of the story is how the Luke Society was led to Dr. M. I was invited to a conference in Thailand in October of 2003, which focused on community health. I used the opportunity to bring Luke Society directors from India and the Philippines to meet and learn more about strategies in community health.
While at the conference I met a pastor from Nepal who told me about the harsh conditions in Nepal, particularly for the Christian community. He was very interested in the Luke Society, although he understood that the work he was doing didn’t fit the Luke Society’s call. He told me that he would contact me if he met a Christian doctor in Nepal who had the characteristics the Luke Society was seeking.
Two years later, I was surprised to receive an email from that pastor telling me about a Christian physician in eastern Nepal who was serving the poor in mountainous villages. Dr. M and I have been communicating for the past year, and finally last month I had the opportunity to visit with him face to face.
As with many Luke Society directors, it is interesting to hear how God has shaped the course of Dr. M’s life: how He made Himself known to Dr. M through a Christian Indian doctor, and how He led Dr. M to serve Him through medical ministry. And I can see God’s hand in leading us to meet face to face, to provide the Luke Society with another opportunity to participate in the call of an indigenous Christian physician to bring healing to his own people.
Wrede Vogel, MD