Well hello there, faithful blog readers! While we’ve been super busy at RW writing Framework for Transformation booklets and making video stories (coming soon…), we’ve taken a break from most of our blogging. But, it’s a new year (No, I don’t have a time machine; October 1 was our birthday and the start of our new fiscal year). And our new year’s resolution is to share a short story of transformation with you each month. We want you to know that God is at work and that He’s constantly fulfilling His promises all over the world. We hope these stories inspire some praise and worship!

So, with all that said, here’s the first edition:

Out from Idol Worship

There was a church in Nepal with a big problem—every year their village had an idol worship ceremony where each member of the community was required to contribute money. Even the Christians were forced to donate toward the idol worship each year.  

After studying some modules of TCT, the church wanted to show God’s love to their community. As they prayed about what Act of Love they should do, God impressed upon their hearts to fix the road that connected their village to the main road. The 500-meter dirt road was very muddy during rainy season and in terrible condition—even motorbikes had a hard time getting through. The local leaders saw the problem, but had different opinions about how to get it fixed, so no repairs were undertaken after four years of discussion.  

The church wanted to obey God, so they made a decision to fix the road. The pastor had a tractor that he lent for two days. The church members contributed the money for the diesel fuel. About 22 believers participated to clear the mud: they leveled the road, put the excess mud on the tractor, and carried it to another place. As they were doing this work, the pastor challenged others from the community to join. Later, 10 people joined in to help repair this road. The believers were so happy and excited to be a part of this community service.

Some community members commented that the church must have received foreign funding and were doing this work in order to convert people to Christianity. When they discovered the church had done this all on their own, the skeptics were shocked and extremely grateful. Even the local political leaders appreciated the church for fixing the road, and came to respect the church because of this Act of Love. The next time the idol worship ceremony came around, the local leader in charge convinced the community that the Christians should not have to contribute because they were already doing many good things for the village.

Praise God that He used this Act of Love to strengthen the church’s relationship with their community and free His people from participating in the idol worship ceremony!