CHIANG MAI, THAILAND. JULY 13, 2009. By Rev. Stephen R.Parelli, Other Sheep Executive Director, MCC Clergy.
Jose and I are amazed at how much was accomplished in so little time in Kathmandu, Nepal (just 12 nights, June 28 - July 10, 2009).
In summary, we were able, with much help from others, to accomplish the following:
(1) on Thursday and Friday, July 2 & 3, we met with three different activist groups - Mitini Nepal (lesbian activists), Blue Diamond Society (DBS - an LGBT organization) and Protection Desk Nepal (a human rights defender organization).
(2) All three human rights groups provided individuals who spoke at our July 5th pastors' seminar. (3) At our dinner meeting on Thursday evening, July 2, with BDS and Sunil Pant, Founder and Director of BDS, Sunil requested that Other Sheep look into the feasibility of translating
The Children Are Free in Nepali.
Jose and I had visited briefly with Sunil Pant in New York City a couple days prior to our coming to Nepal and I had given him three copies of
The Children Are Free at that time (along with a portfolio of Other Sheep materials). When we met for our second time (now in Nepal), he initiated conversation on publishing the book in Nepali. Rev. Jeff Miner and Sunil Pant are now in conversation via emails on the logistics of doing this project together. Other Sheep is vitally interested in seeing this project completed.
(4) On Wednesday and Thursday, July 1 & 2, Jose and I had three individual appointments with three different pastors. Prior to our coming to Nepal, five pastors indicated through emails that they wanted to meet with us. As we talked with pastors in Kathmandu, it was suggested to us that a Pastors' Seminar be conducted. We obtained a directory of names and phone numbers of pastors and
called about 75 pastors inviting them to a seminar on the topic of same-sex marriage in the context of "What Does The Bible Really Say about Same-sex Sex." In our phone calls to the pastors, we told them we were introducing Other Sheep to Nepal and we told them about the nature and ministry of Other Sheep. The seminar was conducted on Sunday, July 5, at Cinderrella Party Palace in Lalitpur.
Three handouts and the book The Children Are Free were given to 25 pastors.
(5) On Monday, July 6, we gave an interview to a small evangelical paper and
(6) entertained a Blue Diamond Society staff member, Umesh Pandroy, at our Gokarna Forest Resort (which Jose and I purchased for one week apart from Other Sheep funds as a treat for ourselves, i.e., business + vacation time, July 3 - 10).
(7) On Wednesday, July 8,
Blue Diamond Society sponsored us in a meeting in which Jose and I discussed the "ex-gay" movement under the title: "How the Christian Faith cannot Change One's Sexual Orientation."
(8) Following the meeting, we had dinner in the home of Umish Pandroy and experienced a typical Nepali home and meal with warm hospitality.
On our last full day in Nepal, July 9, 2009,
(9) we entertained six BDS (Blue Diamond Society) members and friends at our Resort.
(10) In the late afternoon, two pastors met with us who were not at the seminar. In turn, they met the BDS members and one pastor exchanged contact information with DBS staff member Umesh Pandroy.
Generally and in conclusion, we feel that significant contacts were made with pastors; that many pastors are open-minded-enough in this area of homosexuality and Christianity so that they will seriously consider the Other Sheep material and will seriously continue dialogue with the gay community; that the Christian gay-activists we met (as well as Hindu gay activists) were supportive of Other Sheep's mission to reach the Christian community in Nepal with the Other Sheep message of full inclusion of LGBT people of faith. Finally, the vision of Sunil Pant to introduce the book The Children Are Free to Nepali people in their own language will, if completed, fill a much needed gap between language, the general Christian populace, and the need to understand the Bible and homosexuality. For example, at the Pastors' July 5th Seminar, the LGBT activists spoke in Nepali, not English. And while I spoke in English, not everyone there understood English.
Our introduction to Nepal has surpassed our greatest expectations when you consider how little time we had and that initially we had only five pastors who had agreed to meet with us before our coming. We feel the key, in part, to making headway in Nepal for LGBT Christians, is to get the Other Sheep material into the hands of pastors who are themselves trained and capable of disseminating the material once they are convinced of the truthfulness of the message.
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