Timothy Rai, standing between Kumar Lama, who is holding his daughter, Sajina, and his wife, Maya, who is holding their youngest daughter, Samridi
Kumar Lama was handed a gun at age 13, when he was forcibly conscripted into an army of Maoist rebels in his home country of Nepal. His communist captors trained him to fight and kill as they sought to overthrow Nepal’s long-standing monarchy. When peace finally came to Nepal in 2006, at least 12,000 people had perished in the violence. Kumar’s life was spared, and he returned to civilian life, finding work as a carpenter and eventually marrying a girl named Maya Tamang. She gave him a beautiful daughter whom they named Sajina. With his dark past behind him, Kumar looked forward to a brighter future with his young family.
When Sajina was only two years old, however, she fell very ill. She stopped eating and drinking. Doctors told Kumar she had contracted a rare disease. Ten days of treatment proved to be of no help. Her little body was shutting down. Doctors discharged her from the hospital, offering no hope. Kumar and Maya took their emaciated little girl home to die.
Allow me to insert a bit of Nepal’s Christian history at this point in the story. In the 1950s there were virtually no Christians in Nepal—then officially called “The Hindu Kingdom of Nepal”—and by the 1960s there were still only a handful. But because of thousands of healing miracles in the decades that followed—all due to the prayers of ordinary believers—today there are hundreds of thousands that follow Jesus all over Nepal. One of those miracles was waiting for Sajina.
A family relative of Kumar’s had heard of some of those miracles among the Christians, and he recommended to Kumar that he have them pray for Sajina. It seemed too late by then, however. Sajina was unconscious and turning black, and Kumar the fighter was tempted to give up hope. Rallying his strength, however, he rushed Sajina to a nearby church where he met pastor Timothy Rai, a Heaven’s Family-supported national missionary and good friend of David Servant.
Timothy told Kumar about Jesus and how only He could heal his daughter. As Timothy prayed over Sajina’s limp body she broke out into a sweat—then began to move her arms and legs. Color and life returned to her face. Kumar was filled with hope, and Timothy continued to tell him the story of Jesus’ sacrificial death and His call to repentance and faith. With a torn heart and a shaky voice, Kumar started confessing his sins and called on the name of the Lord.
Timothy continued to pray for Sajina. Before long, she was talking. The following day, Timothy visited the family and found Sajina playing and eating normally again. He also learned that Kumar’s wife, Maya, had given her heart to Jesus. Together, Kumar and Maya hungered to know God more, and Timothy began to disciple them.
Sajina today, a healthy four-year-old
Today, Sajina is a healthy four year old, and Kumar is faithfully fighting spiritual battles—taking the gospel to those who have never heard the name of Jesus in his region of Nepal. Although Timothy Rai is a very poor pastor himself, he supports Kumar from his own meager income for the sake of the gospel. To learn how you can be privileged to personally support Kumar or Timothy’s ministries, see “The Bigger Picture” below.
