DUNDALK, Md.—A Nepalese church plant in metro Baltimore hosted a regional women’s revival conference with approximately 250 people from 12 churches in attendance.
Held in late June, women came from Baltimore and as far as Virginia and Pennsylvania to worship at Unity Christian Church of Baltimore, which meets at Patapsco United Methodist Church in Dundalk.
“We started praying about six months before about having this conference,” shared Tara Gurung, a member of Unity Christian Church, who helped organize the event. “God put it in our hearts, and we put it on the prayer list,” she said.
One by one, things came into place. The Mid-Atlantic Baptist Network/BCMD provided some financial asistance; church members, including men, stepped up to shop, cook, and decorate the church facility; and the conference theme emerged.
Based on Jeremiah 29:11, the retreat focused on two sessions of worship in between three encouraging messages provided by Gurung, Katie Grober of Patapsco United Methodist Church, and Rupa K. C., a Christian woman visiting from Nepal.
“We wanted all the women to be encouraged in the Lord,” shared Gurung, who spoke on the topic of prayer and intercession. Grober shared about God’s purpose in the women’s lives while Rupa K. C. shared about the importance of relationships as exhibited in the Old Testament book of Ruth.
“Our expectation was that we would be blessed,” Gurung shared, “but we were blessed beyond our imagination and beyond our hopes. When God works, He works mightily!”
In addition to the planned schedule, churches were given opportunity to share their testimonies and sing Christian Gospel songs. The women were excited also about getting in touch with each other.
For Gurung, the fellowship pointed to how much Unity Christian Church of Baltimore has grown. She is thankful to have found a church, which speaks in her native Nepalese language. “The opportunity to have fellowship with other people who speak our language is very encouraging and a blessing,” she said.
Pastor Ramesh Magar, who started Unity Christian Church of Baltimore in January 2013, also is thrilled to see how God is moving his church. Only a few years ago, he was a Bhutanese refugee, “a man with no country.”
Forced to live as a refugee in Bhutan for more than 18 years of his life, Magar says he remembers living under plastic roofs that used to leak rain in the crowded camps where he lived. He longed for so much more.
“Around 85 percent of the people living in the refugee camps were Christians—who prayed for everything,” he said. “God answered our prayers.”
Soon, he would become a U.S. citizen! Now, he is thankful to live in Baltimore, where he says there are more than 7,000 Bhutanese and 15,000 Nepalese people. He hopes to continue making connections through his members’ family and friends to grow this church and to plant another Nepalese church in the future.
But that’s not all. Now that the church has experienced success with its first regional conference, the church leaders feel God has given them a vision for a Bible school to teach praise and worship.
Unity Christian Church is the second Nepalese Southern Baptist church in Baltimore. Pastor Samuel Cho leads Nepalese Baptist Church as well as Bhutanese Baptist Church in Baltimore. — By Shannon Baker