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PHILEMON
was born in one of the mountain villages called Bojini in the district
of Dolakha in Nepal to an orthodox Hindu family. His mother died
when he was just four years old, so his father, a Hindu priest who
used to get up at 3:00 a.m. to start his ritual worship everyday,
raised him.When Philemon was about nine years old, his uncle returned
to their village a born-again Christian. (He had left home to seek
medical treatment in India for a life-threatening illness, and there
he heard the Gospel and accepted the Lord.) Immediately all the
villagers branded him as an "untouchable" of the lowest
caste and sought to expel him from the village. But his uncle’s
eldest brother pleaded to the other villagers to let him stay, and
at last they reluctantly agreed. That uncle gave Philemon a little
booklet called "The Way of Salvation. "When he read it,
he felt as if someone was saying to his heart, "You are a sinner
and you have to repent!" He discussed this matter with his
uncle, who then shared the Gospel with him and led him in the sinner’s
prayer. Afterwards, he gave young Philemon a New Testament, which
soon became his dearest friend. He would often go into the jungle
and read it secretly.Philemon’s family soon realized that
he had become a Christian, and they tried to keep him away from
meeting his uncle, who was the only other Christian in the village.
But still they managed to meet together on Sunday morning and other
evenings for a couple of hours, where they would read the Bible
by the dim light of a kerosene lamp. Like his uncle, Philemon also
became an untouchable: other villagers, including his own family
members, did not want him to contaminate the village’s only
water tap by touching it. This made life very difficult for him,
but still he refused to give up his new faith. After several years,
Philemon’s uncle decided to take him to the capital city of
Kathmandu so he could attend school, as there were no schools near
their village. It took three days of arduous mountain trekking just
to reach the main road to catch a bus, and young Philemon’s
feet were badly swollen by the end of the journey. The five-hour
bus ride to Kathmandu was an exhilarating experience for him: he
had never ever seen a single vehicle in his life before! After reaching
Kathmandu, Philemon was admitted into a children’s home run
by the late Nepali evangelist Prem Pradhan. There he was baptized
and began attending school at the age of 11. The Lord soon put a
great burden in his heart to share the Gospel with lost souls, and
Philemon began eagerly witnessing to his friends, teachers, and
relatives.After studying inPrem’s school for three or
four years, heavy persecution broke
out in Nepal.Philemon fled to India along with some other believers,
where he continued to witness actively for the Lord. In 1973 he
enrolled in Bible school to prepare for the ministry.
After completing his studies,
he began working in the Darjeeling Hills of northeastern India (known
internationally for its fine tea) as an open-air evangelist, Bible
teacher and pastor. In1985 he married Elishiba, whom he met on one
of his gospel tour. For many years Philemon endured every manner
of hardship for the Lord, including being stoned by enemies of the
Gospel and living for years on end with his wife in a room no bigger
than a closet. On his income of US $2.50 per month, he could not
even afford to buy an extra sari (dress) for his wife, so she wore
the same sari for three years. But the Lord rewarded him with many
saved souls and a joy in his heart that no money could buy. In 1988
Philemon finally met Prem again after a gap of 19 years. Seeing
that the young lad he baptized nearly two decades ago had now matured
into an able minister of the Gospel, Prem requested Philemon to
come alongside him in the ministry. After praying about this for
three years, Philemon at last agreed and shifted to a new location
to begin helping Prem in the work of New Life Mission In 1992 Philemon
was led by the Lord to start one more church in the Darjeeling Hills
in a town called Kurseong. Beginning with seven people, the church
eventually grew to 200 as local Hindus and Buddhists saw the sick
being healed and the demon-possessed being delivered. But even though
the ministry was advancing rapidly there, the Lord spoke to Philemon’s
heart once again and called him out of India back to his native
land. So after an absence of more than 25 years, Philemon returned
to Nepal in 1996 along with his wife and two sons. He began overseeing
the work of NLM’s churches scattered throughout the mountains
of Nepal and India. After Prem’s death in 1998, he assumed
complete leadership of NLM. Today he oversees around 63 churches,
115 ministry workers (mostly pastors and evangelists), and 4 primary
schools. But it’s no easy job, to be sure. Without electricity,
telephones, postal service, or motor able roads in most of these
mission fields, he has to oversee the work in the old-fashioned
way: walking on foot in rugged terrain for days on end just to meet
a single pastor. Clearly, Philemon has his work cut out for him
by the Lord. And he couldn’t be happier.
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