Sumitra's Testimony
GO-ing means never having to say you’re sorry
By Gary Fallesen
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” – Galatians 6:9 (ESV)
Compassion fatigue is a very real challenge when you find yourself in the trenches day in and day out, always trying to find a way to give more, do more, be more. The Apostle Paul encouraged the church at Galatia to always do good, and never give up.
In Nepal, if ever I have a moment when I am weary, I need only think of Sumitra. She is the poster child for our mission there.
On CHRISTmas day 2007, Gopal Pariyar carried his crippled daughter into the small house church that was meeting in the village of Dapcha east of Kathmandu in Nepal’s Central Region. Sumitra’s Hindi family had heard that Jesus could heal people and Gopal had tried everything – from praying to the 330 million Hindu gods to paying witch doctors to buying medicine. Nothing had worked and Gopal felt he had nowhere left to turn.
“He heard that if you go to church that Jesus would heal,” a Nepali brother in Christ said, translating Gopal and Sumitra’s story.
The church prayed for Sumitra. They asked for healing in the name of Jesus.
Soon after, Sumitra took her first steps. She received Christ and then she began to walk for the first time in nine years.
“She is sorry,” Sumitra told us through a translator in 2011. “What if I got Jesus earlier before being paralyzed?
“She is sorry for that – that she did not hear about Jesus before her sickness.”
When I heard these words my heart broke. A young woman, my sister in Christ was apologizing for not knowing Jesus earlier.
This was not Sumitra’s fault, nor the fault of her family. It was my fault. It was our fault – the fault of the church. Why had we not delivered the Good News of Jesus Christ? What is holding us back today?
There is much work to be done there, much good to do. We cannot tire. We have been inspired to be like Sumitra’s family. As her father told us: “I have to tell others in my surroundings this Good News.” He knows our need to GO. 
This story originally appeared in the 10th anniversary issue of The Climbing Way.
Here is the testimony of a Nepali girl named Sumitra...
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