One of our Global Partners in Nepal is a fellowship of believers. The church was established by a couple in the early 1980s, when they met other believers with disabilities. The Pastor, a paraplegic, was unable to access the Christian Fellowships which tended to meet in first floor rooms of houses. So he and his wife started to organise fellowship meetings for other wheelchair users.

Today, their ‘parish’ consists of up to 200 people, many of whom would be considered the outcasts of society – wheelchair users, leprosy sufferers, women who have been abandoned by their husbands, the blind, the poor.

The name of the church comes from Acts 3, which recounts the story of Peter and John’s encounter with the crippled beggar by the temple gate called ‘Beautiful’. The man, on being healed, responded with unabashed praise, ‘walking and leaping.’ This is the vision of the Church: that those who are crippled, outcast, sick and abandoned would be embraced by God, healed spiritually (and often physically) and would respond in heartfelt worship.

This Church embodies the very essence of mission and of partnership, and there are many strong links between Ireland and this dynamic church fellowhship.

The mission department of Church runs a number of programmes, including Sponsor Care, Charity Care, Scholarships, Supporting Disabled or poor families and Pastoral care. One of the main activities involves the provision of accommodation, support, friendship and advocacy for people from rural regions in Nepal who travel to receive for complicated or prolonged medical treatment. These patients are referred to the church fellowship from other mission organisations and tend to have little money and no family or friends near to the hospitals. Over 250 people have benefited from this service since its inception in 2004. They experience love, support and friendship and witness the reality of compassionate Christian service. Many of them find faith during their stay with the Church community and return to their homes baptised and keen to join or establish Christian Fellowships.

The Church also runs an Outreach and Church Planting Programme, a Compassion Programme and a Hamper Programme. They have recently decided to open a new Bible Training department.