The turning point

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, April 9th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: political upheaval in Nepal—and a pastor whose own history gives him a unique voice for a new generation.

Nepal is a country of 30 million people. It has seen months of unrest, with youth-led protests and new political leadership taking shape.

BROWN: As the country adjusts, one Nepalese pastor is urging young Christians to stay grounded—drawing on a past that nearly took him in a very different direction.

WORLD’s Lauren Dunn has the story.

LAUREN DUNN: Thirty-nine-year-old Suraj Kasula spends a lot of his time praying with students at the seminary he founded.

KASULA: Let's pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, we come before the throne of grace as we are given an access in and through Jesus Christ…

He also teaches and translates for Westerners who come to speak.

KASULA: [Translating] Kent: Don’t confuse busyness with depth with Christ. [Suraj translating]

But years ago, he never would’ve pictured this life for himself. 

When he was about 16, he started a gang.

KASULA: We never kidnapped people, but we would go and ask money, and if they don't give, we'll, we'll show them our weapons, and they would be afraid, and they would give money, you know. So that's how we did it. And I had no regret at all, no repentance at all. I was enjoying, and as I said, you know, I thought I was doing right. You know, I was in total darkness and chaos.

Kasula was raised in an orthodox Hindu family and still has a lot of respect for Hindu people, but he says he got an impression about the faith that led him toward violence.

KASULA: Whenever you see Hindu deities, you will see like slaughtering demons, you know. So I got that impression, and I wanted to start a gang, and I started a gang.

It was a small gang—Kasula says about 20 people, mostly cousins and friends. The members often fought with other gangs. 

His family and neighbors became fed up with his violence and turned to their Hindu gods to try to change the situation. But to no avail.

KASULA: I remember their parents would be very angry, and they would, they would worship their god and appease their god, sacrifice to their god, saying, ‘Let Suraj die, oh, god. Kill him fast, because he's ruining my children's life.’ ...

The authorities arrested Kasula once for a weapons offense and a second time for violence against police officers. Officers beat him up and imprisoned him for a few weeks, but they couldn’t change Kasula. 

It seemed like nothing could.

KASULA: No policemen, no constitution, no law, could bring me to repentance. But this foreign god, cow-eating God came, and I hated him a lot.

Then a Christian invited Kasula to church. Kasula was fascinated with Western rock music, so he decided to go to hear the guitars and drums. He also heard the gospel, which he resisted. 

But he kept coming back, and one day…

KASULA: I realized, this is Christian God. This is not only a God who loves me, but who died for me. And I had to surrender my life, and I repented all my sins. I repented, and I knelt down that night for the first time, I cried like a baby. And then I said, Lord, I need you. You can only save me. You can only save me, you can be my Lord. And I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. And I became Christian that night in that instant, like this [snaps fingers].

Kasula stopped fighting. He became a Christian—and he was all in. He went to Scotland for nine years to study in seminary before returning to Nepal. 

In 2017, he started Bhaktapur Theological Seminary in the nation’s capital, Kathmandu. The school offers a bachelor’s degree in theology as well as shorter theological courses.

The school has challenges: It doesn’t have dormitories yet, so students have to live in Kathmandu to make attendance feasible. And the seminary is still building its library—Kasula says it’s hard to get good Christian books in Nepal and expensive to ship them in.

Kasula is stocking the library for students like 29-year-old Santosh Tamang. Tamang says Kasula doesn’t keep his past a secret. But it doesn’t phase Tamang. And, if anything, Kasula’s story makes him more accessible to the students.

But there are challenges outside the school, too: Students are entering ministry in a different Nepal than what Kasula grew up in. The country cracked down on gangs in the years after it instituted its 2015 Constitution.

But last September, Nepali youth turned out in big numbers to protest government corruption. It started peacefully, but then police started firing real bullets.

Kasula cautioned his students from joining the demonstrations.

KASULA: Well, you can morally support them, you can write on social media against the government, you can put your view, but it would better not to go.

Students at the seminary did not participate in the protests. But some found the protests unavoidable. Tamang was teaching music lessons at a school for teens near where protests broke out.

TAMANG: I was backside of that Parliament building. So there were some peoples were running on that day.

Kasula worries how the younger Christians’ distrust of older generations and government will affect the Nepali church. But he trusts that God is still working in young people.

KASULA: Jesus is alive. If He can change my life, my notorious life, He can change you.

In September, Tamang will graduate from the seminary as part of a class of about 25. He plans to serve as a pastor in Kathmandu. 

Beyond what he’s learned in books and classes, he’s also walking away with inspiration from Kasula’s life.

TAMANG: He can make any people humble for His ministry.

Just as He did for a former gang leader years ago.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Dunn in Kathmandu, Nepal.

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