10th anniversary of HBSA

Celebration of God’s Faithfulness of TEN years.
Dear friends and partners,
Loving greetings from HBSA.

“He is the Eben-ezer, who has helped us thus far.” (I Sam 7:12)

First of all, let me express my personal gratitude and a collective thankfulness to you for your faithful friendship, partnership and sincere prayers for us in the last ten years in the efforts of training, equipping and empowering the Grass Roots leaders/church planters of Nepal. We do not think it would have been possible for us to carry on this training and church planting ministry, had you not played a vital role in praying, encouraging and supporting us financially.
Our joys find no boundary that we could complete TEN years of ministry, the first MILESTONE beginning from Jan 2, 2002 and it is all because of your faithful partnership with us. God has been very faithful to us in holding the training seminars in all 75 districts of Nepal in the last 10 years. Regardless of all political turmoil and chaos in the land, the Lord has been very faithful in using mild vessels like us in helping the grass roots leaders getting training in their own locality.

Celebration in Chitwan, central south Nepal.
On Jan 1-3, 2012, we all the staffs and the children had a wonderful time of celebration of God’s faithfulness of TEN years to us. The first reason of choosing Chitwan, Central south Nepal for this unprecedented celebration to us is that this is the central place for the staff members coming from Kathmandu, Central Nepal, Dhankuta East Nepal and Surkhet, the Midwestern Nepal, easy access of travels. Secondly, we wanted to have sweet fellowship among the staff members who live in different locations, instead of spending a huge amount of money for publicity inviting many people for the occasion. I am personally proud of all the staff members for their commitment and faithfulness in the last ten years and pray that the Lord would bless bless them all so that many more grass roots leaders/church planters would be trained in order to plant thousands of churches and Feed, Lead &Protect their respective flocks in more effective ways to glorify God.
We are glad to share with you the following results of our joint labor in this endeavor in the last Ten Years.

Full time staffs : 14
Local coordinator (Bio-vocational Missionaries) : 18
Training seminars held in : All 75 districts
Mobile based Leadership Training for the number of : 4,385
Grass Roots church Planters among the Oral Learners Training in different level for : 5,067
Graduates of Five Month Residential Leadership Training : 445
Surkhet, Midwest Nepal (10 sessions) : 153
Lalitpur, Central Nepal (14 sessions) : 223
Dhankuta, east Nepal (4 sessions) : 69
Master of Ministry graduates in Kathmandu : 20
M. Min continuing in Kathmandu : 99
M. Min continuing in Biratnagar : 44
No. of Oral churches planted : more than 200

All glory to God.

“Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the Peoples.” (Psm 105:1)
A leadership Seminar for the staffs
On the occasion of the celebration, while almost all the staffs were present, I felt that they needed some encouragement and required to learn some leadership skills in order to be more effective in their respective tasks in the ministry. Our guest speaker, Rev. Sukdev Giri, a YWAMer of Chitwan district encouraged the staff members on three different aspects of leadership. First of all, he focused on the life of Abraham, the Father of Faith who loved and Obeyed God, and became the blessing to many nations, not only for his people. Speaking further about the faithfulness of Abraham, he emphasized that the ministers of the Lord ought to be faithful even in small tasks trusting even for an unknown destination. It was the obedience that led Abraham to be the blessing to many.
Secondly, he encouraged us to be available referring the life of Gideon, who thought that he was not worthy for the calling. But, God could use him in protecting and saving his people from the Midianites. He was busy threshing wheat when God called him. He also referred some other busy people whom God could use for His purposes e.g. prophet like Elisha who was ploughing when Elijah called him to follow. Likewise, Paul was busy on the road to Damascus, when he encountered Jesus, Matthew was on the table of the tax office, Simon Peter and Andrew were casting their nets into the sea, and John and James were mending their nets when Jesus called them. God always calls and uses busy people rather than the idle ones. He is concerned about the faithfulness and availabilities of the people, rather than the abilities.
Thirdly, he focused on different gifts in the ministry referring to I Cor. 12 and Rom 12. He encouraged our staff members to carry on divine task and be faithful in the gifts granted by the Lord. In a team like ours, we all the members have specific roles to play in order to win the game and no role is lesser than others and everyone plays a vital role in the endeavor. Everyone is significant in the eyes of the Lord and we complete as the team members, but do not compete with each other.

Staff Retreat & Elephant Riding
As mentioned above, we all were busy in the task given by the Lord and needed some refreshment to gear up faster in the new year. We read in Mark 6: 30-34, that our Lord Jesus wanted his disciples to take some rest in a quiet place. We too tried to apply the method and I remember that I had taken all the staffs and children on one occasion in July 2009 to the mountain top riding the only Cable Car in Nepal. All appreciated the idea and felt refreshed. Our Lord took his disciples to the sea shore some times, and to the mountain in some other occasions in order to disciple and teach them. I am just trying to imply the biblical lessons in the process of building the team.

In order to get some rest and be refreshed to gear up faster, there was a Christmas break for 16 days granted to each staff member and also thought that a Three Day Retreat would do some fueling, we decided to have all the staff members along with their children go for Elephant riding at Chitwan National Park on the 4th Jan 2012. As Nehemiah did while the work of rebuilding of the wall was Half Way through, people were tired and started thinking about their family needs. Nehemiah stationed them according to their families (Neh 4:13) and work was completed after 52 days. Just trying to apply the Biblical example, we had all the families stationed and enjoy the elephant riding on the 4th Jan morning.

Prayer Concerns
As we proceed to the second phase of ministry after this milestone, we will appreciate your continuing friendship, partnership and prayers for us. In the first decade of ministry, our prayer and priority have been to focus on the Purpose, People both benefactor and beneficiary and Programs. Now the time has come for us to initiate for securing some Property as well which will help us on the way to Sustainability. We, therefore will write soon to you for prayer and partnership for the needed land and building for the training centers in this second phase of
Ministry.

For this second decade of ministry, we continue to covet the prayer and partnership of the like-minded partners like you and we need God desperately.

“If your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (Exod 33:15)
Your partnership has meant us much and may the Lord continue to bless you for His purposes.
Thanking you for all you have been doing,

Dil Bahadur Tamang
Founder/President
Himalayan Bible Study Academy (Govt. Reg No. 1331)
Kathmandu, Nepal.