(AgapePress) - The president of Gospel for Asia (GFA), Dr. K.P. Yohannan, says he is cautiously optimistic about recent changes in Nepal’s government.

Earlier this month the Parliament of Nepal stripped the king of political power, removing his control of the nation’s army and declaring Nepal a secular state. That act ended the country’s former status as the world’s only Hindu kingdom.

However, Nepalese Hindus are protesting the Parliament’s resolution. The Associated Press reports that a peaceful strike called by Hindu groups has closed schools and businesses in one southern border town and threatens to block imports of goods from neighboring India, and some 5,000 protesters have recently marched through Katmandu waving banners against the decision. More than 85 percent of the population of Nepal is Hindu.

But despite the protests, Christians working in Nepal are hopeful. For years now, GFA missionaries have worked in Nepal, planting churches and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Dr. Yohannan, the ministry’s leader, says major changes could be in store for the country’s long oppressed Christian minority.

“We have experienced huge amounts of persecution, rejection, imprisonment, because the constitution of Nepal under the king says that if you convert someone you had to go to prison for many years,” Yohannan explains. “And now, in spite of all the rules in Nepal, God is working, and we have over 200 churches planted there.”

During the past decade, more than 14,000 people have died because of a war between Communist forces and the Royal Nepal Army. Meanwhile, missionaries like those serving through GFA have worked under the threat of persecution.

Even with the recent sweeping changes in the government, Yohannan observes, Christians may still face difficult times ahead. He cautions that, with India being so close, the possibility remains that religious fundamentalism could be adopted in Nepal just as it has been in India.

Nevertheless, the GFA president says he continues to entertain hope in “the possibility” opened up by the Nepalese Parliament’s declaration — the possibility that “the country will be wide open for the gospel when they have the new constitution explaining about what it means to be a democratic, secular nation.”

If all goes optimally, Yohannan says the recent government changes could create not only more freedom for Christians in Nepal but more freedom for the work of missions agencies like GFA. “I hope they will do that,” the Christian leader says. “If that be the case, it will be a huge breakthrough to see so much more done in the country.”

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