Nepal is a country with beautiful landscapes and beautiful people. If you visit Nepal you will fall in love with the people and the places.
A landlocked country, Nepal has had it's fair share of tradgedy with a civil war that cut deeply though the nation only a few decades ago. Currently, it is a secular country but the main religion, Hinduism, still permeates throughout every aspect of society.
After many years of closure to the outside world, Nepal opened its borders to foreigners in the early 1950s when the founders of INF, Lily O'Hanlon and Hilda Steel, first started working in Nepal. They heeded the command of Jesus to love their neighbours and they did this by providing medical treatment to those who could not afford such treatment. Sometimes they trekked days into the mountains of Nepal in order to find and treat people who had been ostracised by their communities due to leprosy.
You can read more about Lily O'Hanlon and Hilda Steel and the decades of tireless work in Nepal by INF missionaries in Tom Hale's book Light Dawns In Nepal (available from INF offices).
But their lasting legacy can be seen in the everyday treatment of patients at the Green Pastures Hospital in Pokhara or the Community Based Rehabilitation work that INF facilitates in rural communities across the country and other ministries that seek to alleviate the effects of poverty, disability and natural disaster in Nepal.
Not only was INF instrumental to early medicinal development but has also played an important support role in the growth of Christianity and the church in Nepal. INF believes in empowering an indigenous church and empowering Nepalis to help themselves. We would love for you to join us in caring for the physical and spiritual needs of the Nepali people.
One of the best ways to see God at work in Nepal through INF and the local church is to join us on a short term trip to Nepal. Read on if you are considering joining an INF trip to Nepal.
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