The following is an excerpt from the book, Ordinary Disciples, Extraordinary Influence: Stories to Fuel a Life of Unshakable Faith, by Galen Burkholder and Brother Tefera

Sejun was an illiterate farmer living in an isolated village on the border of Nepal. He was a Buddhist, and no one in his village had ever heard the name of Jesus.

When his wife, Ehani, became deathly ill, Sejun hiked the mountains looking for witch doctors who may be able to help, hoping someone would be able to heal her. But no one could. Soon, Ehani became bedridden, waiting to die. Their home was a place of quiet sadness.

Around this time, two young men from their village left for seasonal work as Sherpas, trekking and helping visitors climb some of the highest Himalayan peaks. One expedition took them into the foothills and to a town close to the Everest base camp. A Christian medical doctor in town found out about the visitors, invited them for a nice meal, and asked if they had ever heard about Jesus the Messiah. As they ate and talked, he shared freely, telling stories of Jesus that amazed these young men.

During their conversation, a couple came to the door, seeking the doctor. Their young daughter was very ill. The doctor asked them to place her on a cot, and he went back to the Sherpas to explain the situation.

One Sherpa asked the doctor if his Jesus could heal the little girl in the next room. If all the stories he had told were true, it seemed a small thing to heal the girl. The doctor replied that sometimes God heals with miracles, and sometimes God heals through surgery and medication. “But we can ask Jesus to heal her,” he concluded, and the three of them went into the other room with the little girl and her parents.

The doctor knelt by the bed, laid his  hands on the girl and prayed … and she was healed!

When the Sherpas saw this, they were convinced, and they decided to become followers of Jesus. Since they were illiterate, the doctor taught them a few simple songs that would help them remember the truth about Jesus. Having encountered something new and amazing, they left with joy in their hearts. They sang the new songs as they traveled on their expeditions and continued singing them when they returned to their village after the expedition season.

Once home, these young Sherpas went to Sejun’s house to tell him what they had learned about Jesus and how they had seen the little girl healed.

“Do you think this Jesus could heal my wife?” Sejun asked.  They told him what the doctor had told them—sometimes Jesus heals with miracles, and sometimes he heals with medicine and surgeries. They walked over to her bed and did what they had seen the doctor do, knelt and

laid their hands on Ehani, praying for healing in the name of Jesus.

Ehani sat up in her bed, something she had been unable to do for weeks. She was hungry and began eating and regaining her strength. Sejun was beside himself with joy! She was completely healed—without the help of any medicine or witch doctor.

Soon after, she conceived and gave birth to a son they named Basta.

After Ehani’s healing miracle, Sejun was so amazed he couldn’t pull himself away from his wife to go work in the rice fields. But after a few days, he returned to farming, working all morning and then spending the afternoon marveling about what this Jesus had done for him.

Having seen God at work so powerfully, Sejun got an idea—he would walk through the village and look for sick people to heal in the name of Jesus. He knew many people had

family members who were unwell, and he wanted them to experience what he and Ehani had experienced. So, Sejun worked the fields in the morning, ate lunch at home, and then went out looking for people who were sick. He would tell them all he knew about Jesus (which wasn’t much and came from the songs the Sherpas had taught him) and then he prayed for them. They would be healed and subsequently accepted Jesus as their God.

It didn’t take  long before the sick people in Sejun’s village were all well, so he started trekking the mountains, visiting neighboring villages, and doing the same thing. A foreign missionary who lived in the city heard that many people in the mountain villages were being healed in the name of Jesus and coming to faith. The missionary tracked down Sejun—the 5’1” illiterate rice farmer who was preaching the good news and praying for people.

The missionary introduced himself to Sejun, took him under his wing, and taught him all about the Bible. The teaching immediately began to impact Sejun. One day, they were studying and came to Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine.”  

“Wait! I didn’t know that!” Sejun exclaimed. When he prayed for people and they were healed, the family would often give him a rice brew—the traditional way to thank witch doctors after they healed someone. He would stagger home after enjoying the gift, go to bed, and sleep it off. But from that point on, he never accepted any rewards for his prayers for healing.

Sejun and other Christians in his village were persecuted, beaten, shackled, and warned harshly not to speak to anyone about their faith. Ultimately, this persecution drove them away from their home.

Forced to settle in a new town, Sejun vowed he wasn’t going to tell anyone about Jesus because he wanted their children to grow up in peace. Shortly after they arrived, however, the mayor knocked on the door, and said he had heard that Sejun was a healer. Sejun couldn’t lie, so he reluctantly admitted that yes, he served a God who healed.

The mayor said, “Okay, come with me.” He took Sejun out to the field where several cows were lying on their side, foaming at the mouth. “Heal my cows,” the mayor insisted.

Sejun had never prayed for animals before—he didn’t know if Jesus would heal a cow or not, but he knew the mayor could hurt him if he didn’t agree, so he prayed for the first cow. They watched as it shook the froth from its mouth, stood up, and walked away … healed! The mayor then insisted he pray for the next cow. Sejun did, and it, too, was healed.

With the mayor’s blessing, Sejun was now able to remain in the village, preach the gospel, and participate in even more healing.

Sejun’s son, Basta, was one of the first children from his village to go to school, hiking an hour over the mountains to another village in order to attend. Basta learned to read, and then accompanied Sejun on healing trips, reading Scripture while his father preached and prayed for people. This went on for years, and over time, they began to see the miracle of multiplication taking place.

[Through a connection], Basta reached out to Global Disciples and asked for our help—they had more than a hundred churches within a five-day walk from where he and his father lived, but no way to train their people.

We [Global Disciples] invited Basta to attend a meeting of discipleship-mission directors we had equipped. It was there I met Basta, and we talked about the wonderful things God was doing in his community and surrounding villages. He prayed long into the night about how Global Disciples might be able to support what he was doing. The next morning over breakfast, Basta came back to me and said, “God spoke to me last night … God told me we are supposed to look to him to provide, not depend on support from the West. So, I won’t be asking for any money or seed funds from you.”

I knew their resources were limited. “How are you going to collect the money you need to run these training courses?”

“We don’t have to collect money,” he said. “We’ll put baskets by the church, and the rice farmers can contribute rice, and when the baskets are full, we’ll fill bags, and when the bags are full, we’ll have enough food to start the training.”

“Do me a favor,” I said. “Let me know the market value of the rice, when you’re ready to start.”

Basta agreed, and I told him we would like to send a gift toward their startup costs. The people in this church supplied chickens and rice to feed the participants. We considered the value of their gifts of food in kind to be 51 per cent of their training expenses, and we sent a gift for the remaining 49 per cent—$137 for Bibles, mats to sleep on, and some supplies. And their first discipleship-mission training was launched. And more trainings have followed their lead, primarily sustained by the local resources God provides!

On it goes. What began many years ago with two Sherpas and Basta’s father—a solitary, illiterate farmer desperate to help his wife—has become an influential disciple-making movement—most of it supported by local resources. And now assisting many groups of churches from various tribes and regions to multiply new fellowships of believers all across Nepal.

For more stories like this, get a copy of Ordinary Disciples, Extraordinary Influence, available in print and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble