by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A young Christian couple in Nepal have been reunited with their infant son after radical Hindu family members took him and ordered them to leave their home, Morning Star News reports. Nepal ranks 34 on the US Open Doors Watch List 2022 of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Pawan (whose full name is withheld for security reasons) and his wife became Christians while living with his Hindu parents in central Nepal’s Bhaktapur District, MSN reports. The couple were open about their faith, and were attending Christian church services. However, in March 2020, Pawan’s parents were angered that the couple attended Christian services to worship God - but refused to eat food his parents had offered to Hindu Gods. By this time Pawan had a newborn son.
The couple refused to eat the food offered to idols, and Pawan’s wife became weak and unable to breastfeed. “Many days went by with just a meal a day, and my wife, who was breastfeeding our baby, grew weaker,” Pawan told MSN. “She would silently suffer, fearing that complaining to me might lead to a heated argument with my parents.”
The situation was greatly exacerbated after Pawan’s younger brother also put his faith in Christ.“Both my mother and father falsely accused me of sorcery to draw my brother into my faith,” Pawan said. “I only shared the gospel with him; I never forced him and did not speak any alluring words to make him a Christian. It was his own decision.” However, Pawan’s parents were so angered they threw him and his wife out of their home, but kept his son, MSN said. The couple took refuge with Christians, and then fought to get their child back.“After a great struggle, we were able to recover our son and brought him to stay with us,” Pawan said.
Nepal is over 83 percent Hindu, and proselytizing has been banned under the constitution since 2015. Nevertheless, Nepal is seeing a growing Christian community, MSN said.