Yadav of Nepal
By Alysia McCord
Today, there is a people group of about 1 million living in Nepal called the Yadav.
They are musical. They wrestle. They herd cows. They are about 99 percent Hindu.
Among these stats, Joshua Project reports a variety of other needs they have. One of the most stark statements that The Joshua Project makes about this people group, however, is this one:
“Most of the Yadav die never hearing the Name of Jesus once in a lifetime!”*
Brothers and sisters, what will we do about this?
One thing we can do is pray. We can pray for the Yadav, and for God to send workers into a field ripe for Harvest.
Another thing we can do is support those workers that we as Southern Baptists have sent. Together, we send missionaries around the globe. We can support them by praying for them, and engaging them, serving with them and serving them on mission trips. It is vital, in plans to reach groups like the Yadav, to have long term, Spirit filled, gospel-driven workers who understand the language and culture who can serve in integrity and strategically in the middle of relationships with the locals in order to bring the Gospel to this people group. We can support them, and we must send them!
We can also support them by supporting our sending agency, the International Mission Board. We can choose to be informed about what they are doing (this can be done easily by visiting sbc.net and reading a variety of stories under “CP Stories” that describe what workers are doing now and how we can pray for them). We can support our workers by giving to the IMB’s biggest funding support offering, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (and gifts to the IMB can be made all year, not only at Christmas).
We can make sure that our churches KNOW what our missionaries are doing so that they are also led to engage this work. We can share CP stories, and we can set LMCO giving goals so that our churches can join in to support what God is doing around the world. He will do His will with or without us! But we can encourage our churches to join in receiving the blessing of joining in on this weighty, important, and glorious work!
What can we do about the Yadav? I’d like to encourage our readers to pray for them. Then I’d like to encourage us to ask ourselves: What are we already doing, and how can I join that work?
Our generation can change the statistics on people groups like the Yadav! We can be the ones who make sure 1 million more don’t die without ever having heard THE NAME.
* https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/16187/NP