First Generation: Stories of Rebels and Pioneers

First Generation is the fascinating account of a mass migration of people into an entirely new way of life. Individual stories, written in an unadorned style, are woven like a village basket, deft and earthy and insightful. Kirkus Reviews says: The authors’ prose is direct and succinct, and they express with impressive sensitivity and sympathy the experiences and worldviews of those they interview.

There are only a few places on this planet where the belief systems of the ancient world remain. Isolated between the Asian giants of India and China, and protected by the forbidding Himalayan mountains, Nepal has preserved through the centuries a way of life that is still mud and straw brick–a curious world of demons, idols, and god-men. Magic, astrology, fortune-telling, and even animal sacrifices are the norm. In their departure from a 5,000-year-old culture that is rooted in ancient Mesopotamia, Nepali Christians are truly Rebels and Pioneers.

These Nepali Christians may be some of the best examples we have of the early church. They are first-generation believers. Their theology is uncomplicated, their faith is innocent, and their lives are pure. We rarely hear their stories told in their voices.

Perhaps these primitive believers, many of them illiterate, can sense something that we cannot. Perhaps they hear a message that we cannot hear in our sterile, synthetic, self-absorbed world. Perhaps they can teach us something about faith and love and living.