Prem Pradham 1924 - 1998

PREM PRADHAN (1924-1998)

Condensed from an article by John Lindner in Christian Mission, Winter 1998-9.

Born of Hindu parents of Nepali ancestry, Prem had been educated in the (Hindu) Rama Krishna Mission School in Calcutta. He served in the British Air Force in World War II and was shot down in the Middle East. Wounded in the leg by ground fire while parachuting to safety, Prem narrowly escaped amputation and always walked with a limp. After the war he became the commander of a tank regiment in the Indian army.

Prem heard a street preacher in Darjeeling District in northern India, whose text was, "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Fearful of the judgment, Prem returned to ask the preacher how he could avoid it, and the preacher led him to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of his life. He told Prem that he should read the New Testament through six times before he read the Old Testament.

After his conversion, Prem used his military leave to accompany other Christians on preaching and witnessing trips into his native Nepal. Less than three years after he was converted, God called him to resign his post and serve Him full time. At first Prem objected like Moses of old: "Not me, Lord, I have a lame leg."

"Isn't it strange of God," he later said, "that He called a cripple to preach the gospel in the Himalaya Mountains?" After resisting God's call for three months, Prem resigned his army position and went as an apostle to his native land.

Prem baptized his converts openly, disdaining the concept of "secret" believers. "Jesus suffered for us openly," he said. "We should be willing to suffer for Him." The believers were soon arrested in 1962 and given a year's jail sentence for changing their religion; Prem was given a six-year sentence for baptizing them, i.e., causing them to change their religion.

At that time the Nepalese prisons were dungeons of death: no ventilation in summer; no heat in winter; no sanitation facilities; crawling with insects. Prisoners were given one cup of rice per day, and expected to cook it themselves over their own little fires. Without help from relatives, many died.

Prem decided to hold an "inside-the-prison" Bible institute. With nothing to do, most of the prisoners gladly listened. By the end of the first year, many of the prisoners had accepted Christ as Lord.

By the time Prem was released from Prison, he had converted and discipled men from twelve tribes. When they got out, they went back as living witnesses to their people. The missionary work in Nepal was multiplying. Between 1960 and 1975 Prem spent ten out of fifteen years in a total of fourteen different prisons. But he was determined that the churches in Nepal would never be an underground movement.

There were no roads in the early days, so Prem often followed the rivers into the valleys to preach the gospel in mountainside villages. Hiking through the forests, he used to climb up into the trees to sleep eighteen feet above ground - above the jumping height of tigers.

Probably the greatest work Prem did was to start schools for the training of young people. The first school he started was in Lazimpat, a section of Kathmandu. Prem built a three-story building, gathered a teaching staff, and started teaching up to 250 children. Christian Aid Mission helped fund it.

Without warning in 1972 police raided the school, killed one teacher, and beat the others. Prem was imprisoned; the teachers fled; the children were scattered. Prem's sentence was for 20,000 days - fifty-four years. Bob Finley of Christian Aid learned about it and visited him in prison in 1973. Later, Prem learned that he could be released if he paid a ransom of 20,000 rupees - a rupee per day, then the equivalent of $2,000. He relayed this information to Bob Finley, who shared it with a group of believers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They raised the amount. Two teenage girls smuggled the money into Nepal. It was brought to the prison, the ransom was paid, and Prem was finally released.

In 1980 Prem began another school - this time on his farm in Sarlai District, a day's journey by bus from Kathmandu. By 1984, 1,000 pupils were enrolled in New Life School. Most walk miles from the surrounding areas. About 300 children are brought to Prem's farm from the mountains where there are no schools. They stay in boys' and girls' hostels built with funds provided by Christian Aid so they can attend Prem's school.

In 1986 the King of Nepal awarded Prem the Social service Medal of Honor for his humanitarian and educational work - maybe as an act of atonement for the 1972 persecution. That, perhaps, was symbolic of a gradual turnaround in Nepal's attitude toward Christians. Though it is still technically illegal to change one's religion or to proselytize, Christians in most areas now have constitutional freedom to worship. In response to a pro-democracy movement in 1990, all political and religious prisoners were released. But local persecution still prevails in Hindu villages.

There are now many assemblies of believers scattered across the mountains of Nepal that trace their spiritual roots to this old soldier. Today Prem's body lies in a grave at the entrance to New Life School.