全文檢索
Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 9th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2006> Mountain Jesus ─Gobinda Pradhan
Redeem with love; live a meaningful life
      Pradhan, the founder of Nepal Christian regeneration group Friendship Home, used to be a gang member before thirty-five years old who had records in alcohol and drug problems, fighting and stealing. He spent most of the time back and forth from prison to the street. Until 1985 when he was 35, he decided to be baptized as a Christian in Nepal, a country where people are mostly Hinduism, and returned to the proper path. He gave Gospel to prisoners and founded two “Friendship Home” for their children to provide opportunities of job training such as sewing, electronics, motorbike repair, and computer information. His contribution changes the ultimate fate of prisoners’ children to live on social edge. People call him “mountain Jesus”. Pradhan creates hopes for prisoners’ children so that they have opportunities of reborn. He deserves to be called “mountain Jesus”.
 
Discipline to strengthen belief
      Born 1951 in eastern India, Pradhan got the citizenship in Nepal later on. He is the eighth child in a poor family of fifteen. When he was 8, all the kids in his family dropped out from school and went to motorbike factory as child labor. He became a driver at 15; however, after a car accident, he abandoned himself and followed his sister to make a living in Nepal. Since he did not have any skills, he became a street gangster and made friends with people in all levels of society. He had problems including drinking, drug use and trafficking, fighting and steeling. He was caught several times in police station and prison. In prison, he started to show changes after he studied the Bible.

      He started to write poem and showed it to the officer in prison. The officer liked his poems and became friendly with him to send food and snacks for him. It was easier to past the daytime. At night, he passed every single night by killing mosquitoes. One year later, he joined the gang immediately after he got out of the prison. At 26, he opened a restaurant; at the same time, he was infected with pneumonia and still had problems of drinking and drug abuse. He once thought of getting suicide because he did not feel the help from God; then, he became an atheist and thought of doing illegal business in India. 

      Whenever he has bad ideas, God would make its presence and show him scripts of the Bible. He was touched by the testimony that Jesus sacrificed himself to save people. Although he had engaged in illegal activities, God always gave him opportunity for redemption. Afterwards, he often participated in church activity. One time on a Buddhism holiday when he visited his parents, he refused ceremony of Buddhism, which angered his parents. He claimed he was a Christian and decided to get back to a correct path in life. More actively, he joined the church group and became extremely happy. He was happy to see people in Katmandu believe in Christian because Buddhism is popular for local people. Then, he was arrested because he printed unauthorized Christian books. This time he brought Jesus’ love with him to prison, which won over sympathy and concerns from many people from all walks of life.
 
The redemption to live a meaningful life
      The living condition in prison was rather bad but he had different feelings this time. He used to be very upset and now he was happy because he believed in Christian. When he was taken to the police station for questioning, he gave sermon to the police officers. After he got out of the prison, he began to preach will all efforts. He became extremely happy although life was still difficult for him. Then, they still was pressured by the local authority and escaped back to India.

      At last, he was supported by media and the entire society in India. He brought his siblings back to Nepal and went to prison to preach. One time in a remote prison, the prison guard opened fire to them and questioned their intention. The guards were moved after he explained his past and how he believed in God; so they were provided with food and clothes and allowed to proceed with their preaching Christian. 

      Pradhan started to investigate the life of prisoners in Nepal and their relatives. He discovered that the condition of teenagers in prison was awful and then he came forward to plead for these young men. He won the praise from the society because he had thousand of host families settle down those teenagers so that they could return to school after the life in prison. Afterwards, he extended his concern to prisoners’ minor children. In 1998, he rented a house and in 2000 he moved to the first “Friendship Home” close to Katmandu; at the same time, he established the second “Friendship Home” on the border of Nepal. Up until now, there have been 240 prisoners taking training classes of sewing, electronics, motorbike repair and computer skills. In more than 20 prisons, he built up more than 20 libraries and published “Prison World” magazine to promote the regeneration of prisoners and their actions to help themselves and help others.