![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/DSC_7677-1024x716.jpg\")
He continued, \u201cThe more I went and saw what our staff was doing there, the more I was committed, the more I fell in love with it, and the more I was willing to risk my life there. I\u2019ve nearly died there many times. In the beginning it just drove my wife, Rhonda, nuts. By the time I got arrested she was comfortable with it,\u201d Nerren said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nerren and his organization, Asian Children\u2019s Education Fellowship, also trains teachers. \u201cWe do Sunday school teacher training. We train the young adults in every denomination of every type of church in Nepal. This training includes teaching kids to read and write because not all of them can even make it to public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nerren tirelessly raised money and contributed from his personal finances to send the children to school, fund the training programs, and finance the overall ministry to the Nepali people. It was not uncommon or illegal for Nerren to carry large sums of cash into other countries, provided he declared the funds in each country and paid any taxes due, which he always had. And Nerren had experienced no problems doing so until October 5, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On that trip, after being questioned about the cash they were carrying and released at New Delhi airport, Nerren and his friends, Drew Hayes and Jim Gore, were detained at Bagdogra airport and asked about it again. They were always asked, \u201cAre you a Christian? Will you meet with Christians in India? Will any Christians in India receive any of this money?\u201d Nerren and his friends always answered the same (yes, yes, and yes). Bagdogra officials claimed they failed to complete the necessary paperwork in New Delhi, although no paperwork had been presented or requested at that time. After being detained for more than eight hours, officials charged Nerren and released his friends. Officials detained all $40,000 of the mission funds and never returned them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than seven months of volleying between the courts and legal officials of India followed. Imprisoned for six days and required to stay in Siliguri the remainder of the time, the officials refused to release his passport. For seven months and 17 days, life was in limbo for the Nerren family. Newsweek\u2019s story chronicles the impossible legal processes that held Nerren more than 8,500 miles from his family.1 Life without him and the uncertainty of his return weighed heavily on them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully he was released, as detailed in the Newsweek story. And still, this is a family committed to the children and people of Nepal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nerren said, \u201cI\u2019ve spent 20 years going twice a year to help the most underprivileged children have an opportunity to get out of their dead-end lives. I wasn\u2019t unaware of its risk. I wasn\u2019t unaware of the hardship I placed on my family. I knew it was what God asked me to do, to be a living sacrifice, to quit owning the things of the world and give myself away to other human beings. It started with my family. My priorities aren\u2019t complicated. It\u2019s God first, my family, our church, the church, Nepal, India, and then the rest. I\u2019ve always asked, \u2018Is it good for God? Is it good for my family?\u2019 I want my three grandsons to know I came from an impossible place and lived life to help other people. I want them to grow up compassionate and caring about other people.\u201d GN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bryan Nerren’s commitment to educating the poor of Nepal has been tested in many ways. Even arrest couldn’t stop him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/DSC_7651-1024x725.jpg\")