Nepali Time | the Reach August 2025

Dear Friends,

 Nathan R. Moser works in Nepal with the International Theological Education Network (ITEN) for EPC World Outreach.

According to the Nepali calendar, the year is 2081. Most countries of the world have accepted the standard counting of years from Anno Domini, Latin for the “year of our Lord,” roughly counted from the birth of Jesus. The Nepali calendar starts in a different place.

If you are type-A person when it comes to time, Nepal will adjust you like a ham-fisted chiropractor. Our classes always started late, but just right for “Nepali Time.” If you can score some “Nepali Tea” while taking your “Nepali Time,” all the better.

Nepal breaks another rule of time. The clocks of the Royal Observatory in London set the world standard according to Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT. Most countries follow time zones that add or subtract whole hours relative to GMT, but not Nepal. If it is 12 a.m. in London (GMT), it is 6:15 a.m. in Nepal.

And there is still something else. Did you know that people age faster at higher altitude? This is not only because of sun exposure, or a thin atmosphere, or the cold. Einstein’s theory of relativity proved that time itself is curved. People of the Himalayas pass time slightly faster than people at sea level.

After our ITEN Bible course, I met what looked to me like an older man. He traveled from a high mountain village to learn with us in the valley of Nepalgunj. His skin was darkened and weathered tight. His home village was still covered with snow in the springtime, as it is much of the year. He smiled at me like a happy churchman. I learned that he was fully one year younger than I am. I took a hard look at the picture we took together. He did not look so old, and I did not look so young. Now I was counting the time wrong.

With my Himalayan friend I look to the Ancient of Days and the Eternal Son. We stand together, brothers, in time and out of time, saved for the great renewal of all things. By the Divine word we labor together, back to our villages and out into fields, for the harvest of all peoples.

By Nathan R. Moser

Nepal is one of the many ITEN sites that serves national Christian leaders in places where the gospel is largely unknown and education is limited. Through ITEN, these leaders are equipped to minister to their own people and send their own missionaries to unreached people groups. Click here to support the work of ITEN.