Dr. Sharma was one of the recipients of the BG Thank Offering in 2015. He was planning on visiting Ithaca December 12-15 but was hospitalized with pneumonia. Please pray for his recovery.
Here is his story. He is from an influential Hindu family in Nepal and his father-in-law was prime minister of Nepal for three terms. As a youth he became disillusioned with Hinduism and became a follower of Christ as an international student through the ministry of ISI in Oregon. After getting his PhD in Business, he felt called to return to Nepal to help spread the gospel.
Udaya with David at Cornell Plantations, 2014
Upon returning home and announcing that he was a Christian, he was disowned by his family. But his wife chose to stay with him, and she and their children came to know the Lord. Udaya became a business professor in Kathmandu and started making ministry trips into the mountain villages.
He has now been doing ministry in Nepal for close to 40 years, during which time he has led hundreds of Hindu-background people to Christ. His holistic ministry includes literacy classes, eye clinics, funding for the rural poor to have cataract surgery, and training and grants to enable women to start micro-businesses to provide for their families (these are often widows or their husbands have gone out of the country to find work). He and his wife have also raised several orphans.
Udaya is now retired from being a professor but remains determined to keep serving the Lord as long as he is able. Just recently another Hindu woman came to Christ on one of his ministry trips. Since about 2005, after Udaya’s ISI mentor Martha Peterson passed away, I have been one of the primary advocates for his ministry. ISI has featured his story in one of their returnee impact videos illustrating the reproducing impact of ISI through its returnees.
If you are interested in being updated about his ministry, please email me at dlarson778@gmail.com
Udaya with Hannah Larson and Oh (recipient of 2024 Thank Offering)
Article by David Larson, BG Supported Missionary