The story of Janga Gurung known as Max
Life as a Refugee
My name is Janga Gurung but everyone calls me Max. I was born in Bhutan in the year of 1991. When I was 11 months old, my family and I were forced to flee Bhutan and we ended up in the eastern part of Nepal as a refugee. Since I was very small I had no idea why we got exiled from our motherland, especially since my parents are deeply in love with the very place. They told us that the civil war arose from clashes between some political parties, and that these tensions were deeply connected to our villagers and relatives.
That same year, we fled to a refugee camp and learned that due to the fighting, seven other camps were created in the four different locations of Nepal.
There were international agencies who were genuinely looking after us, for instance, UN, UNCHR, LWF, World Food Programme etc. We got the privilege of education, ration, and free clothes once in a year, and small bamboo huts to sustain our lives. Due to very limited supplies, we had to plan accordingly and prepare ahead of time to not suffer later.
There was severe poverty, very casual medical support, extreme lack of sanitation, and lack of food which caused a lot of pain and suffering for many. Despite all of this, the place where I grew up and spent my entire childhood I will always treasure and cherish those memories in my heart.
Those days were very tough yet were blessings too. Among all the privileges, the education opportunity was the best gift ever.
Since I was 6 years old, up until grade 10 I attended school inside the camp which was absolutely free to us. After completing high school I went to college out-side the camp up to grade 12.
Despite my new direction, I had the one bad experience that I was a drug addict. I was so hopeless, having this “can’t do” “I can’t be” and had no dreams, had no purpose of life, had no destiny, no love, no mercy and no respect to no one else. In one word I was basically “blind”. At the end of 2008 I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior. I thank God that Jesus found me and lift me up and show me His wonderful plans for my life. I eventually started attending church and every fellowship in regular basis thereby I became a different man. My life again started to flourish in the word of God which is full of hope for eternity.
In the year of 2010, I got the opportunity to settle down in the nation Canada with my entire family. It was like the Israelites getting from Egypt to the land of Canaan after spending forty years in the desert. I am very happy and thankful to God that He has done mighty and wonderful things in our life. Now once again He has opened the doors for me to lead the Nepali speaking Bhutanese and genuine Nepali folks as leading person here London, Ontario.
