Well, Yolanda and I believe that it was the best trip we have taken to Nepal to go see the kids, our orphanage manager and his family. Everyone is doing well and we even got to see the kids that are fully transitioning out of the home and into real life as young adults. It is a strange and wonderful thing to see our kids growing up into men and ladies to be productive members of society.
I definitely saw the fruit of our decision to college educate all our kids. Some are becoming chefs, some are getting business management degrees and others are working in the travel industry as hotel management staff. I also spoke with one of our kids who is getting ready to enter his last year of college in business management. He said that he wants to be able to run a business and then do ministry around the area, which is awesome and proves the point that you don’t have to be in full time ministry to be able to minister to hurting people who need to hear about Jesus.
Yolanda and I were able to bring a suitcase of supplies as well as some fun things and luxuries for the kids to enjoy. There were many people who got involved in giving and we appreciate everyone’s gifts!
We were able to go shopping for basic supplies the homes needed as well as spend time hanging out with the kids and it was great. We had a worship night with other kids from the area and I was able to share a word about the importance of not just being a worship “performer” but living a lifestyle of worship. We also had a BBQ with the kids and played some games and got to just catch up talking. I loved this trip as well because the kids are getting older and easier to talk to because they trust that we are going to take care of them and want to be involved in their lives. Yolanda and I presented 10 study Bibles to kids who have graduated from High School (a gift that Yolanda and I have committed to each kid).
We were also able to go and look at land that is available in the area to possibly purchase and build our own compound with buildings for the boys, girls, our manager and a dorm area for people who would like to come and visit with us and work with the kids on trips. Please pray with us about this as it would involve quite a bit of money but we know that the home is God’s and He is going to take care of the kids as we listen and are obedient to do what He directs.
Yolanda and I want to bring a group of people back with us in October of 2017 so we made a site visit to the Chitwan National Park and stayed at a wonderful resort while there, Landmark Forest Park. Everything was wonderful and we got to see many things with walks into the local village an elephant safari and jeep safari! We made great new friends and a possible place to bring people so they can enjoy the culture and get to see a part of the world that many people from America never get to see.
At the end of the trip we spent a few days in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which was a great time of relaxing and winding down before heading home to the USA. Yolanda and I feel it is SUPER important to not just do ministry in life and miss the wonderful world that God has created and all of the interesting and amazing people in it.
Thanks to everyone who prayed while we were gone and will continue to pray for our kids. We have a great burden to see them all succeed and with the kids growing older they can present new challenges as teenagers and not little kids anymore. We also have some newer young kids that have come into the home and want the older ones to be a good influence on them and not bad ones.
Please pray also about possibly supporting the Children’s Home of Love. We never want to share only about need because we are about giving people vision for what we want to see happen and motivate people to team up with us. We know that God will bring in what is needed at the right time. He has been with us from the beginning and will continue to lead us to help change our little corner of the world, seven thousand seven hundred and twenty four miles away, one child at a time.