7holycrap Holy Crap, Orphanage Trips, Orphanage Update

The Kids In Our Nepal Children’s Home Are Growing Up!

Yolanda and I love coming to Nepal to see the kids at our children’s home in Kathmandu. We are currently here celebrating Christmas a little early and having a big party.

We had a pizza party last night with all of the kids and the people that work here at both the homes. I made a startling yet pleasing discovery while watching the contrast of our older and younger kids. Something that gave me hope in the process here of not just saving kids from the street but helping to properly educate and cause them to become productive members of society.

We have a group of younger kids that are recent compared to all of the others who have been with us since the beginning of starting the home. I can remember the first time we came over to Nepal and watched the kids react to mealtime. It was something I will never forget. ALL of the kids would eat so fast and go back for seconds as many times as they could almost like a subconscious result of being an orphan and not knowing where their next meal would come from. I saw a complete contrast of those older kids, now almost ten years later, and their reaction to our pizza party. They sat with their friends and ate at a normal pace, not shoving in their food and not pushing and shoving to get back in line for seconds. In fact, we had three pizzas left over from our party when in the past, every single crumb would be devoured by our kids. I mention this because I saw a contentment and security in the older kids that they knew they were taken care of and not worried about getting enough to eat. It was like they had a kind of peace on them that they were not in an orphanage but in a home where they felt safe, secure and knew that their basic needs were being met.

When I saw this, I had a full “aha” moment and realized that the team here and the work CTN has been doing is not only worth it in making us feel better about helping those less fortunate but that the kids were feeling the support and sustainability of the people and system here to help guide and direct their lives.

Now compare this story to your own life. How do you react to God and the system he has for taking care of you? Do you live in fear that what you are receiving from him today will run out tomorrow and you will be left in the cold and not supported anymore? Or have you “grown up” and are now trusting that the same care that God gives you today is enough for your tomorrow and especially for your eternal future? I believe this is moving from the “milk to the meat” of the word in trust with God. I can think of many times where I was in a situation and thought that God may have forgotten about me, but then he ends up meeting every need in a perfect way.

As we begin to wrap up our trip here in Nepal, I know that I needed to see the growth of our kids and the trust they have in us and the system that is set in place. It has once again helped me consider my own life and how I can continue to trust that God will take care of my EVERY need according to HIS riches in glory!

7holycrap Orphanage Trips

#NepalOrphanage Trip – A Wonderful Trip to Nepal

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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.

7holycrap Orphanage Trips, Orphanage Update

Nepal Update – Enjoy the World!

      
We travelled to a hotel/resort in the Chitwan Valley area for a few days to investigate something for people to do in addition to working with the orphanage when we bring people to Nepal on future trips. We did a couple of different safari’s yesterday (rhino pic above) and will do a canoe trip today with a guide. It has been wonderful to spend a few days here before we get back to Kathmandu and spend 4 more days with our kids. 
Yolanda and I think it is important to always spend time in whatever part of the world you are in and experience the culture and expand your world view. I think many times in life we get so focused on “doing the work of the Lord” that we don’t take time to really see and experience the world around us. Plus, I know that we are spreading the love of Jesus to this part of Nepal just by interacting with the people we meet and also praying over the land that we are setting foot on. 

I hope that there are people reading these updates and getting excited to come to Nepal with us next year and experience everything we see when we come here! 

It’s off to another day of adventure and letting the love and heart of Jesus shine through our actions not only with the kids we love and support, but also the people we will come in contact with today. Think about your interactions today. Are you letting Jesus shine through you? 

7holycrap Orphanage Trips, Orphanage Update, Uncategorized

Nepal Orphanage Trip 2016 Update! 

  
We had a great Mother’s Day here in Nepal! The picture with this post is of Yolanda standing in the pulpit at the church where she and her mom preached when they came to Nepal about 13 years ago. We had a great Sunday am service and heard a wonderful message about the never ending love of a mother which is like Jesus’ love for us. 
We then spent some time with our home managers and their  kids goofing around and were able to give them the gifts we brought them. It was funny when they were so excited about things we take for granted everyday like ranch dressing mix. 🙂 

We then ordered a delicacy that the kids are never able to eat because it is so expensive, pizza, and had everyone over to our manager’s house to play a bit  and eat dinner together. 
God always gives me reminders about thankfulness and being appreciative of not only the things I have back home but a reminder of the many smiles and relationships here in Nepal. 

It was exciting to see kids that would not really smile when we came just 3 years ago. joking and smiling and enjoying time with their brothers and sisters. 

I am going to do a follow up post to this one in the am (nighttime for all of my USA peeps) about something God showed me during the worship service today. 

Please continue to pray for safety and that tomorrow we would find the best deals in town for the years worth of supplies we are getting tomorrow. 

7holycrap Jesus thoughts, Life Lessons, Orphanage Trips

SuperBowl XLVIII and REAL Life

It’s the morning after the SuperBowl and some people are rejoicing and others are weeping. The real question is, how much did last night’s win or loss change your life? If you bet all your money on the Seahawks and you’re more wealthy, then you have new problems because of more money. If you bet everything on the Broncos and you lost all your money, then you also have new problems (and possibly need a place to live). But in the grand scheme of things, a loss or win doesn’t mean anything to your personal life. I realized this about 3 years ago with my beloved Buccaneers. I still root for them, but I don’t yell at the tv or throw things or have a crappy attitude after they lose (which they did a lot of this past year) because it was consuming too much of my mental capacity in life. It was the same with the Broncos last night. I have lived in Denver for almost 13 years and always want to see them do well. Last night was no exception. I wanted to see Payton Manning win another SuperBowl and the Broncos cap off an amazing record setting season. It was not to be and the Seahawks won.
I think the renaissance in my thinking came from a couple of things. When I got sick with my eye condition for 5 years I didn’t care about a lot, including life or even living. Football and rooting for one team or another wasn’t even on my radar screen. I just didn’t want to go blind. When I got better I realized that all of the emotional energy I put towards things that don’t concern me is just not worth it. I am not saying that I am perfect now, but that I have a better perspective on sports teams I root for and how it impacts my life. The other thing that happened was I started to help oversee our orphanage in Nepal. To see what our kids over there deal with on a daily basis makes a SuperBowl loss for my football team pale in comparison.
There are SO MANY other things we need to emotionally invest in on a daily basis that are more important, including our relationships to others and our relationship to God. Seeing players from both teams last night praying together was better to me than anything else about the game (and not just because my Broncos lost :). Too many people in life have their priorities all mixed up. This post may make you angry but think about why you don’t like what I am saying. Don’t let a “pastime sport” consume your life so much that it endangers relationships around you because of your bad attitude from a loss or arrogance from a win. I want my life to matter more than the sports teams I rooted for or personal accomplishments that lift me up above my relationship to Jesus. The things that I want to matter in my life are connected to seeing others around me find a personal relationship to Jesus and helping those less fortunate than myself. If I consume my mind with THOSE things, than I can say that I lived a meaningful life for more than just the success or failure of a sports team I rooted for. Have a great week!

7holycrap Jesus thoughts, Life Lessons, Orphanage Trips

The Outward In or The Inward Out – Devos from India

This was a little blog post i put together while traveling through Delhi, India last week. Thought i would share it with you!

I am currently sitting in the Delhi India airport waiting to see my bags (which they need to get their crap together, by the way, as far as transfer passengers) I was reading my Watchman Née – Secrets to Spiritual Power book for my morning Devos. This book is so loaded with good, biblical thoughts to chew on so I thought I would share a little something from the other side of the earth. 🙂 Watchman says, “One way to discern between the work of satan and the work of God in a persons spiritual life is this: God always works from the center out while Satan works from the outside to the center.” I know that many times I am reacting to the outward circumstances satan throws at me instead of living from the inside truth that Jesus has it all under control. Don’t let your today be robbed by allowing the devil to make you focus more on his power to deceive instead of focusing on God and His power to ALREADY deliver you. The key is us realizing that the work is already finished. God is ready to work from the inside out instead of letting you be distracted from things on the outside trying to maneuver and get into your life. Have a good day and blessings!

7holycrap Orphanage Trips

Last Night in Nepal

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Well, we had a great trip to the boarder of Nepal next to Tibet. We spent three days just loving on the people and doing dental work, handing out glasses and praying for the sick. We saw about 195 people in the eye clinic and about 170 in the glasses. We also got to pray for about 16 people and saw one lady accept Jesus into her heart and one man healed of chest pain. I loved just sitting and listening to all the stories of the people we came in contact with. Some people on the last day took a bus from their house and walked three hours up the mountain to where we were ministering. Many if not all of the people we saw had never been to a dentist or an eye doctor in their entire life. The church got all the names and addresses of the people who came to see us so it was a great time of spreading seed of God’s love as well as just praying for people and letting them know about the love of Jesus. We so appreciate the doctors and their wives who came at their own expense to touch the lives of so many people who desperately needed to see and experience the love of God through action.
The awesome thing is that you don’t have to go to Nepal to show the Love of Jesus to the world around you. Many times we say, “if I could only go to a far away country and show people that Jesus loves them…” But you have friends and family that need to see Jesus’ love on display and not in some foreign country. I challenge you today to ask God to give you an opportunity to share His love and to be used by Him. Many times we wait for moments to “stumble upon” a person or situation that needs a God infusion instead of being targeted with our requests and then letting God do the rest!! Have a great night/day and our next stop is a 9 hour layover in London!! Woohoo!! Good times and we will see everyone Sunday am!

7holycrap Orphanage Trips

Nepal Update – Tomorrow is looking good America!

Good morning from Nepal! This morning, Yolanda said something and I referred back a conversation Jesus had with the disciples. She said, “now today is Monday and it is still Sunday night back home.” Simple enough, but I thought of Matthew 6:34 that says…
34 “So don ‘t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
When God tells us not to worry about tomorrow, He isn’t saying it because he lives in the same “time zone” that we are in. Many times we forget that God is already in tomorrow (as we are in Nepal and you are in America) and can see what is coming.
So I can tell you that your tomorrow is going to be great. 🙂 haha
Notice too that the scripture does not say there will be NO trouble in tomorrow, but only to rely and trust in His provision, as stated in the verses previous to 34. Worry is something that can affect everyone and anyone. I remember when I was going through my physical stuff and I would worry so much about tomorrow that I would allow the devil to steal the joy of my today. We are either listening to God and the authority of his Word or our finite flesh with all its trappings. Choose today to keep your eyes on your today combined with your mind on God’s Word. A winning combination that will ensure you have the kind of tomorrow that God desires for you; one that is trusting wholly in Him.

Today we leave for the Nepal/Tibet boarder to do more dental and eyeglass ministry. Not sure how much Internet connection we will have up there but will do updates when we can. Again, thanks for praying and blessings!

7holycrap Orphanage Trips

Thanks for the prayers! The orphan supplies made it!

You will notice the notes we added to the suit cases for people to not steal our supplies. You never know who is in your bags when you are traveling overseas. 🙂 Notes to thieves combined with prayer makes all the difference in the world!

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