7holycrap Orphanage Trips

#NepalOrphanage Trip – A Wonderful Trip to Nepal

File May 22, 5 24 12 PM
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.

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Do We Worship, Worship? 

We attended church yesterday morning as our first thing on our Nepal orphanage trip. We started worship and it contained songs that I used to sing when I was first in ministry in the 90’s and even a couple when I was growing up in church. No Hillsong. No Bethel. No fancy new or hip songs to help entertain the crowd and make sure everyone knew that the church could compete with the best concert in town.

I had a REAL revelation about our church services in America. PLEASE hear me. I am not saying that all of the worship songs and the new songs that are coming from supernatural revelation are bad, but that we have lost our focus. 
Every time Yolanda and I come to Nepal and sing songs that have been around for years we feel the same presence of God as any of the hottest new tunes that we seek out for worship services back home. I am also not saying that we need to do all “classic” worship songs but to be careful about deeming the “spiritual level” of a song purely based on its newness and “hipness”. 

The only way our worship services can have the true power that people need is when we realize that the only thing the church has is the Holy Spirit and His power in their lives. Worship is to open a door and let the power of God touch people’s lives. I think many times, we stare at the beautiful and ornate “door” of worship instead of simply opening the door and allowing God to walk in and change the atmosphere. 

We also need to stop thinking that the FORM of worship is going to grow our churches more than the FUNCTION of worship which is to make sure people see the worship team lifting up Jesus and not just their beautiful voices. 
When we all realize that people simply need an encounter with Jesus in church as well as in our daily lives we will see the true power of God exhibited without us getting in the way of those transformational moments we all want to see in the lives of others.  

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!