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 Life Lessons

Why Birding is Just Like Listening To God

Bee Eater
(This pic is of a Bee Eater…eating a Bee that Yolanda took on our trip to Nepal last year)

Yolanda and I went “birding” over the weekend. If you don’t know what “birding” is, it’s finding a place that birds hang out, getting a decent camera and/or binoculars, and walking around trying to see or take pictures of the rarest ones you can find. The key is to go out looking with the realization that you may not see anything or you may hit the jackpot and see a ton of them. Yolanda has gotten some amazing (and I mean AMAZING) pictures from all the places we have been. It is like every bird is just waiting for our car to pull up and then they have a little bird fight to see who gets to fly in front of her camera and get shot (in a good way).

When I go, I am mainly going to support her but I also feel like it is an intentional time of not talking about work (because you are supposed to be quiet and not talk) and for some exercise. I have to admit, I get just about as excited as she does to see an owl or another rare breed. But for me, it is more about just getting out and getting away from the grind of life.

When you are birding it is very important that you remember a simple recipe for success. No matter how far you walk or where you go looking for birds, you need to occasionally stop, look up and listen. You can be out walking around and a great bird can be in the tree next to you but if you don’t stop, look up and listen then you will probably miss a great opportunity.

It is the same with listening to God. I can get so busy in life with my “walk” with Jesus that I can forget sometimes in life to just “stop, look up and listen” for things that God may want to share with me. I am a firm believer that God is always speaking to us and willing to be found but we are the ones who need to learn to slow down in life sometimes and be willing to wait on God and his voice.

Sometimes I can intentionally “stop, look up and listen” with God and I don’t hear a peep (get it? Haha) If I am consistently stopping, looking, and listening for Him I raise my chances of hearing something from God AND I train myself to learn that it is not even always about the grand revelation that God would share with me. I think the peaceable life that God teaches about in the Bible is 20% Spiritual and 80% just learning to shut up and listen. Listening to others. Listening to those who love us and want to bring Godly correction or even God speaking himself to us.

I know that going birding has taught me more than just the importance of not talking, which I still fail at regularly. It has taught me that the world around me will let me “run” in life as fast as I want, even to the point of burnout. If I am not taking time out of life to just BE and not try and DO, I will allow the world to dictate the pace of my life and not God. When I intentionally put the brakes on and take time to enjoy nature AND use that time to listen to what God has to say, I take back control of my life and essentially put myself on God’s time.

I use birding to slow down my life and shut up. What do you use? When trouble hits in life the peace we find in those times of quietness and listening to God will be a foundation to help get you through. Think today about what you do to change pace and “stop, look up and listen.”

7holycrap Life Lessons

Generosity has to do with HEARTS not HANDS

generous
I was talking to a friend about generosity and what motivates someone to give. I am the kind of person that if I have it I will give it. I can remember praying and having a conversation with God early in my life where I told him the more He gives me the more I will give.

During our conversation I said something that I think really sums up giving and meeting the needs of others.

I said, “Generosity is not what is in your hand, it’s what is in your heart.” Wow. I just sat there and looked at Aaron and said, “That statement is ending up in a blog post or on Facebook in some way.”

I think it is SO important to realize that generosity really has NOTHING to do with whether or not you have lots of money. Even the term “lots of money” is relative because “enough” to one person may be barely any to another.

The heart is the primary factor when it comes to a person giving to others and not what they see in their hand. When we only see what is in our hand we limit giving to simply a physical expression instead of really letting it be an expression from the heart.

God ALWAYS wants us operating from a place of heart and not simply evaluating what we think WE can afford to be without. Giving is not learning to go without because we gave to others. It is being content enough with what we have and being able to trust God for what we need so that we can be a blessing to others in their time of need.

Have a great day and, as always, I am praying for you!

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 Uncategorized

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 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 Orphanage Trips

Nepal May trip update

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Well we are in Nepal again and it has been another wonderful trip. We had great flights on Qatar Airlines (definitely recommended if flying in this part of the world) and it was only 26 hours of flight time which was the shortest of the three trips we have made over here. If anyone knows anything about Nepal they know that the government has “challenges” which is an understatement. There is going to be a bandh tomorrow and Monday which is where groups of people that are protesting the current government shut down the city traffic and force all the shops in the city to close down. We have really been working hard to get the majority of our shopping for orphanage supplies done the first couple of days to avoid the shutdowns around the city. So far for me this trip has been about perspective and my life back in the states. Everyone in the US will admit that the past few years we have undergone some pretty serious problems with our economy and just the government fighting and not getting a lot done no matter if you are democrat or republican. Here, it is just absolutely insane. The country has 7 days left to write and ratify a constitution for all the people, and opposing people groups are shutting down entire cities because they don’t like what is going on. The people here live in abject poverty yet these party’s find time to strike and not make income to support their families and the government in general. Things like this would NEVER happen in America and it is something that helps me be thankful for what we do have back home. What we have is not a perfect system but we don’t have the level of disorganization like what is happening over here every day.
It was also refreshing to go to an all Napoli church today and not understand a blessed thing that was said except for “Jesus” occasionally. 🙂 It helped me to gain a perspective of/for people who come to my home church who don’t speak English and how they feel. I can now understand that there would definitely be a greater emphasis on the worship/music because they could recognize the melody and sing the songs in their language.
The passion that people have for God in church is so unreal. I do believe that the US church has people who genuinely love God, but when the church here gets done singing an old 80’s song like “Lord I Lift Your Name On High” and then break into open worship for about 5 solid minutes it is no contest in comparison with America. I have always wondered what the difference is from foreign lands to America and I really feel it has to do with distractions and not quieting ourselves and letting God reveal himself in deeper ways. We get distracted with things we can’t control (work, sickness, family issues, etc) but also with things we can control (tv, music, entertainment, etc) It is so refreshing to get re-calibrated over here as well as spending time with these kids we love so much.
Tonight we get to buy the kids pizza and play some games with them. With all the crap going on with the government the next couple of days we get to spend more time with the kids because they will not be in school so that is one plus. More updates to come!

7holycrap Uncategorized

Update from Nepal

Well, we made it to Nepal!!  It is definitely a different world here.  As I type this, I am worried that the power will go out (it has been doing blackouts all morning) 🙂  We had a good time in Hong Kong on our 2 day layover.  We had a city tour and then went to Hong Kong Disney for a day.  It rained all day, but it was so much fun.  We got into Kathmandu last night around 11:30p.  It was very interesting driving through the streets with no lines and everyone everywhere.  There has been a lot of unstable activity in the past few days but we believe that God is in control and ordering our steps.  We are going to meet with the kids from the orphanage in a few hours and I am excited.  I cannot explain yet what I am feeling while staying here.  I know Yolanda and I are here to encourage and to pray over the country while we are here and to be Jesus’ hands a feet.

More fun news to come!!