Waking up in Nepal

       Greetings to all of our friends & family. As our time here comes to a close, as you may imagine, we are leaving a huge piece of our hearts in Nepal. We are so privileged to have been able to spend this precious time with these precious children & the dear people of God here. We take comfort in knowing that one glorious Day, ALL of God’s family will be together FOREVER. 

      I am convinced that along with the Bible school, on equal par is to raise awareness, and funds for this children’s home. Our wonderful home church family at Jacksonville Christian Fellowship is like the little engine that could, in regard to financial giving. I am reminded of a scripture in II Corinthians 8:5, ” ……they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” We know that our Lord is pleased with such sacrifices. As the scripture says “They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Colossians 1:22. We are SO proud! We thank Bro. Cary & Bro. Steve & Bro. Luke and all those that are a part of their congregations for their regular giving and their love & concern. When we arrived here we saw the many needs firsthand. We personally know the price of food & shelter, not forgetting water. To fill the baptistery alone is $35 U.S.! I remind you of this to say how much we praise God for ALL of His people who have joined in the many, many one time gifts that have lifted a huge burden off of the leadership here. Thank you for trusting us to give you an accurate assessment.  We have never met some of you met face to face, but you have been obedient to God & He will bless you. Amen.

Our appeal & plea to you is in regard to the ongoing, regular needs of New Life Children’s Haven. The cost per child for food, shelter, medical care (i.e. vacinations, illness, injury), and education is $70 U.S. Concerning education, school uniforms are required by the government. For twenty-four, this can be a major expenditure. The government  changed the regulation concerning the color of the shirts for a private school, so as of two weeks ago, a new unforseen need has arisen. The total regular giving covers only about half of the needs here. As you can imagine, there is a constant struggle for survival. All I can say is that the grace of God is all that has sustained this place. God has summoned us from the other side of the planet to be an answer to the prayers of these dear children and our dear Sister Pramita, Pastor Tika & Durga and all those that love them. Our prayer is that you will commit to the monthly care of a child. EVERY penny goes to their care. EVERY ONE. These children have been rescued by faith. They trust God for their next meal. Please pray and ask God what He would have you do.

Love in Christ,

Liz

Yesterday Vic and I had the great privilege of baptizing Pramita’s parents. Mr. Mothay has a problem with his leg that could be life threatening if it gets wet (due to the risk of infection). He still was eager to be baptized so we baptized him in a large water tank sans legs! Mrs. Mothay was baptized legs and all! These are 2 precious people and the whole family is rejoicing. Mrs. Mothay kept saying afterward “I feel so light, I feel so light – no more burdens do I carry”! Mr. Mothay repeated “very happy, now I’m very happy, I only want to follow Jesus”. To think that 4 short months ago they were strict followers of Hinduism and now every idol has been  cleansed! What a striking example of our Sovereign God at work!  (See more pics below)

Ezek 36:24-27 NIV
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Time has been put on fast forward! With Sunday being Mother’s Day, we celebrated with some shopping and finished up some errands before leaving. We ate at our favorite “taste of America” restaurant, Higher Ground. It is indeed upstairs and is operated by Nepali Christians. It is so pleasant! We went by public transport, and took Pramita along to celebrate, too. On the trip home it began to rain and poured on us as we walked from the van. Kirk & Will took off running “home”, leaving Pramita & I with the umbrella, each of us having one wet half. We laughed so hard at them because they were already soaked but still they ran!

Lunch at Pottam's

We are getting many invites for fellowship and food before we leave. We were blessed to be invited to Pastor Tika & Durga’s home for singing & prayer, food & fellowship on Monday night. Who knew Pastor Tika could cook? Will had fun playing charades with Tika’s niece & nephew Nikky & Nicholas. Samson ate dinner with us last night & tried some new taste sensations ( American, that is). Pottam, who does housekeeping here at CCF, invited us this afternoon for a house fellowship & a good meal. Finally, we invited Violetta & Vivianna (a missionary from Brazil and her daughter) to dinner this evening. That means I have to GO!

Pastor Tika and Durga

We’ll be home soon! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your prayers & support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liz

Praise God for a wonderful day of ministry! Today we had an awesome service at CCF. The Lord was there in great power and many people were blessed by the worship and the ministry of the Word. After service, Liz shared with the ladies group and several women were deeply touched and encouraged to give their burdens to the Lord. Also we had the graduation service for GBC. Everyone was blessed and encouraged by these wonderful students and the hard work they have done. Please pray for them  as they return to their villages to share the Word of life with family, friends and neighbors! I’ll try to get a few pictures up soon.

But, to top off a wonderful day, the greatest blessing was yet to come. I wrote last week how Pramita’s mother had come to the Lord and how her dad was close behind. He was one week behind to be exact. He came to service today without Mrs. Mothay (she is on a trip until Monday) for the express purpose of meeting with Vic and I to hear the Gospel and accept Christ as Savior. He related how he and Mrs. Mothay had cleansed their home of every last vestige of idolatry and Hinduism. He said “no one has told me to do this but my heart tells me to accept only Jesus Christ as my God and Savior”. He then added “no idol made of a stone can help you”! After we went over the Gospel with him he prayed and accepted Christ. When we were done he said “now, I am very happy, very happy”! We will be blessed next week to baptize them both! Praise God for His wonderful Grace!

Kirk

Samuel

As the title suggests, Samuel is a gifted young man. Born in the remote Tanahun district near Gorkha, Samuel started life with the given name Surya, which means  sun. When he was 11 yrs. old, a  local pastor saw the needs of his family and asked if he could come to New Life Children’s Haven. Due to their poverty, there had been no ability to pay the government school registration fee so his education was very little. Samuel’s family, then Christians, sent him with the  pastor to come here. Pramita tutored him for 6 months in order to save him the embarrassment of starting school in a lower grade. He has worked very hard to catch up, sometimes studying 4 hours a day. A short time after arriving, he traded in his Hindu name Surya for his Christian name Samuel. Now 16, he loves to read the Bible and write Christian poetry, of which we plan to give you a sample ( when it gets translated). AND did I mention that he likes to play the flute?

Santosh, Bipin, Peter

    All three of these boys are always anxious to catch our eye to greet us with a hearty ” Jaimasi” (“Jesus Is Victor”). AMEN!!!  This is how all of the Christians greet one another. Knowing where these boys came from truly shows us that Jesus can be victorious over a painful past.

    Santosh Lama is from the countryside outside Pokara. A believer in that community recommended this family for help.  Most likely he is from a Buddhist family. His family was so destitute that they could only afford one meal a day. He attended a government school but due to the inability to afford the basics,  such as paper, he got behind on his studies. An empty stomach makes it hard to focus, too. He still struggles in school so please keep him in prayer. His mother was in tears when she left him, but is happy for this opportunity for her son. He has such a sweet smile and attitude.

    Bipin was found abandoned in Gorkha, the home town of both Pastor Ram and Pastor Tika. He was only four years old and filthy from head to toe. It’s hard to imagine that from his smiling face in the picture. He is now nine years old. He is a gentle, loving little boy who likes to dress as nice as he can, wearing dress slacks if he’s been given any!

    Peter is the middle son in a family of believers here at Covenant Christian Fellowship. His mother has been very ill for a very long time and most of their money goes for her care and medicine. They would be unable to afford school and food if not for New Life Children’s Haven. Peter was only three when he came and is now nine years old. His younger brother is also getting free education from the school. Education is so vital here. It is the key for getting out from under this crushing poverty and all of the people know it. In spite of it all, Peter has feet that like to dance! He is very good at it and all of the children enjoy his fancy footwork!

In John 13:35 Jesus said that the world will know we are His disciples by our love. Yesterday we saw a vivid example of this in action. You may remember that when we arrived here in January that the ministry was very far behind financially. Pramita had even taken out a large personal loan from family members ($4300 US – a huge amount here) to be able to feed the children. Through the generosity of many of you back home we were able to get everything back to square one including this personal debt. But that’s not the best part! Pramita’s mom and dad were so impressed with the giving spirit of Christians a world away that they began to come to church. They are both in their 50s and have been devoted Hindus all their lives. Gradually over the months they have begun to doubt the validity of Hinduism. They said when they came to church they felt peace like they have never known and they would stay until late in the evening each time. Well, a couple of weeks ago they made the decision to leave it all behind, turn from all the idols, take baptism and convert! Yesterday Pramita’s mom came and met with Liz and I. We shared the Gospel with her for over 2 hours and when we were done she was anxious to receive Christ as her Savior! We prayed and when we were done she looked up and said with great joy, “Now I am a part of your family”! We all hugged and blubbered and rejoiced that we had a new sister in Christ. Her father was unable to be here yesterday due to a work commitment but he too wants to meet and accept the Lord as Savior. We will be seeing him soon and then on the 14^th just before we leave we will have the great honor of baptizing them! Hallelujah, Praise the Lord for His wonderful Grace! All of this came about because they saw the love that Christians have through the generosity that you showed! Thank you so much!

2 Cor 9:12-13 NIV

12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.