Kathmandu, Nepal – Mar 19, 2011

jhilbun — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 21:51:30 +0000

The Lord continues to be with us as we spread His tidings in South Asia. The Lord has blessed His messengers in preaching His word daily in Nepal this week.

The building pictured in the attachment is the Nepali children’s home. Brother Binod and the children rent the lower two floors, but we may have opportunity to gain use of the third story as well. There are 15 children currently living there: 9 girls and 6 boys from ages 5 to 13.
This morning we walked all the children to school and got to tour their building where we were quite an interruption to classes.

All day we had much opportunity to marvel at the deliverance these little souls have received by God’s gracious provision of this home for them. Some of the children come from outside the city where child trafficking thrives. A typical case would be that the mother and father separated and/or run off leaving the children to a senile grandmother and aged grandfather. Having no other means, the old couple would be obliged to accept the cash offer of a slave-trader in exchange for the body and soul of their innocent grandchild. Thousands have disappeared this way. The Church has thus far saved only these very few. Brother Binod tells us that the children in their prayers sometimes beg God not to let the home close lest they be sold into India for lack of protection. Brother Binod said, “I too sometimes am crying.”

The little girl in the photo is Mika. One of a few “untouchable” children in the home. That means she was born into a caste which, in this culture, would doom her to the lowest strata of society. Thankfully, God, who made all men of one blood, is no respecter of persons.

How to describe what we experienced in the afternoon we all are still processing. “Darkness” was said. “Monstrous” came to mind. We went to what’s known as “The Monkey Temple” and it was like a vanity fair of paganism. Ancient temple domes rose above pagodas which dwarfed ruined shrines; people bowed and kissed stones and carved animals; a guru preached over a PA system in a tent to the side; scary Hindu monks huddled on ruined porches and cooked their dinner in cauldrons; couples were in love; vendors sold beads, images and peanuts; stray dogs snapped at children; construction was going on; tourists took pictures; a monkey might swing from some Hindu gargoyle. The strange conglomeration of such varied events in such proximity made an eerie impression.

But the most affecting thing we witnessed were the funeral pyres. In a river of raw sewage, people ritually washed themselves and their dead; and human ribs and skulls were visible thru the flames and ashes while the bereaved wailed as those “which have no hope.”

In the picture, if you look in the lower right, you’ll see a woman wrapped in a sari awaiting her cremation. This also would have been the inevitable fate for these 15 little ones if our God of mercy had not opened to them an opportunity to take hold of true religion.

The sheer quantity and density of people in this region is also very impressive and opens to our vision the greatness of the still-standing commission to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

There is so much work to be done.

The Gospel Company in Nepal

Children’s Home Work Week

admin — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:38:51 +0000

December 29 – January 3, 2009 was a volunteer work week at the Shepherd’s Fold Children’s Home in Chapultepec, Baja California, Mexico (near Ensenada). Volunteers from The Church of God in Canada, Germany, Mexico, and the USA came to assist in renovating and cleaning up the recently purchased property. The children’s home offers a safe haven for children suffering from neglect, abuse, or extreme poverty.

Ocean sunset

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 28

The Church of God » children’s home

Kathmandu, Nepal – Mar 19, 2011

Children’s Home Work Week

Ocean sunset