In the beginning.....

Hello Everyone, I am just starting with the concept of blog. I appreciate your patience and suggestions as I am learning this new communication tool. The following notes are working "backwards" from the most recent ministry trip. Actually all of these are pretty recent. I have had a heavy travel schedule in the past few months. Holy land..... I left the land of the Bible only a few days ago, full of anticipation for the future. Our Allow The Children involvement is small here, but opportunities abound to be a blessing to believers in need and a part of bringing the lost to the Savior. We are working with a small children's home for boys in Ramallah. This city is the capital for the Palestinians. Crime level among the residents is low. It is safe for a woman to walk alone on the streets in the night. But these people know violence-- all of them. The pain of the past and the present living conditions is in their eyes and not far from their conversations. Americans or any kind of foreigner are not common guests, but they made me feel welcome and accepted among them. We are working with this partner ministry to disciple boys to be come godly men. One boy at a time-- to make a difference in the Holy Land. Nicaragua....I had a "layover" in the US of less than 48 hours between return from Nicaragua and departure to Israel. Nicaragua was a sweet break as we shared some time with the children of Hagar de Ninos Belen in the city of Managua. We also launched a new pastor's children program, as we have in several of the other countries. We screened one child from each pastor's family for sponsorship. This blesses the pastor as well as his child and gives the opportunity for some prayer support between the American sponsor and the pastor in the field. Guatemala... We had a wonderful ministry trip with the senior class of Timberlake Christian Schools. The students funded a home for a pastor and did some painting and other work on the church. They visited homes in the village and successfully drew the people, filling the little church, to hear the Word of God on Sunday. They fed poor children gathered in the community dump. They played with orphanage kids and developed relationships that blessed both ways. We are looking forward to our next group going to Guatemala at the end of June. Nepal... I will be leaving for Nepal on 12 April. This is my usual twice yearly ministry time, with certainly some definite objectives, but the Lord generously fills all of the time once I am on the ground. I will be taking new pictures and updates of children in our program, screening some new children that our partners request for the program. I will be teaching Bible to adults in churches and a small Bible college and children's devotions in the homes. We have a group coming in at the end of April for about a week of outreach in the high mountain area of Jomson. And... somewhere within the seven weeks that I will be out, I need to schedule some time with our Bangladesh ministry. I will return to the US at the end of May. I am grateful for those of you who pray so faithfully.