The fastest birth of a new children's home in this ministry was the Action Love Children's Home in Nepal. It is a beautiful example of a work that the Lord wanted to do and people willing to follow. In February, 2012, we had our building team of 11 men in Nepal to work on a village church for the Maranatha ministry in the rural southern part of Nepal. As the trip ended, we returned to the capital city and walked through the slum area where one of our Nepali partners has a ministry. The poverty and the need were enough to move any heart. Some fruit of the pastor's work was a small simple church building where-- among other activities-- he held a weekly Bible club for the children. As best he could know, some of these children had come to saving faith and were hungry for more of the Word. Meanwhile, the pastor watched as these new little brothers in Christ spent their days begging in the street and foraging for food among the garbage. Some of the adults in their lives were abusive and/or alcoholics and some of them, including one of the age of seven, had no adults in his life at all. The Nepali pastor longed to do something to help them, but his personal support was barely enough to meet the needs of his own family. As we met that day, he made a proposal to me, in the presence of the building team men, for funding to start a children's home for some of the boys. I actually get requests like this quite often and while I try to listen carefully to each request, most of them seem to be an attempt to create a job for the one asking, rather than a heart to help the children. There was no hint of an improper motive in this opportunity. It had all the right pieces in place and I think each of us, who were present that day, sensed it. Within the week, I had photos and bio/histories needed to process ten boys into our program. Once we all returned to the US, many of the men on the team sponsored the boys and encouraged others they knew to do so. Our (American) pastor made the home a special project for the church. The funding was in hand. The Nepali pastor found two flats available in an apartment building. he moved his own family into one of them and the boys into the other. We provided the start up to buy basic furniture, kitchen equipment, clothes, medical exams and school enrollment. Sixteen boys-- all under the age of 11-- wanted to come, but the pastor had to choose ten from among them. The faces of the others still pop up in my mind-- but I have been doing this long enough to know that we cannot help them all. Just like your own children that the Lord put into your home, we have to do what we can for the ones who come under our care-- for those who are within our reach. By April, the ten boys were living in the home, eating two meals a day, enrolled in school, and hearing more from God's Word every day.
In 2012, we had groups doing projects like replacing a roof on a elder home. We went into villages and gathered children for Bible stories, crafts and games. We held a medical clinic. We worked in feeding centers. We did some construction, some painting, some lifting and carrying. And we shared God's Word along the way. They were little seeds dropped and nurtured as we were able and then left for what the Lord would do with them.
