Orphan facing abandonment....

The reason why we, Allow The Children, does what we do is to honor and glorify the Lord. Whatever way it pleases Him to use us is what we want to do. Our purpose is NOT to rescue, feed, clothe, educate helpless and hopeless children, except that He gives us that assignment. Below is a letter I received from one of our partners in July 2011. He is asking me, if we can take the child into one of our children's homes which is under his leadership. Why is he even asking? you might think. Would Allow ever consider denying such a request? He is asking, because I need to confirm that we are able to provide support for a new child. My answer MUST be based on the sponsorship stability of the specific home and how many other new children we have received in recent days. This little boy is coming into our program, in fact, is probably already in the home by the time anyone reads this post. He has already heard of the Savior by now and continues to hear every morning and every evening, as the children gather for worship. Being the answer for children like this, is a very, very special piece of His work that the Lord allows us to do. This boy does not have a sponsor (at the time of this writing) but he will eat and sleep, receive clothing, medical care and be enrolled in school. Every sponsor who supports a child in this home is part of the reason why I could say YES, for this child. Didi (Elder Sister), There is a family and they took in an orphan boy but now both of them want to give that boy to our children home. He is Chakma tribe and 6 years old. They are also very poor family. I ask why they like to give that boy to our home? Answer is -- They both parents need to work for survival. They don't have enough to fulfil the needs for family. There is nobody take care of that boy. What do you think this situation? What is your comments. Can we take this boy?

Allow The Children in August

August 2011 has only just come, but I know (because all of the other months are the same) it will be gone very quickly. We have just sent out the annual updates to sponsors and now turn our attention towards preparation for the RACE DAY-- August 27- a project that will hopefully bring some funding for our projects and awareness in general for our work. The next trip for me (Sue) launches 24 September. We need to have letters for children in Bangladesh and Nepal ready for that departure. During this time, I will be visiting all of our ministries in Bangladesh and Nepal, doing necessary tasks for managing the sponsorship, teaching, meeting with the leaders of each area and ending with medical clinics in the last week of October through the first week of November. We are still waiting for Govinda's visa approval and hope to bring him in to work with us. And-- we are forming a building team in January for a project in Nepal to build a village church. Dates for the Guatemala trip have not been firmly set yet, but we WILL be taking a group to Guatemala in June 2012, possibly two groups next year, if interest continues to grow.

Chiquimula Advance

Village Evangelism is not new to Allow The Children. We help children and churches through sponsorship and projects in five different areas of Nepal and several parts of Bangladesh. During the last few trips to Central America. we have had the opportunity to work with one small church in the village of Chiquimula, Guatemala. We have painted the church, finished off the basement for the pastor to live, supplied Bibles and musical instruments, speakers for the Sunday morning preaching. This time, we planned a VBS type of teaching program for the children. Games and music and Bible lessons in Spanish were used to draw children and present God's Word to them. Please pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in each little heart now that the project is passed.

Puja

Today is a holiday in Nepal. The Hindu religion does not have a special day of the week where people gather and worship, but this is done connected with the holidays. Each one is different, and the way of celebrating is different. Some are huge affairs and continue on for days or even a week. On this occasion, members of the community gathered around the little shrine across the street. A variety of acts were performed, including keeping the bell ringing, preparing food and offering it to the idol, a little dancing and shouting, chasing the dogs away from the food, lining up for a blessing of sorts from the man (in this case, not a Hindu priest) who seemed to be officiating. Folks passing by often paused to bow or participate for a few moments, then went on their way. Some of the people weeemed very involved and some were only spectators. I have no idea what they were hoping to accomplish or the significance of the various acts. I have been told that most Hindus also do not know, but they just follow along. Our parter, with whom I am living, kept his kids home from school today because all of these things are part of the Hindu worship and they were practiced in the schools as well. I started to write another paragraph, comparing this to similar situations in the Christian world, but I think most of the readers "get" it. While you are thinking about that, do return to the fact that every Hindu is a person uniquely created by the same God who created you, who knows him like He knows you, loves him like He loves you. But the Hindu man is bowing down to another god.

Prasansa

Promod is a Nepali man, who I met years ago. How many years,I just cannot remember. He worked as a waiter in one of the restaurants where I often ate. I am not sure why he told me that he was a Christian, but that information was shared and from then on, he always came quickly to my table, with a huge smile when he saw me. He may or may not have been my waiter on any given occasion and I never gave him any larger tip than I would give to anyone else. I did not want to have a financially motivated relationship with him. For a long time, he did not know exactly what I do here in Nepal, but later on, as we talked more, we learned that he attends the "big" church where we have a sponsorship program. I have not seen Promod for a year or more. I thought I was just missing his days scheduled to work when I happened to be in the restaurant. But today, I learned that he has been in the Bible program of the church and is now ready to move out into the area he has been assigned to work. He will be using personal witness and relationship building to plant a cell group, gradually growing into a church. The church committee chose his daughter as one of five new children to come into our sponsorship program. She is a beautiful little girl, named Prasansa-- the Nepali word for Praise. Promod will receive a bare survivial stipend from the church for a while as he builds his church to the point where it can support him. Prasansa is 5 years old and should start Kindergarten in April, but her parents cannot pay the fees without sponsorship help. The church uses Allow as part of their support "package" and I find it a special privilege. Please pray with us for a sponsor for Prasansa and the other four new children, all in similar situations.

Worship in Nepal

At the place where I live in Nepal, there is a little Hindu shrine just across the street. The practice is to ding the bell to alert the god, kneel and pray for a time, then take some of the red powder and apply to one's forehead. The busy tme is early morning from about an hour before dawn continuing for at least a couple hours past. Today, I saw a small boy worshiping in the middle of the day. This is unusual, but perhaps he had a problem. Tomorrow, I will worship with the Nepali beleivers who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Following that, I will be taking pictures and filling in progress reports for sponsors. This church has 5 new children who need to come into our program. Every one of these kids will be under the discipleship of the church, as well as enrolled in school on our dime. Some will grow up as faithful beleivers and some will fall away- just as in the US. But every one will know the WAY to Salvation by faith in Jesus and this is our goal. It is likely that the little Hindu boy knows nothing or very little of the gospel. Some of them will grow up to be godly leaders who will draw others. This is the secondary goal. All of them will have an education and, because they are in our program, their basic needs for food, medical care, etc will be under watch and generally met. This is the third goal. I love this job- making a difference in so many lives.

Four more Missions

"I have four more missions," my soldier son, in Iraq, told me. He is expecting to return to the US soon, but the exact date cannot be known. One thing he does know is that he has four more special assignments to complete. Four more times, he needs to do-- whatever it is that he does-and then his part of the plan is finished. Hopefully, he and the others in his unit will start packing up and preparing for the trip home. I wonder how many more "missions" I have? This summer, I had one-- to Guatemala and Nicaragua. As a result, our team did some things that we hope left blessing and encouragement for some people who need it. Now, I am preparing for another mission-- this one to Nepal. It is going to be a busy time. We have plans that we hope will influence eternity. How many more "missions" will I have? I hope the answer is a LOT. I hope there are many, many more assignments for me where I can be the hands and feet and voice of my God and He uses me to move yet another piece of His plan into place.