It is a new year and with the holidays behind us we look forward to the event of the year...as far as we can tell. To say that we are getting more and more excited by every day that passes is an understatement.
In some ways, there really aren't that many things that have changed concerning our trip to Nepal, in the sense that something dramatically has happened or changed. This is a time of waiting and praying, planning and networking. In some ways, it feels like the quiet before the storm.
However, it hasn't been completely quiet. We got word from our contact in early December that an orphanage in southern Nepal might be of interest to us. It had been in a state of disrepair and had actually not been "active" for some time, although it was a registered orphanage. As you might imagine, there are some pretty substabtial benefits of "taking over" an already existing orphanage compared to registering a brand new one. The government/congress of Nepal is struggling mightily right now and we know from experience that when the government struggles everything else kind of comes to a standstill.
When we looked up the area of this orphanage we found that it was right by a river with huge crocodiles (that sometimes waited by popular paths to pounce on little children, etc.!) as well as king cobras and other unpleasant things. We know that this project will have its fair share of unexpected twists and turns, but we hadn't expected to have to protect "our" children from crocodile attacks. As it turned out, this orphanage ended up not being a very good idea and we decided against investigating it further.
A few weeks ago we got contacted by Bobby about another orphanage south of Kathmandu. The orphanage director contacted Bobby, who is an old friend, because he had seen a substantial amount of supporters drop their support due to their desire to run the orphanage as Christians. Since Nepal is mainly Hindu/Buddhist, this is not hard to believe. Laurie actually remember visiting this orphanage back in 2007 when she went to Nepal with her old employer to set up an adoption program. She remembers the children being happy, social and overall doing pretty well, although she also remembers the orphanage being very poor.
We are cautiously optimistic about this opportunity and will meet with them during our trip. We also asked Bobby to make sure that they had enough support for food and heat during the winter. Bobby responded that food was probably ok but heat was a big issue.
Sitting in warm houses with plenty to eat during the Christmas season we felt we couldn't ignore their plight irregardless of whether or not we will work with them in the future. We provided Bobby with enough money to buy them all (20 children) warm blankets since heaters are useless without electricity, which is more often than not the case.
We are also in contact with two churches in Kathmandu and I will preach at one of them (and possibly teach their pastors, time allowing). As I have said above, it is all about networking and finding the best partners for our project. Our days in Nepal are filling up quickly which is exactly what we want. No need to sight-see this time around, although a little trip to Pokhara would be a dream.
We want to, once again, thank all of you of at this early state of our journey encourage us to continue moving forward with our vision and our dream. We are humbled by your generosity and kindness and we look forward to this new year with much confidence and excitement.
/Andreas
