Friday, May 20, 2016

RAVAGED BY AN EARTHQUAKE - COMPASSIONATE ABOUT THE ORPHANS - THIS IS NEPAL

THE CHURCH IS RISING

Nepal Without Orphans
"no one is scoffing!"



In 2014 we had our first meeting with leadership in Nepal to cast the vision of the World Without Orphans and it was at this time leadership stood together and committed to moving forward with  a Nepal Without Orphans.  One very real outcome was a leader who immediately set out to open an Orphan Home.  He now has a total of nine children, two of which are his biological children. 

Nepal does not have a foster care system and adoption is limited to only families who do not have biological children.  The only option for caring for orphans in a family setting at this time is to open an Orphan Home.  Yet that is changing with the rise of the leadership from the church - along with the new move of government to review these laws.

We were part of a growing movement in the country - training and sharing with key leaders who are from major denominations, heads of groups serving the church and key persons who have made the call of safe, nurturing and healthy families for orphans their passionate intentional activity.   The data from Nepal shines light on the challenges:
  • 30 million people live in Nepal
  • 650,000 estimated orphans before the earthquake
  • 12,000 estimated children trafficked out of Nepal to India each year (UNICEF Data)
  • 15,000 children lived in child care homes prior to the earthquake in Nepal, and were potentially at risk of poorly-regulated adoption, exploitation and abuse.  More than 85 per cent of these children had at least one living parent.
  • $2.00 per day is the average salary for a laborer
  • Nepal is the poorest nations in South Asia
  • 1/3 of the population lives in poverty
  • 3 million adolescent girls live in Nepal - 2/3 live in poverty and face discrimination and exploitation
  • 75% of the street children suffer ongoing sexual abuse


But, the CHURCH IS RISING.  With each intentional intervention - each time we set into action planning, new leaders emerge.  From 2014 until today - May 2016, we see a HUGE difference with story after story of children being brought into care - churches taking action and plans to be the key influencers as laws change in Nepal.

Please pray for Nepal. And believe along with us for a 
NEPAL WITHOUT ORPHANS!


Tuesday, May 17, 2016

WHEN AN EARTHQUAKE CAUSES THOUSANDS MORE ORPHANS - THE CHURCH STEPPED IN


NEPAL WITHOUT ORPHANS

"The realities are overwhelming."

"He walked 8 hours and then rode a bus for two days to come to the seminar!  This is passion about Nepal Without Orphans!"

....others rode buses for over 16 hours....
Would you do this for the cause of the fatherless?

The earthquake alone - caused thousands of additional orphans in Nepal.  The church is setting the pace, and doing what it can.  There is clear knowledge that the orphan situation needs the church, yet there are all sorts of legal barriers set in place to hinder this from happening.  Being in Nepal and working with these leaders, we have seen the passion to make a difference.  They gathered together with us to move forward the national movember of Nepal Without Orphans.  Below is our report from working with these leaders for the last three days.




Butwal, Nepal
May 15-17, 2016

Leadership from across the seven states attended the May, 2016 Nepal Without Orphans seminar held in Butwal, Nepal.  Pastor Tek Prasad Rijal coordinated the event for the purpose of mobilizing the group of leaders to carry the family based care message out across the country to the churches and others serving orphans.  The leaders who convened together were senior pastors and congregation leaders representing thousands of churches across the country.

National church leaders conducted critical sessions, such as: The Role of The Church in Orphan Care, Biblical Perspective on Orphans, Counseling, and The Heart of Jesus for Orphans and Children. 

Lynn and Ruby conducted a planning session for mobilization with the leadership along with training related to topics needed in building an orphan care/family based strategy.  The topics included:  The Father’s Heart, Impact of Trauma, Family Based Care, Building a National Movement, and Capacity Building.

The key foundation of strategies for a WWO movement was emphasized with leadership – Activating, Connecting and Equipping.  This foundation encompasses four cornerstone with a center guiding point being God.  The four cornerstones then extend from the guiding point and they are:  child, family, church and movement.

This is not the first NWO gathering of this type in Nepal – Pastor Tek Prasad Rijal has been bringing leadership together since he first heard the call for a World Without Orphans in 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand at the 4/14 Conference.   Since that time the WWOs Activating team conducted a Nepal Without Orphans National Conference in 2014 in Kathmandu, Nepal where 110 leaders gathered and were encouraged to take the message out to their teams.   And other regional meetings and conferences have been held across the country since that time.

The milestone with this seminar of May 2016 is that it brought together ALL SEVEN states with representation from key leadership.  Through this seminar, there were many different stories of outcomes from the previous work that has been done in Nepal.  One such story came from Pastor Inda.  He shared his journey.

Nepal does not have a foster care system.  In addition if you have birth children you cannot adopt.  Adoption is only permitted if you do not have children.  Pastor Inda heard the call to become a home for an orphan and the only option he had was to open a legalized Orphan Home.  This would be sanctioned by the government and allow him to care for children in his home.  He followed the lead and he and his wife are the parents of seven “foster children” and two birth children.  He shares that this was done as a direct result of him attending the 2014 WWO Conference in Kathmandu.  What a blessing to hear this result – nine children have become part of a family as a result of one small intervention. 

Our prayer is that the group of leaders who came to the May 2016 Seminar will go forth with the message and as a result – more children will soon wake up each morning to their new mommy and daddy.   There is a national movement and it is mighty – Nepal Without Orphans

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