I am in freaking Nepal! I am so in love with this place. We spent our first week in Kathmandu, Nepal. During that time, we had debrief. This is a time where the entire squad (60 people) comes together to rest, debrief the past month(s) and prepare our hearts and souls for the next couple of months. It was a blast. I got to explore the city, spend time with my squad and rest. I was happy debrief was only a week because I was ready to stop being a “tourist” and get to the heart of why we were there.
Reuben is our host for the month. What an amazing man. He lives in Kathmandu Valley, but his ministry sites are an 11-hour bus ride from his home and a decent hike up a mountain. In southeast Nepal, he is building an orphanage. We are staying at his orphanage for a week to help with construction. His vision is to have 25 orphans living in this house. He sees one kid doing homework, another watching T.V., another playing outside, etc. There is such passion behind his words.
He has four centers around Nepal currently housing these kids. There is an anti-conversion law in Nepal. Orphanages are not seen as humanitarian work. People are accused of having orphanages and them being converting centers. Pastors have been arrested over these accusations. Many of them are on bail now and awaiting trial.
The devastating earthquake of Nepal happened in 2015. There were two large 7.8 magnitude earthquakes that hit within 17 days of each other in Kathmandu. He was a field reporter when the earthquake hit. Many people were afraid to go outside of their homes to help because of the aftershocks. Reuben wasn’t afraid. He came upon a collapsed church. He described the scene as “the people were in such despair because no one had come to help”.
He is in charge of 30 kids total. 17 of the kids have been affected by the earthquake. Adoption works different than in the states. No one questions it. You can take a child into your home and submit a birth certificate with you as the father and it’s accepted. In order to get the children away from the crumbled church and to a home, Reuben sponsors them to go to school. He posted a blurb on Facebook about his idea to sponsor kids to give them a home. The reaction to that simple post was explosive. People donated left and right to help Reuben and his family sponsor these kids.
I had the chance to meet some of these kids. There are some kids with physical handicaps because of the earthquake. Sabina was crushed under the rubble and can’t see out of one eye. Another boy lost part of his foot and his mom had both legs amputated from the knee down. I have been working with these kids by helping them with school. They are all staying in one big room. We hang out with them in the mornings before school and after school to help them with their homework. These kids are smart, strong and caring. I am so happy to have spent time with them.
These kids are living with families of the local church until Reuben is able to finish the orphanage. Driving through Nepal you forget that the earthquake even happened. There are still people here that are hurting. It’s a blessing that these kids were found by Reuben and have the opportunity to have both an earthly and heavenly Father.
There are four kids living at the orphanage we are staying at. Reuben took these kids in to provide an education and a home. These kids came from severe poverty and family that need help supporting them. I am living with these kids and they are amazing! Yessica is one of the girls. She greeted us before we even stepped on the front porch and asked us our names. She has been teaching me Nepali. She comes up to me everyday and asks me to recite something in Nepali (counting to 10, colors, etc.). I love it. She is so smart. She had all of our names memorized by the first night. We helped carry bricks, sand, and cement up to roof. We planted potatoes for them. I wish I could be here when the orphanage is finished and running.
While in the mountains, we helped build a school. It was a decent hike up the mountain. My team hiked with our 35lbs packs up total incline for about 8 miles. In the village we made cement and helped create the pillars and lay the bricks for the school. It was some hard work. I am just glad we weren’t the ones who had to carry the bricks up the mountain. While there we also got the opportunity to teach a class. There are only two finished rooms in the school. There is an age range of 4-12. It was a challenge.
Please pray for these kids, Reuben and his family. There is still a lot of work to be done. The building for the orphanage is not finished yet. He is in need of 15000 USD to finish construction. Sponsoring and being the guardian of so many kids is a lot of work. Reuben has two kids himself (15 and 19 y.o.). Pray for strength and perseverance for Reuben and his family. Pray that God will work in the childrens’ hearts. As they get older and start to understand things feelings of hurt, anger and confusion that will arise from their predicament.
