Greetings Everyone!!
Yesterday marked a first in Kathmandu, since I've been here and actually for the last 63 years. Snow began to fall in the city for the first time since January, 1944! I never thought I'd see the day. Everyone was so excited and we were all running to the rooftops to catch glimpses of the surrounding hills dusted with white afterwards. There wasn't enough to stick, and we're thankful today was warm again, but we certainly enjoyed a day of being tucked in bed with hot chocolate and movies to keep us warm and cozy.
God is good. I feel that the Spirit of the Lord is once again on the move within our community in great ways. We recently felt a release of sorts, as our director Silas received a new plan of attack for our ministry from the Lord. He was out spending the day running errands, going to the dentist and the bank. But as he was able to get out and clear his head a bit, he was able to focus and really hear from God about what direction our community should be taking next. And we are excited!
Later that evening he called Kara and I over to run his ideas by us, and we were thrilled. As we have been working with the boys over the last year in Kripaa Sadan we have learned many things. It has been a year of learning and growing as a community and as the body of Christ here in Nepal. We began Kripaa Sadan with little direction, other than knowing we were to take a step of faith and to simply give it a shot. Now, as our 1 year anniversary mark recently passed on February 12, we feel we have a more clear and broad vision for what steps we need to take to get these boys back on their feet.
The boys at Kripaa are still doing wonderfully, with the recent addition of three new members Kamal, Sunil, and Subas. However, the boys who make up the senior group are at a point where they are all itching to get out of the house, to find jobs and re-enter society. As a WMF staff community we have been feeling the weight of this on our shoulders for some time now. We've discovered that this has been our weakness this year. We have focused a lot on getting them a sound Biblical foundation, but our focus as far as skills training goes has been too broad and we feel it hasn't been enough to really give the boys a foundation from which to be able to support themselves on the outside. With most of them having little to no education, and almost no job history – other than dealing drugs – we've discovered that we are at a crossroads.
With this in mind we would like to ask you to pray for us as we begin our new venture. We feel that the Lord is leading us to open a new ministry center which will focus on relational counseling, job training, and personality/gifts assessments to help the boys once they have completed their time of drug treatment at Kripaa Sadan. From this point we hope to be able to better prepare them for life after Kripaa, and to provide them with skills that will not only bring them to a point of survival (which most of them have been living at for the majority of their lives) but to a point where they can truly thrive and rise above the poverty and social situation present in Nepal today. We as a WMF community are committed to see these boys transformed holistically and we are so excited to be able to give them not only the hope of freedom from drugs and alcohol but to be able to build in them a sense of dignity and hope of a better life and a future as well. Thank you all for you prayers as we press in and ask God to guide and direct us in the coming weeks!
In other news Kara, Kim and I are planning to be making a field visit to see our friends working with WMF in Galati, Romania this month! Pray that it will be a productive time of sharing and gathering ideas for ministry as well as reconnecting with friends and enjoying the WMF community there. We are all excited to have a chance to see another WMF Field in action. Kara, Silas and myself are also looking into a chance at going to Hong Kong to visit Jackie Pullinger and to glean from her years of wisdom working among addicts in the city and sharing the love of Jesus with them. I feel like this would be a very enriching and extremely insightful trip for us, so pray that plans will fall in place for that as well!
I hope that you are all enjoying the blessings of the Lord in this New Year. I know that I am filled with a sense that the church around the World is on the verge of stepping into some of the most exciting times it has ever known. Join with me in praising our Heavenly Father for His faithfulness to us all!
Much Love from the East — Brook