ServLife International, Inc.

got fire?

 

Just yesterday a friend sent me a link to a recent article in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal.  I don’t  often  read the WSJ but  when  I saw  the  title  of that  article,

Jeff Romack

“How Missionaries Lost their Chariots of Fire,” I knew I had to read it.  You can check it out here, How Missionaries . . ., if you like.

While I don’t agree with all that was said in that article, the author gets it right in the end when he writes that God’s mission involves both serving those in need and sharing the gospel but it is sharing the gospel that distinguishes our loving service to meet human need from the humanitarian aid given by many organizations.  As the author points out, “Both are motivated by the desire to help others, but Christians are spurred by that Jesus thing.”

 

At ServLife we are very much motivated by the “Jesus thing” and not ashamed of it.  That Jesus gave his life for us and for the sake of the whole world is what makes us tick. ServLife is committed to planting communities of the Kingdom and to bringing hope to children-at-risk and the global poor.  We are serving life by sharing the gospel and responding to human need. This is what lights our fire.  How about you; got fire?  Why not light your flame at ours?

 

Speaking of sharing the fire, did you know that Servlife has trained and now supports each month more than 120 indigenous church planters serving in India and Nepal?

 

One of the great new realities of the Christian movement is that the church is now a global reality.  Linked to that, mission can no longer be characterized as the activity of  western Christians going East (or South) to share the gospel.  The church exists for God’s mission in the world and, these days, mission happens from everywhere to everywhere!

Nepali Church

The ServLife church planters illustrate this point.

 

While the Christian movement is a global reality to be celebrated there is another piece of that reality of which we must not lose sight.  There are yet many peoples in many places where the gospel is not.  ServLife is doing its part to address that situation.  Our efforts to plant “communities of the Kingdom” are being done on the very frontiers of mission, the growing edge of Christian faith in the world.  The indigenous church planters we support go to the hard places where the church has not yet taken root and where there are few, if any, believers.  We are not laboring to plant a church just down the road from one of another kind.  We are pioneers.

 

Go! . . . and make disciples.

In pioneering situations, by definition, the material resources needed to evangelize in those places must come from outside those communities.  In time, when a church has been planted, the local Christians will give of their own resources to reach out to their own. At the outset; however, workers and resources to support them must be sent from outside.  This is where we need your help.

 

Today, we have workers in 10 of Nepal’s 14 zones (states) and across seven (7) states in north India. We need your help to keep these men at work on the frontiers of mission and to train and send more.

Will you give dollars to support those who are giving their lives

to share the gospel with the unreached in India and Nepal?

Each year, in Kathmandu (Nepal) and again in Raxaul (India), we call together all our workers on the field to celebrate all that God has done, is now doing and what He will do in the coming year. . .

These Leader’s & Church Planter’s Conferences are a big highlight for the people that have been doing the difficult work of sowing and reaping all year long.  Here they receive a little bit of teaching and a great deal of encouragement.  It’s not easy being on the frontiers of faith without others close at hand to offer support but that is often the situation they must endure.  By the close of our time together everyone is ready to go back to the harvest fields with renewed strength and vision.

Previous year’s conference in Raxaul

 

To call together our church planters from across India and Nepal takes financial resources for travel and food that our workers (124 of them!) do not have and for which we must all stand together in faith trusting God to provide.  That provision comes when God’s people step up to contribute what they have to give to the cause of taking the gospel to the frontiers.

 

This year our conferences will be held November 8-12 (Nepal) and November 17-20 (India). Our budget is $14,000.  At this point, our balance on hand is $zero.  Can you help?

To give safely and securely now go here:  2011 Leader’s & Church Planter’s Conference

We are asking all of our friends to simply pray and ask if they are to give to this need.  And, by the way, you’re welcome to join us for this time, too!

Thank you for letting us share what is happening

in the world through ServLife . . .

together with you!

 

help fan our flame into fire .  .  .

+  Pray with us . . . join the ServLife Prayer Team.

+  Give to support our church planters on the frontiers of the gospel.

A one-time gift or on a monthly basis.

+  Help make our Worker’s Conferences in India and Nepal possible.   Give here.

+  Surprise a child with hope . . . become a ServLife child sponsor.

+  Serve the poor via micro-lending . . . give to the Hope Fund.

We are glad to inform you that this year we finished dental checkups for all of our seventeen children. Salome, Som and Bikash did not go for the check up, because they are alright. Read the rest of this entry »

ANANTA SEWA NEPAL

CHILDREN HOME

LALITPUR, NEPAL

DAILY PRAYER GUIDE 2011 06

July 01 Friday : Thank to God for all the happenings of the month of June. Prayer for safety of this month July and Lords blessings upon our family. Read the rest of this entry »

Name:        Som  Bahadur Ale

Birthdate:           July 19, 2006

Description:

Som belongs to poor Hindu family.  His father died when he was young.  He has one brother and one sister, both older than Som.  As Som’s family was poor and both of parents illiterate, it was very difficult for Som’s mother to feed and provide for other essential needs after the death of his father.   They were desperately searching for help.  One of their neighbors is a Christian. Though he himself is blind he wanted to help Som’s family by searching for a refuge for at least one child. He came to know of ServLife’s children’s ministry and brought Som to us.  Som is now the latest member of our home here in Kathmandu. Read the rest of this entry »

Live the gospel . . .

“When we were on the outside without hope and home, Jesus brought us into his family (Eph. 2:12-13, 19). What Jesus did for us is the Gospel.

Today there are millions of orphans in the world without hope and home. When we give orphans hope, when we bring orphans into our families, we reenact the Gospel . . .

Orphan care is Gospel reenactment.” (Dan Cruver; Together for Adoption, 10/23/09) Read the rest of this entry »

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead . . .

1 Peter 1:3

Easter 2011

This Beautiful but Broken World

If you’re awake and paying the slightest bit of attention you will have noticed that we live in a beautiful but very broken world.  A few examples come immediately to mind. This reality was suddenly and forcefully confirmed to us by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that recently struck northern Japan. An entire nation shaken and now reeling; one moment life is beautiful, the next moment it’s very broken. The full extent of the loss suffered will not be known for a very long time. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear ServLife Family,

Thank you so much for your steadfast prayers and continued generosity for the ministries and people whom we serve.  Many of you have called or written with words of encouragement and genuine concern in the days following our last communication.  The Indianapolis office staff and the Board of Directors have worked diligently to ensure the integrity of ServLife moving forward.  And we write today with good news about the faithfulness of our God and the beautiful ways that he uses his people.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the ServLife Store. We have recently updated some of the products and wanted to bring that to your attention. The main change is in the Donated Art section. Read the rest of this entry »

Mamata belongs to a Hindu family in far western Nepal. Both her mother and father are from uneducated parents, so they want to be able to send Mamata to school so she will have a better future then they did. However, they are unable to afford school fees on the 700 Rupees (about $10 USD) a month they make.

You can Help! Read the rest of this entry »

Prakash BK was born on May 16, 2001 into a Christian family in far western Nepal. He has one brother and four sisters. His father works in India as a watchman and only makes 2000 Rupees (about $27 USD) a month, which is not enough to feed his family for the year. Prakash’s father is of a very low caste and his family has been discriminated against for centuries. They were never able to own land or go to school. Prakash’s favorite color is red, his favorite sport is football, and his favorite animal is a cow. Read the rest of this entry »

With all that has been going on in our lives since returning from Nepal, I haven’t had the time to finish unpacking from our trip yet. So Saturday I was putting away the things in my backpack that I carried around for those two weeks in Nepal, and I started to get so sad.

I want to go back! I miss all the people. I miss the power of God I felt among those believers as we worshiped together in different languages. I miss the power of God I felt working through me as I sought to bring His love to the Nepali people. I miss Nepal!

If my husband would come home today and say, “Honey, I think God is calling us to live among the people of Nepal.” I would say, “O.k.,” and start packing. That’s how much I loved it. Now, before you get worried that we are moving to Nepal, don’t. Michael hasn’t said anything of the sort, and I don’t expect him to do so. I’m just saying…that’s how much I loved it.

When I stopped to get a sandwich the other day, there was an Indian-looking family in the restaurant. I’m learning, though, that many of these people are actually from Nepal. I smiled and said, “Excuse me,” as I walked by, then got outside and thought, “I should have said, ‘Namastay!’” (which is the Nepali greeting–their version of “hi”). Boy do I regret missed opportunities like that. Next time I’ll be ready.

I promised to share with you the rest of our first full day in Nepal, so here’s the rest of the story….

After lunch, Udaya Bhatta spoke to the church-planters about the ServLife Children’s Home in Kathmandu which he and his wife Bhakti have been running since 2003. Then Mark Storm shared with them about ServLife’s Hope Fund–micro-business loans for the poor–and how it can be an outreach tool for them in their villages.

Finally came the moment for which Sasha and I had been waiting: we got to go to the Children’s Home! Mark took Om Maya, Asha, Sasha and myself to the Children’s Home while Michael and Gil stayed to teach and interview the church-planters. We were so ready to meet those children! They were very shy at first. The school-age children were in the middle of studying for exams, so we met them as they came in from school or came down from the study room. Shortly after we arrived, however, most of them were there to greet us.

Udaya and his wife Bhakti introduced each child to us, telling us if they were a full-orphan or half-orphan, a little of the story of how they came to the home, where they were from and if they had a sibling at the home. Then the child would greet us (”Jay mahsee!”), tell us their name and which class they read in (i.e which grade). It was so precious!

One little guy named Bikash, who was three years old, had only been with them for 15 days (he is front-and-center in this photo). He was wide-eyed and very nervous about these white-faced foreigners–something he had never seen before. He just sat and stared at us, not sure what to do. The next day he really warmed up to us, especially to Michael.

After introducing themselves, the children stood up and sang “Welcome to the Family.” Our hearts totally melted at this. They sang it again the next day for Michael–here’s the precious video he took of them. “Welcome to the Family”

Since the kids were taking exams the next day, they had to head back up to their study room and hit the books (that’s the room in which the video was taken of them singing). So we visited with Udaya and Bhakti some more, and Udaya gave us a tour of the home. It was agreed that what was most needed of us while here was to paint the family room for them, so that became our plan for the next day. Can’t wait to show you those photos in my next blog.

Next we headed back to get Michael and Gil, then we were off to meet Abraham’s parents and family for Asha’s 1-year-old birthday party! That was such a fun evening! The electricity was out (as it frequently is in Nepal), so we were by candlelight and couldn’t really see faces very well. But we were warmly greeted by Abraham’s brother-in-law to his home and by all the family gathered to celebrate with us. Moments like these are what made this so much more than just a mission trip. This is when we felt like we were part of a family on the other side of the world. We were so blessed to experience real life and family like this!

We enjoyed a delicious Nepali dinner of rice and lentils with chicken (same as we had for lunch). Then we sang to Asha (as she slept) and blew out her candles on her cake for her. This was the first time the Tamang’s relatives in Nepal had met Asha, and they were so excited to be part of her birthday celebration. Abraham’s family is just as lively as he is (we now see where he gets his hilarious sense of humor), and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with various family members. Their pastor even showed up while we were there!

About half-way through the evening, the lights suddenly came on. Hooray’s and applause filled the house, and we could finally see all their faces. There must have been nearly 30 people in that home! Abraham’s brother-in-law also uses his home as an orphanage for 8 orphans, so we met those precious children, too. I had fun taking videos of Abraham’s parents telling him “hi” and sending their greetings to Alpha and Omega (Abraham and Om Maya’s other two daughters). Sasha was about ready to take his sweet mom home with her, the two of them hit it off so well (even though they couldn’t understand a word the other was saying)!