April 2012 Newsletter
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Partner with ServLife to bring hope and encouragement to children and our international staff in India and Nepal. We will visit two children’s homes, painting the interior and making small repairs. We will also provide teaching and VBS activities for the children. Read the rest of this entry »
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This weekend tens of thousands of people will gather in Indianapolis to watch the big game, celebrate and party. These crowds will bring with them a specific clientele. For these individuals, the tent parties will not be enough. The strip clubs will not be enough. And money will likely not be an object as they satisfy their urges and curiosities. This problem includes but goes beyond prostitution. It includes slavery. Women and children that are forced into a slavery of rape.
Making a world of difference. . .
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Okay, I’ll admit it. I am something of a football fan. I’m not exactly a raving fan but I do enjoy the game if not all the hype that so often goes with it. This, of course, is the season that is especially good to fans of the game what with the college bowl games and now the NFL playoffs. All that leads up to the Super Bowl which, by the way, will be held here in Indianapolis next month but that is another story.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that players and coaches alike have a jargon peculiar to their sport. And because sports play such a significant role in American life we often end up borrowing terms from the world of sports for our own wider use. Now everyone can “hit a home run, ” “score!” or make a “slam dunk!” but sometimes, unfortunately, we also “strikeout.’”
One expression of the sports vernacular that I’ve heard recently is an exceptional athlete referred to as a “difference-maker.” A “difference-maker” is a special player that is able to change the course of a game by virtue of a combination of innate ability and the development of that ability to high level. This takes an uncommon commitment on the part of the individual. Difference-makers are what separate championship level teams from the rest of the pack.
Okay, so here is where I borrow some of the jargon to say that the donors of ServLife, those that pray for us and give to the causes that we advocate for and serve; you are our “difference-makers!” All that we do to serve orphans and children-at-risk, all that we do to train and support church planters in the remote corners of the earth, all that we do to help create and support means of sustainable income for the poor – all of it depends on you– and us -working together to make a difference in this world of need.
Making a world of difference is our vision and our hope at ServLife. For those of you that are already on our team, we are glad to be in it with you. For those who have yet to get in the game, we are looking for more difference-makers to get involved. Won’t you consider one or more of the possibilities below?
We also want to make you aware of a new member to our staff. We are pleased to announce that we have hired Adam Nevins as our new Director of Operations. Adam has been a part of our community for a long time, and brings diverse experience from the business, church and nonprofit realms.
Having founded a nonprofit and an active volunteer with many more, Adam has a passion for seeing Jesus minister to the spiritual and physical needs of humanity through the Body of Christ. His eight years as a worship pastor fueled his understanding of true worship and justice, as well as cultivating a pastoral heart.
Adam and his wife Christin have been married for 12 years and are blessed with three children: Carolyn, Emily and David. They have had the joy o f adopting from India, attend Common Ground Christian Church, and have raised their family in an inner-city Indianapolis neighborhood for the last 8 years.
Adam concluded his work as a Project Manager at a local multimedia firm last December and joined our staff at the beginning of this year. Welcome, Adam!
Thanks for all you do,
Jeff
You can make a difference
in this world of need . . .
+ Pray with us and for us. Join those who pray for ServLife and all we do.
+ Give to train and send a church planter to the frontiers of the gospel. Make a one-time gift or give on a monthly basis.
+ Make a difference in the life of a child . . . give . . .hope. Become a ServLife child sponsor
+ Serve the poor through micro-lending. Give to the ServLife Hope Fund.
Thank you for letting us share what is happening in the world through ServLife . . . together with you!
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ServLife International, Inc. is a non-profit organization planting communities of the Kingdom and restoring hope to children-at-risk and the global poor. |
ServLife International, Inc. P.O. Box 20596 Indianapolis, IN 46220 USA
Copyright 2011 ServLife International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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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,
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| 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?
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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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 »
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“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” (Proverbs 25:25)
Everlasting Service (Kathmandu) In the nation of Nepal ServLife has given birth to two organizations through which we now primarily work. The first is Ananta Sewa Nepal or, as we call it, AS Nepal. Ananta sewa is a Nepali term meaning, literally, “everlasting service.“ What an appropriate name for those who aspire to love and save orphaned children and the children of the extremely poor who would otherwise be without opportunity for education.
This month at the ServLife Children’s Home in Kathmandu we welcomed Som Bahadur Ale to our growing family. What a joy he has been. Som, who will turn 5 years old next month, comes from a very poor family in western Nepal. Som’s father died some time ago. His mother, who is unable to read and write, was left to raise and provide for three children on her own. A Christian neighbor saw this Hindu family was struggling. Although the neighbor is himself blind, he took action to guide Som to our children’s home in Kathmandu. Som is now in lower kindergarten, making new friends and finding his place in the family.
Graduation Day X2 (Raxaul) Albert Das, founder and director of ServLIfe Empowering Society in India presided over the June 29 graduation ceremony of eleven young men who have completed their training at the Servlife Leadership Training Institute in Raxaul. The training institute is preparing young people for service in north India and southern Nepal as servants of
the gospel and church planters. This new group will join 73 previous graduates now at work in the harvest field.
Albert has also reported some much more difficult news. Church planter and pastor, Philip Mirgan, was promoted to glory on May 25, 2011. Philip was pastoring our church in Malkangiri in Orissa state. He was also a graduate of our training center in the 2005-06 batch. Philip leaves his church and family; a wife and three children. Please pray for them and for the new leadership in Malkangiri.
Beautiful Feet (Kathmandu) Lazarus Thulung is the director of ServLife Himalayan Development. Himalayan Development is the second of our two organizations working in Nepal. Its mission is to train and send disciples into the remote villages of Nepal to share the
good news that God has taken action in and through Jesus Christ to reconcile all things to himself and to form communities of those who choose to follow Jesus. What a joy it is to see people as they begin to understand what God has done and is now doing to make the world right including them! What joy to report that seven new believers were recently baptized in Thingan village.
One of those, Mr. Ranjit Ghale, was a former antagonist of the church in that village; however, both he and his family have turned to Christ and the change has been remarkable. This former opponent of the gospel has now become one of the leading advocates of the gospel among his own people.
We are also happy to report that Lazarus has been chosen to serve on the executive committee of the Himalayan Global Summit 2011
Closer to Home (Acworth, GA) Join us in welcoming home from Nepal Mark and Jenn Storm and their two children, Solomon and Sophia. The Storm family
has completed a fruitful season of service with ServLife that stretches back to 2006 and included assignments in both Thailand and Nepal. The Storms were the key leaders in our being able to get the Hope Fund off and running in Nepal. What can’t be over-looked was the great encouragement they brought to their Nepali brothers and sisters. They are already being missed. Thanks to Westgate Church in San Jose, CA and to all of you who have been of special support to the Storms and their mission with ServLife. May they find great joy and satisfaction as they move ahead in this next phase of their calling.
Closer Still (Indianapolis, IN) Rachel McKnight who serves as ServLife’s sponsorship coordinator and doubles as an assistant to our executive director has announced her engagement to Jeremy Moss. Rachel and Jeremy are planning for a November wedding. Congratulations to Rachel and Jeremy!
Our first print newsletter of 2011 will soon be in the mail to you. There you’ll find much more good news of what is happening in the world through ServLife, together with you!
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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 »
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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 »