Fwd: update 8/18/13

[Grace Shih]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob and Bobbie Clinton <bobandbob...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 18, 2013 at 9:34 AM
Subject: update 8/18/13
To: Friends and Family <bobandbob...@gmail.com>

Jaimasih!

As you know from many previous emails, the word "Jaimasih" (pronounced "Jay-muh-see") in Nepali means "Victory in Jesus".   It is the word that Nepali Christians use to greet one another.

Back in March, we hosted a short-term mission team in Nepal and India.  Besides ministering at some of our children's homes, participating in church services, and going on a trek in the Himalayan Mountains, they conducted a one-day kids' club in Meghauli.  Prakash, the director of our senior project, set this up in an area next to where many landless people live in mud, buffalo dung, and straw homes which they have built on government-owned property adjacent to the jungle.  They are all very poor.  The area is not far from our children's home in Parshadhap.   

Around 50 children participated in the kids' club that day.  They sang songs, played games, and made little lion masks out of paper.  The team was wonderful and the kids had a great time.   As part of the program, the gospel was shared and everyone was invited to come to church.

Prakash (in the white shirt) and the team conducting the kids' club.  

You can see a few of the homes in the background.  The locals call this area "the slum".

Steve Palmer and Eunice Kong help the kids with their lion masks.

As is the case whenever we host kids' clubs in villages, several adults (mostly women) stood around watching.   I recently discovered in going through my photos that one of the women in the crowd was Laxmi Mohato.   

Laxmi (far left) with other women watch as their children are exposed to the gospel.   

(This is the first time that I noticed the terrible scar on the woman's arm on the right.   I am going to ask Prakash to check on her.)

In an update in May, I wrote about how Laxmi came forward to receive Jesus as her personal savior at the end of the service at Meghauli Baptist Church.   It was Laxmi's first time in church and came as a direct result of the team going to her village and hosting the kids' club.  

Laxmi and her children the day she prayed to receive Jesus...

Laxmi, Pastor Munna, and me....

As you probably know, I just returned from Nepal earlier this week.   I got home on Wednesday.  The following picture was taken on August 9.   Prakash, James, and I were on our way to the Rhino Resort to see if it was an appropriate place to conduct a youth retreat in January.   As we drove near the site where we had hosted the kid's club, we spotted Laxmi walking down the road with her children.   I stopped my car, rolled down the window and was greeted with a huge smile and "Jaimasih!"   Laxmi looked so joyful and so much different from what she looked like before.   Praise the Lord for short-term mission teams!   The seeds that they had planted have already brought forth good fruit.   We pray that many more from this area will also respond to the gospel.

Laxmi and her children on August 9th

In less than a month, we are going to host a short-term mission team in India and another team is coming in January to host a youth conference for our older children in Nepal.   The next short-term team after that is tentatively scheduled for February 22 to March 8, 2014.     We may change the dates to March 1-15.  Let us know if you would like to be a part of that team!   

Thank you for standing with us.   We appreciate each one of you.  

God bless you.

Love,

Bob (and Bobbie)

PS:   Please write and let us know how you are doing.....