A Dream Begins

About eight years ago, Bev and I opened our first children’s home in Nepal with four abandoned children.  I remember a certain uneasiness in taking on the responsibility of four dependents, and knowing that this would be an eighteen year commitment.  We have never regretted that decision.  Those four children grew quickly to fourteen, and as I saw the extraordinary changes our faith decision made in their lives, I began to dream of the possibilities of expanding that work.

Bev and I have visited institutional children’s homes in Nepal and India where as many as one hundred children were cared for in dormitory style facilities.  It was deeply touching to visit such places and witness castaway lives restored to hope.  It was also somehow troubling.  I knew that these institutions were economizing to care for as many children as possible with limited budgets.  They were doing the best they could, but something was lost in their cost cutting.  In many ways, the love and care of a family setting were neglected.  Though the children were surviving, deep emotional and psychological needs were neglected.

We began to dream of a Children’s Village where children would live in cottages in families of ten or twelve to a home with a house parent to care for them.  I dreamed of abandoned children being able to grow up as a family of brothers and sisters with a mother who would continue to be their mother for the rest of their lives.  They would have the opportunity to grow up in a home where they could return and visit and reminisce, even as adults.  I dreamed of a walled compound that would enclose ten to fifteen such cottages, with gardens, a school and a play area in the center.  I dreamed of a place of love, family and nurturing.

Three months ago, Bev and I visited a children’s home in Nepal which is run by a European philanthropy.  The organization was founded by an Austrian businessman who had been an orphan himself, and was cared for in an institutional, dormitory style home.  He was determined to build Children’s Homes that were designed to care for the emotional, psychological, and physical needs of children.  His philosophy of care and structure was exactly what I had imagined our children’s homes should be.  Bev and I wept almost uncontrollably as we walked through his Children’s Village and saw the model we had envisioned many years before.  It was as if we had stepped into our dream.  Neat little cottages were arranged within a walled compound that included a school and designated play areas.  Each cottage housed 10 children, five boys and five girls, who lived as brothers and sisters.  Their house mother prepared their meals, helped them with their homework and organized their chores.  Each cottage had a little garden where the children grew flowers, vegetables and herbs.  It was one of the most peaceful, loving places I have ever visited.  The only thing missing was a focus on the Lord.

Last week Bev and I made an important first step toward the realization of our dream.  We purchased eight acres of property in West Nepal for just over $110,000 cash.  We are working now on developing that property, and expect that within the next five years we will have established three, possibly four cottages.  I also plan to develop this compound as a ministry center to serve the villages in this area with self-help farming projects, adult literacy programs, micro business loans for our poor church members, and medical outreaches.  It is difficult to describe the deep emotional satisfaction that we are experiencing as we launch this new project.  Thanks for all you have done to stand in faith with us for the realization of a dream.

Rick & Bev

rick@rickzachary.com - bev.zachary@gmail.com - shane.zachary@gmail.com

ChurchAsia - P.O. Box 82080 - Baton Rouge, LA 70884

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