Walk the streets of any given city in Nepal, and you see children everywhere.  Some are walking to school.  Others are with their parents or a family member.  A lot of them, however, are alone.  They may run in gangs of other children, but no one is taking care of them.  I have seen them on the streets of Katmandu rummaging through garbage, playing in mud holes and selling their wares, even drugs.  I remember Mom telling about a group of boys passing around a paper bag that had glue in it.  One boy would take a good sniff of the glue, and then pass it on to his friend.  One of the boys was so high, his eyes had rolled back into his head.  These were young boys, probably under ten years old.  She couldn’t finish telling the story because of the emotions that welled up at the memory of that image.

I think about my own little boy who just turned ten.  Like the typical American kid, he likes football, baseball, video games and music.  I can’t imagine him having to roam the streets and care for himself.

I then think about the kids at our children’s home in Bhaktapur.  Many of them were rescued from the streets, or from family who had rejected them.  I was recently with them, and was able to look at each one in the face.  I traveled home with those images locked away in my mind, and when I see their faces, I think of all the other children that we have not been able to help.

Nearly forty percent of Nepal’s population of 29.5 million are kids under the age of fourteen.  We haven’t even made a dent in those figures, but all the effort has been worth it to those fourteen kids in Bhaktapur who are now thriving in life.  Not to mention the fifteen blind children in Jumla.

We have been telling you about the Children’s Village we will be constructing soon.  When it is complete, we will be able to care for a total of 120 more children.  If you think about it, each child at Bhaktapur Children’s Home represents eight more kids we would be able to touch.  It still doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a start and will make a difference to those children as their lives are changed for the better.  Who knows what impact they will have on Nepal?  I believe that some of them may even become missionaries to other Asian countries.

Thank you for taking the time to support us in prayer and for reading our letters.  I wanted, in this letter, to show you why we so strongly believe in the work we do, and when you see the pictures of our Nepali kids, remember that eight more lives can be changed.

Shane