I visited our blind children's home in October and had an experience that I am still trying to sort through.  I learned, when I came to Nepal on this trip, that a humanitarian organization had abandoned fifteen blind children in the town of Jumla, which is about a day's journey from our valley.  (Jumla is the town I fly into to reach our work.)  It is the exact same thing that happened when I took the responsibility to care for our first group of fifteen blind kids. 

The children went to a Nepali government office on their own and camped there in front of the building.  They literally had no where else to go.  A Nepali government official had heard about the work we were doing and loaded the blind children on a bus and sent them unannounced to our home.  The bus could not make it all the way to our place so the children walked the last five miles.

When I heard about what had happened, to be honest, I was angry.  I felt it was very unfair for the government to just dump those kids on our doorstep.  And I felt it was foolish for an organization to begin a work without adequate resources.   When I visited our home I was greeted by thirty blind children who clapped in unison and hung a garland of flowers around my neck.  I could not help but weep.

I honestly don't know what to do.  I can't send the children back and to care for them is a huge challenge.  The new kids are in need of jackets and blankets immediately, so we sent an extra $1,200 this month to clothe them before the cold weather sets in.  Our leaders are appealing to the Nepali government to help us with rice, and we are appealing to the UN food program office for temporary aid.  Hopefully something will work out.  In the meantime, we are making do the best we can.  The new kids are sleeping on a mud floor without blankets.  It's a little pathetic, but it's the best I can do for now.  By the time you read this we will have sent blankets and warm jackets to them.

I met for quite a long while with my leaders, discussing what we should do regarding the new blind children.  A Hindu relative of one of the leaders had accompanied us that day and sat in on the discussion.  I noticed him smiling broadly throughout the meeting but thought nothing of it.  Later he shared with us that he was deeply touched by what we were talking about.  He said, "I wondered why these people were spending so much time and effort helping these blind children.  They are of so little worth to anyone.  And I thought that none of our Hindu leaders are doing anything to help them.  In fact, they despise them.  This is true religion.  I am interested to find out about this Gospel teaching."

On a more optimistic note, the Lord helped us this summer to raise $100,000 to build a home for these kids.  The building we are in is a crumbling government structure that is in embarrassing condition, but we've been able to manage.  We have finalized the purchase of our property.  It's on a mountain slope so we will need to level it, but we're starting that work immediately.

I'll be in India the month of November working on a model church plant we're doing in Aurangabad and looking into the possibility of a new work in Bangalore. Thanks for all you have done to help us in the work the Lord has assigned to Bev and Shane and me.

Rick