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Ministry
Bob and Bobbie serve with First Love International Ministries. Bob is the Director of Overseas Ministry Development and Bobbie is the Director of Women’s Ministries. Bob and Bobbie lived in Kathmandu, Nepal from 1998 to 2008. Though they now have a townhouse in the USA, they continue to spend most of the year overseas.
Bob and Bobbie’s ministry has included the establishment of four children’s homes in Nepal, a home in India targeting children of prostitutes, Tabitha House (a residential home for widows), and a hostel in Kathmandu for college children. They are also involved in church planting, evangelism, and discipleship. With the goal of providing ongoing local support for their projects, they have established various income generating projects including a quilt store, banana plantation, chicken farm, and pig farm.
About Bob and Bobbie
Bob is a former high school teacher, principal and superintendent of schools. Bobbie was trained as a medical lab technician. Bobbie enjoys sewing, quilting, and teaching and has used these skills in her ministry to women. They have four children and ten grandchildren.
The King will reply,
'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sister of mine, you did it for me.'
Matt. 25:40 (NIV)
It has been five years since Maya was brought to the children's home in Parshadhap with her six-year-old brother Anand. Maya's mother had died soon after Anand was born and Maya was sent to work at a hotel. Her father was a beggar and took Anand with him to help him get people to give him money. One day, Anand woke up on the street with his father lying dead by his side.
A Christian woman from the village learned of the children's plight and brought them to the children's home. Bobbie and I happened to be there when they arrived. We knew that children were coming, but we had been told that the children were younger than they actually were. Maya we were told was only 10, but we found out that she was 14. We had set up guidelines with our children's home directors to only take younger children. However, when we learned that Maya had never attended a day of school in her life and that she had recently been raped by someone at the hotel, we agreed to keep both children at the home. We thanked the Lord for the privilege to reach out to these precious children whose lives had been full of heart-ache and abuse.
Now, five years later, Maya (below) is a beautiful 19-year old young lady with a smile that would melt your heart. She has gone from having no education at all to now being in the 6th grade! She can not only read and write her own language, she is also fluent in English. Most of all, she is a new creation in Christ having accepted Jesus as her personal savior. Her little brother has done the same. Both children are happy and looking forward to a positive future.
Maya
I took this picture last month when the kids had some time off school and were doing their laundry.
I want to once again thank all of you who have been contributing to our ministry. Thank you for your prayers, sacrifice, and love which has helped us to reach out to "the least of these". Our hearts are full.
As a reminder, I had written in previous updates that we had to raise the support need for each of the children in our children's home from $60/month to $80/month. If you are presently sponsoring a child at $60 and are able to raise it to $80, please let us know asap. If you do not presently sponsor a child and want to help with a partial-sponsorship, we could use a lot of $20 commitments :-)
In the meantime, construction continues on the building in India. Please let us know if you are interested on being a part of a mission team to finish up the work and move the children into the home in September. The dates for the trip are September 14 - 29.
Bobbie and I are in Detroit, MI and will be driving to Kingsford, MI (in the UP) tomorrow. We are staying with Bobbie's sister, Debbie and her husband, Gary. We have also had a chance to spend some quality time with our good friends, David and Ruann Marshall who live nearby. It was David who led the mission team to Nepal in 1998 where we first felt the Lord leading us back to full-time missions. We had served with David and Ruann in Taiwan from 1988-91.
Please pray for us as we will be on the road for the next three weeks.
Have a great weekend.
Love,
Bob (and Bobbie)
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