JOHN 3:16 MARKETING NETWORK: CHILDREN OF DREAMS - REVISITING NEPAL TWENTY YEARS LATER,” and taking books to a church and orphans in Nepal, by Lorilyn Roberts

This inspirational work of nonfiction follows a woman who turns her own shattered dreams into life-changing hope, relying on God's redemptive love to overcome impossible odds and adopt two destitute children from one of the world's most remote regions.

I (Lorilyn Roberts) will be traveling to Nepal soon to take books to orphans - children who have been rescued and adopted into Nepali homes sponsored by Child Hope International.



For the next three weeks, I will be publishing on my blog my adoption memoir, to encourage you to pray for Joy and me, for travel mercies, and for you to “taste” the country and experience what I felt when I was there before. God gave me my first of two Children of Dreams twenty years ago. I arrived home from Nepal on Mother's Day, May 8, 1994, with Manisha Hope.

The costs will be around $3,500 for Joy and me to travel and stay six days. Our time will be spent helping many of the kids with English and reading. About $1,500 has been donated so far. I am hoping more people will contribute toward the trip so I don't have to spend the next several months paying off my credit card when I return. 

Imagine what the possibilities are with the two hundred plus Christian books we are taking (as well as two Kindles a member of the John 3:16 Marketing Network donated). These children are among the few, particularly the girls, to receive an education in Nepal. They are the future leaders, the future teachers, doctors, and nurses. Over two hundred abandoned children have been adopted in-country by Nepali families sponsored by Child Hope International. Today many are in college. One orphan sponsored by Child Hope International is now in medical school. 

I would especially appreciate your prayers. 

If you would enjoy reading Children of Dreams as an ebook, in celebration of the trip, I'm offering a free coupon through Smashwords for the length of time Joy and I will be in Nepal. Joy is my younger daughter who I adopted from Vietnam. Manisha, who is 23, will be staying home and taking care of all of our animals. 

From James 1:27:  Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  

GUEST POST BY CHRISTIAN PASTOR BOB SAFFRIN

 

Today I received this email from a reader of my book Children of Dreams. I was moved because it was written by a Christian pastor, Bob Saffrin, who just recently returned from India. So many children, so many needs. What we could do if more Christian families would choose adoption, or even sponsor a child internationally.

Lorilyn,

I read your book Children of Dreams on the 20+ hour plane ride to India. I thought it would be a book that appealed more to women but I wanted to read it because I am trying to read stuff that will help me be a better author. 

I was surprised. I think it is the best book I have read for as long as I can remember! I was so touched by your struggles to have a family and how well you related it all to God’s own efforts to have a family. Mercy is not my giftedness but I have been on many trips with “moms” who cry over little naked village children with no hope and no future. They cry as we get into our rented SUV and drive off, leaving them behind. 

This year I met a 12-year-old boy who worked in a brickyard making bricks by hand by filling a wooden mold with mud. He had no family, his mother just dropped him off there when he was 5 because she couldn’t feed him. I asked him how much money he made. He said he had to make 1000 bricks a day. It took him 12 hours, 7 days a week and he made 5 rupees a day (10c), and they also gave him rice. This boy was a virtual slave and I stood there and there was nothing I could do. I made friends with him, had him teach me how to make bricks, and introduced him to Jesus but in the end, I got in the car and drove away. 

I was touched as I read your book to hear of two little girls who God rescued from the darkness and the hopelessness. I wish every woman that is considering an abortion could read your book.  I’m so glad that in your book you recognized that they truly are children of dreams but they aren’t your dreams, they are God’s. You just got to go along for the ride. Little by little I’m learning to let go of my dreams and connect with God’s dreams for my life.

Some of the cultural issues you dealt with in Nepal reminded me of India. In India, unless you are in a major city there is no such thing as TP. If you ask they don’t even know what you are talking about. When I meet with new team members for India I usually tell them they can bring their own or I will have it for sale for $1.00 a sheet. It seems that God has given you and me a similar call to adventure. By the way, I looked at your Facebook photos because I wanted to see Manisha and Joy and I discovered that you and I share the same birthday – Oct 17^th. J

“...AND MY DAUGHTERS FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH” - A MOTHER’S DAY CELEBRATION: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

I gazed through the broken window admiring the grandeur of the Himalayan Mountains twenty miles west of China. I felt like I was starring in a movie as I sat nervously waiting in the dusty, dingy office of the Chief District Officer of Dolakha, Nepal. The room was mostly dark, lit with only one uncovered light bulb. Old wooden chairs lined the bare walls and scraped the concrete floor. A dark-haired, three-year-old little girl named Manisha sat beside me.

The C.D.O., a man in his early 30's, sat at an oversized desk with my papers before him. Wielding incredible power over my future, I needed his approval to adopt Manisha. It was hard for me to fathom how I had put myself into this situation, except that I knew God was leading me. My thoughts flashed momentarily back to my failed marriage of eight years.

“I don't love you anymore,” my husband told me one night after I confronted him with evidence that he was seeing another woman.

I replayed scenes of the long hours I worked as a court reporter putting him through medical school. I remembered the wine bottles and cheese that I uncovered in the garbage upon returning home after visiting my family in Atlanta. I recalled the night he contacted the police after I confronted him in his office at the hospital. Two weeks after our divorce was final, the other woman gave birth to his child. I was devastated and hurt. Only a loving God could help me to start over and begin a new life.

A few years after my divorce, I received a letter from World Vision, an evangelical organization that sponsors children in Third World countries. The beginning of the letter, dated February 13, 1993, read: "Over 150 million children worldwide are trapped by hunger, sickness, poverty, and neglect." I took the letter and put it on my refrigerator and thought, someday I am going to adopt a child from another country. The letter ended with a quote from Proverbs 13:12 (LB), "Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when dreams come true at last, there is life and joy."

Now, eight years later, after much forgiveness, prayer, and healing, God lead me to Nepal. I looked at Manisha, and with piercing, dark brown eyes focused on me, she spoke softly in very clear English, “I love you.”

I responded back, “I love you, too.”


I did not know how she could have uttered those words because she could not speak English. It gave me the assurance I needed over the next few days that God was in control. The C.D.O. poured over my documents and after a while looked up and asked, “You're not 40?”


“No,” I said, “but I'm almost 40.”


“It's the law you must be 40.” He gave a cursory glance through the rest of my documents. He and Silas, my facilitator, exchanged a flurry of words in Nepali. Some elderly Nepali men sitting in the room stared at me. I had the feeling that Silas was talking about my infertility. I felt exposed that such personal information was being bantered about. I saw worry in Silas's eyes and knew my hopes of becoming a mother were precariously in limbo.


“We can go back to Kathmandu and try to get special permission from the Home Minister for you to adopt, but there is nothing more we can do here.”

I pondered in my heart what Manisha said to me, “I love you.” I had to trust God.

The next morning I heard a knock at my hotel door. I opened it and there was Manisha. She looked beautiful in her new pink dress and checkered blue top, smiling and laughing. My heart was full of both worry and hope.


Before we left the hotel to meet with the Home Minister, I called my Mom and asked for prayer. Isaiah 43:5-6* came to mind, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east...and my daughters from the ends of the earth.”


“O, Dear God,” I prayed,  “Please let this be Your will. Manisha needs a forever family, hope, and You.”


The sun shone brightly and it was a beautiful day as we arrived at the courthouse.


“They don't like me at the legal office,” said Silas, “because I refuse to give them money. In America, it's called bribery, but in Nepal, it happens all the time.”

Nobody wanted to help us. Silas spoke in Nepali to a male secretary and he motioned us into another room. An errand boy, after an extended discussion with Silas, went into the Home Minister's office. We waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he reappeared speaking in Nepali to Silas.


Silas breathed a sigh of relief and anticipation.

“The Home Minister has granted his permission for you to adopt Manisha.”

My eyes filled with tears as I remembered Manisha's softly-spoken words in the Himalayan Mountains, “I love you.” It was as if God had said to me, “I love you.”


Yes, Manisha, I love you, too.

Just as God loved us so much that He gave us His Son and adopted us into His family, God had given me the first of two daughters to love from the ends of the earth.


*NIV Translation

The full story can be read in Children of Dreams, available at Amazon and other bookstores. The medical mystery uncovered in the book was featured in Animal Planet’s “Monsters Inside Me,” Episode 210, “Shape Shifters.”
You can watch the episode by clicking on this link.


Manisha arrived home on Mother's Day, May 8, 1994. I dedicate this story to all mothers for Mother's Day!

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