2016 has started off very well.  Thank you for your support.  My Bradford Pear tree in the front yard is already blooming and it looks like spring is already upon us.  As spring begins to break, the sprint is about to begin.

In one week from now I will be traveling to Florida and we will be presenting in 8 churches in 5 states.  As soon as we finish the last church, we will head to Asia for nearly 7 weeks to help lead teams.   Then, come back a week to repack and take a team to Nicaragua.

My daughter was asking why we visit so many churches.  I told her it is because we need to raise support for places like Vietnam, Thailand and North Korea to help sustain our feeding programs and orphanages.  Otherwise we cannot buy the food that we need to feed the kids.

She looked at me and said, “I have $30 in my room if you need it.”  Wow!  The heart of a child.  It blows me away, and humbles me all the time.

Thank you for supporting our family. It is an honor to walk with you in this endeavor the Lord has placed before us.

We got to unload 6,000 pairs of shoes to go around the world!  What does 6,000 pairs of shoes look like, well, the picture above is only half of them.  We use these shoes to take to our projects on trips.  Our trip participants get people to sponsor the shoes and help them go on the trip and put them on a child.  It is really amazing to watch the impact a simple pair of shoes can have on a child.

When people give to disaster relief many wonder what all the funds go towards.  In the case of MANNA, some of these funds went to rebuild a church on the north side of Kathmandu.  This church stepped out in faith to begin a building, and MANNA is honored to be able to contribute towards helping them to rebuild it.  Below you can see the before and after pictures.

Wow, what an amazing realization we had when we did a water filter outreach.  We did it though the local church that had been planted in the village by the missionary we work with.  I was at the village earlier this year, and it is sad to see how many buildings have been destroyed.  However, there is hope amongst the despair.  We went to the homes of villagers and gave them water filters that will last their family for 10 years.  Through a translator, we were able to demonstrate how they worked.  This is opening the door for the missionary to reach them with the Gospel.

While we were distributing filters we came across a woman at a hand dug well.  She was filtering her water through an old rag into a bucket.  We began to interact with the woman and gave her a bucket, along with a demonstration on how it worked.  She was in disbelief to see us take the dirty water, filter it, then drink it.  These filters really are a huge outreach opportunity.  While, this encounter was not nearly the same magnitude as Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, it was awesome to be able to love on her, and her village.

Out of this earthquake, a feeding ministry has been birthed.  We are excited to announce the beginnings of a feeding program to help serve and reach the people in Nepal.  We were able to visit the kids and see the place were they meet.  A structure was made out of the materials from a shelter like the ones we helped raise money for.

I’m very excited to announce that MANNA’s Mango Tree Coffee has officially launched. We are now roasting and selling our own line of coffee to support our projects. Every 2 bags of coffee you buy will feed a child for 2 weeks! This is going to have a huge impact on helping us expand what we are doing and care for more children. I have personally purchased and drank some of the coffee and I was thoroughly impressed.

Here is a video from our roaster describing the coffee and the impact it will have:
https://vimeo.com/131234795

Here is where you can order your coffee, shipped directly to your door:
http://bit.ly/1K1UYdG

So, in honor of our new coffee, I give you the top 10 ways you can help promote Mango Tree Coffee. FYI, the top 5 are actually serious.

10. Cover the beans in chocolate and hand them out at VBS to the kids this summer, just before you send them home.
9. Brew someone a cup of coffee, then say April Fool’s after they take the first sip.
8. Replace the potpourri with coffee beans and see what reaction you get.
7. Try to pass them off as breath mints.
6. Take a dark roast, grind it up, and replace the pepper in the pepper shaker.
5. Tell everyone on Facebook and Twitter about Mango Tree Coffee.
4. Buy a bag of coffee for your friends and tell them how they can help feed children with Mango Tree Coffee.
3. Have your business start serving and promoting Mango Tree Coffee to the employees.
2. Have your church start purchasing and selling Mango Tree Coffee for its coffee ministry.
1. Make the switch and start buying Mango Tree Coffee for yourself.

Over 1.1 million men and women have given their lives during times of war protecting our country. I am grateful for their sacrifice and for the freedom that I get to enjoy as a result. We could not do what we do today if they had not given so much. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. You will not be forgotten. 

Many people have been asking about our strategy in Nepal and how to help. Below is more information on our plan to help and reach Nepal. If you know anyone that is looking for an organization to donate towards the relief effort, please let them know what we are doing and how they can help. Also, you will see the trip we are planning to Nepal below. We would love to have more people join us on that trip.

We are working with several missionaries on the ground to help serve and reach the people in these villages. Five villages have currently been identified that we can engage. We have a 4 phase plan.

Phase 1: Within 45 days, raise $25,000 for two villages (Saano Khokana and Thapaguan) to build tin roof shelters that will be more durable than tent cities. We’ve received a matching grant of $25,000, so the people who donate the first $25,000 will have their gift matched.
Phase 2: Raise $25,000 for two additional villages (Banepa and the larger Sindapulchowk).
Phase 3: Take a relief team to evaluate our efforts and strategically plan the fourth phase of long term engagement in orphanage reconstruction and nutrition center development. We need to raise $15,000 to help cover some of the cost of the relief team that is going to evaluate.
Phase 4: Continued long-term partnership, community development, and support.

We are working towards a long-term goal of reaching Nepal and planting churches there through the disaster relief effort. In this process, we have some short-term goals and long-term goals. Our overall goal is to fill the void in the smaller outlying villages. A lot of money and supplies from world governments will be sent to Kathmandu and the Nepalese government for the rebuilding effort there. As a result, we would have a limited impact on Kathmandu itself. However, many of the smaller villages will be forgotten about. This is where we feel we have the greatest opportunity to have an impact. We can engage a village fully, help them rebuild, and plant a church. Through this, we are praying many might hear the Gospel and a network of churches may be established that we can work with personally for years to come.

Here is an expanded version of the plan to give you more details if desired:

Phase 1: We are looking to raise $25,000 in the next 45 days to help supply temporary shelters and food for 2 villages. These villages are Saano Khokana and Thapaguan. What we like about the shelters is the are made of tin roofing and are quite durable. So, a family can live there much longer than they could in a tent while they rebuild their home. Secondly, our approach is to work with the villagers and allow them to help construct their own shelter. This is a much better model than us doing everything. They get to be a part of the process and this helps in a better long-term result.

Phase 2: We want to raise an additional $25,000 by the end of the summer to help expand the engagement to the other villages. Initially target the villages of Banepa and the larger Sindapulchowk. We will continue to research the affected villages and evaluate areas where we feel we can be most effective. Repair work will need to be done on the orphanage we are partnered with. However, we will not know for a while what the repair costs will be. Once we know those costs and have a plan for the construction work, we will adjust our goals accordingly.

Phase 3: A team will be travelling to Nepal in October to see the progress. We want to invite as many church leaders and individuals that are interested in seeing the work first hand and become a part of the long-term plan and vision for reaching the region. We will use this as a launching point to evaluate the success of the current model and plan out a rebuilding, church planting, and nutrition center strategy for the future. We need to raise $15,000 to help cover some of the cost of the relief team that is going to evaluate.

Phase 4: This is the long-term phase that will involve a continual evaluation of needs and opportunities going forward. We will take teams to help engage and rebuild the villages alongside the people. We anticipate planning the first trip in 2016 and will plan and lead as many as are necessary and resources are available for the foreseeable future. This is where the implementation of the nutrition centers and church planting will take full effect. We have other missionaries that have goals of starting orphanages in some villages and we want to evaluate the future opportunities available to do this.

Here is a link for people to donate directly to the immediate relief effort.

https://mannaworldwide.formstack.com/forms/nepal

The 5 year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake happened earlier this year.  Many people and organizations rushed in to help. Today, most of them are gone.  But, we are still there, and more engaged than ever.  This year MANNA is building 2 new churches and nutrition centers and continuing to expand the outreach to the nation and villages.

What does that have to do with Nepal? Everything. The world is rushing to help, and I am grateful they are, but the recovery and rebuilding will be a 10 year process.  We will be there for the long haul.  We are methodically working to plan out strategies to reach villages and minister to people for the long term.  I’m looking forward to seeing the impact in Nepal in 5 years.

Update: We are keeping in close contact with our relationships on the ground in Nepal so that we can pray for them and work on resources to assist.  Here is a latest update.  They have developed some steel shelters that are affordable and the supplies are available in the country.  They are deploying them to the villages that are affected and using that as an opportunity for outreach.  Right now the Kathmandu airport has been closed to aid shipments.  The airport was not designed to handle the size and weight of the relief planes that have been coming.  As a result, there has been damage to the runway.  This will definitely hamper the relief effort.  The US has dispatched Ospreys that can vertically takeoff and land to shuttle in supplies.

I was going through my pictures today of my visit to Nepal last month and came across some before and after shots.  It really does bring the reality home of the devastation in Nepal.  Here are 4 pictures of Nepal.  Two of them I took while I was there, the other two are of the same buildings today.  We took the picture of the kids during a wedding celebration, I pray they are okay.