Mission Trip

Nepal – The Need

The airplane I was flying back from Nepal on had a camera mounted that allowed me to watch what we were flying over from the screen on the seat back in front of me.  As we flew over small villages and individual homes in remote areas the Lord showed me the great need.  The people in those homes have children just like I do.  They love them just like I love mine.  They are just as important as I am.  Why am I blessed and fortunate enough to have had the gospel shared with me?  Who will help them?  When their father dies who will hold their hand and pray with them?  I am so thankful there are people like Rob and Grace Robideau and Kevin and Cynthia Weldon for giving up everything and coming to Nepal to love them as I have been loved.  Our time was short, but impactful.  Thank you to FliteTest for investing in lives half way around the world and for Lee Kachner for taking the time, and physical challenge, to travel half way around the world to make a difference in the lives of people you don’t even know.  Here are pictures of the land and the need:

Taking Flite – 24 hours in Cambodia

Wow!  What amazing things can happen in 24 hours.  As you know, we flew down to Cambodia for a day because we were stranded in Bangkok and had an open door.  It was amazing.  We got to meet with a lot of kids and adults.  Cory shared with them what we do at MANNA and why we do it.  This allowed him to share the gospel with the group. Thank you FliteTest for allowing your planes to help impact the Kingdom.

Then Mara got up and shared with the group what it was like growing up as an orphan in our orphanage in Kampong Thom and what MANNA has meant to her.  Then Bimol shared with the group about her experience working at our projects and now going to nursing school with Kim and Mara.  It was hard to even keep my composure as they shared.  So cool to see what God is doing and how He is using them.  Then Lee took the plane to the air and the kids got to see it in action.  They really thought it was amazing. After Lee landed the plane, we took them and helped them make their own planes that they could glide.  The kids loved every minute of it and ran around playing with their planes.  It was so worth trip and investing time in the work there.  Here are some pictures of the day.

His ways are higher than ours.

I often tell groups that we pray through the planning of a trip, but once we get on that airplane, God takes over and sometimes the plans go out the window.  Such has been the case this week.  God has had much bigger plans than we have had.  Now that we cannot go to Nepal until Tuesday, the Lord opened the door for us to preach at a church tomorrow morning, then head straight for the airport and fly to Cambodia on Sunday afternoon.  Then we will spend 24 hours in Cambodia and use some remote control airplanes to do an outreach with a missionary there.  We will get back in Bangkok on Monday night, just in time to catch the first flight out to Nepal on Tuesday morning.  We have since been able to roll our flights back leaving Nepal to help make up for some of the time lost due to the plane crash.  So, a trip that was going to introduce FliteTest to Nepal has opened the door to make an impact in 3 countries instead of 1. I guess God has bigger plans than we do.  Praise the Lord for that.

Delayed!

Well, we aren’t going to make it to Kathmandu on time.  They had us loaded on the shuttle bus to board the airplane here in Bangkok and then unloaded all of us back into the terminal.  Apparently there was an accident on the runway at Kathmandu where a Turkish Airlines plane skidded off the runway.  They are waiting to see when they will be able to open flights back up to Kathmandu.

http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2015/03/04/photo-turkish-airlines-plane-skids-off-runway-at/

We’ll keep you posted.

48 Hours in Saigon

We made it back from Vietnam and are in Bangkok waiting to head to Nepal tomorrow.  Here is a gallery of pictures from Vietnam.  Cory took some of these pictures.  It was great to see Vietnam and the various projects we have there.  48 hours in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is quite a whirlwind tour.  We were running from the time we hit the ground until the time we flew out.  It is awesome to see all of the fruits of the labor there and to see the vision and potential ahead.  There is a great opportunity in Vietnam and I’m so excited to see what is in store.  I love the people and am so grateful for our friends there.

Motorbike City

Just got back from Vietnam, I’ll post an update with some pics in a second blog.  However, I wanted to share a video I put together of the motorbikes (motorcycles) in Vietnam.  There are 6 million of them in Ho Chi Minh City alone!  This is definitely the main mode of transportation here. I did portions of the clips in slow motion so that they were easier to see.  Enjoy!

From Orphan to Nursing Student

Last night we got to meet up with several people that Cory knows from previous trips.  In the picture above we have Bemol, Marah, Kim, and Rith.  Marah was an orphan at our orphanage in Kampong Thom Village and Kim was at our nutrition center for 9 years.  Now they are both first year nursing students at a nursing school in Phnom Penh. Really awesome to see the impact in their lives.  We gave them MANNA hats that we had printed in Bangkok. Today we travel to Kampong Thom Village to visit the orphanage and nutrition centers they grew up in.

Where’s Ryan?

I’m heading to Asia for a 6 country trip that spans 5 1/2 weeks.  I look forward to keeping everyone updated on what we are doing and where we are going. Keep and eye on this blog to get updates.  We will be visiting India, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam on this trip. On part of the trip we will build a water tank for a village in Burma and visit our new school there.

I’m excited about what the Lord is going to do on this trip and keep everyone updated on our travels.  The 19 flights it will take will be exhausting for sure, so keep us in our prayers.  Also, pray for Kim and the girls as they are not able to join me on this trip and will miss me as much as I miss them.

Return From Nicaragua

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I just got back from Nicaragua and got to see the work there for the first time.  I appreciate everyone’s prayers and support during our trip.  I have included some pictures in this email from the trip.  As with any trip, there is more to share than the space or time possible.  So, I want to give a testimony about how the Lord used obstacles in Nicaragua to further the ministry.

One of our projects is in a town with no electricity or other services.  People are spread out along the countryside.  Most of the kids have to walk 2 km, in some cases up to 4 km, to the feeding center.  What we see as an obstacle, the Lord uses greatly.  The parents did not want their kids walking that far by themselves.  So, the parents started going with the kids.  Now, this project that started with 5 kids and 1 adult has grown to have 60 kids and 25 adults on the day we were there.  The missionary we work with down there has now planted 5 churches and trained up 5 national pastors to lead them.

It was a great reminder to me how we can look at obstacles and inefficiencies, but the Lord sees opportunities.  We can look from our Americanized perspectives, but the Lord sees the heart of the people and how to reach them. I’m sure glad He is in control and not me.

Here are some pictures from our trip.