Story of FAITH.....Nepal.....

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Sher Lama runs two children's homes in Nepal. He loves the Lord and 

-->is dedicated to transforming the lives of children. His goal --> is to raise up a generation of children who will transform the communities and tribes of Nepal for the Kingdom of God. I had the opportunity to visit him and hear all that the Lord is doing. He told me the spectacular and inspiring story of how his father, Shiva Tamang and his family came to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

1968 

Sher Lama's father, Shiva, lived in a remote village in Nepal. His older brother, Suk had been working as a porter in Pokhara where he received a Gospel track and accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Around this time his seven year old son, Dal became ill. Unknown to him, his family had taken Dal to a Buddhist Lama (holy man) who performed rituals to try and heal him. They also took him to a witchdoctor who sacrificed goats, chickens, and roosters to appease the gods, yet he remained ill. When Suk heard his son was sick, he instantly knew that Jesus could heal him. He went into his house and closed all the windows and prayed for his son to be healed in Jesus name. The next morning Dal was healed. The relatives in the village saw this miracle, including his brother Shiva. After some time they started a fellowship inside a mud hut with a small kerosene lamp that barely lit the room and an torn New Testament Bible that Suk had brought from Pokara. Slowly, the number of the believers increased. 

1971

After three years  there was a severe persecution. All the village leaders along with many Buddhist Lama’s came from the surrounding area and tied up 13 leaders of this church. They beat them with their hands and told them to leave the village. Many of the believers fled to the surrounding areas of Nepal. God used this time of suffering to spread to Gospel.

While this persecution was taking place Shiva's wife died from Tuberculosis. She left three small boys behind all under the age of 6, Sher Lama, being one of them.

Because of the persecution Shiva and his youngest brother, Rana Bahadur, fled to a nearby forest and found some caves to live in. During the night they would return to the village to have fellowship with the other believers who were living in secret. Shiva had been living in the caves for three years when Jesus came to him to him in a vision. Jesus showed Shiva all the villages and the leaders of these villages who had previously persecuted him. Jesus told him, Do not think you are all alone, I will make all these villages your friend. After six months a lady named Miriam, from a nearby village became deathly ill. She was taken to a witchdoctor and many Lama’s (Buddhist holy men), but still she was not healed. The villagers knew that Shiva and Rana lived in the forest. They brought them to the Miriam and said, "If she is healed we will believe in Jesus, but if she is not healed we will beat you." Shiva and Rana prayed in Jesus Name for healing while all the village people waited outside the house. To the villager's shock and unbelief the Miriam woke up the next morning completely healed!

All the leaders of the villages came and asked Shiva and Rana for forgiveness and accepted Jesus. Shiva and Rana returned to live in their village. Many of their friends and family accepted Christ. The story of God's miracles spread to the surrounding villages along with the Gospel and many people came to Christ. Now thousands of people have become Believers!

A church was built in the very place where the 13 Christian leaders had been tied up and beaten. Shiva became the pastor of that church even though he had never gone to school. Jesus used an uneducated villager to bring his Kingdom to an unreached group and he can use you mightily if you only step out in faith!

Jesus LOVES the little children......

Introduction

Mercy Children’s Ministry is a Christian, faith-based, non-profit organization. It is registered under the act of Social Welfare of Nepal. Mercy Children’s Ministry is dedicated to transforming the lives of children.

Mercy Children’s Ministry believes that children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalms 127:3). Lamentations 2:19 urges God’s people to “Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.” Countless Nepali children have become victims of prostitution, child labor and abandonment. Mercy Children’s Ministry is devoted to offer these children a lifeline of hope. Some of the children are orphans, some are from impoverished tribal mountain villages, and others have been rescued off the streets. Through the love of Christ, these children are filled with hope to live a life of purpose. 

Background

Sher Lama worked with Youth For Christ for a few years in the late 90’s and as his ministry was coming to an end he began praying for God's calling on his life. He asked God what he should do and as he was praying, he saw a big field filled with many banana trees that were cut off but from those cut off banana trees, tiny new banana plants with two or three leaves were coming up. He asked God in his prayer, what is this? Then he heard a voice within his heart say, “This is your ministry.” He new God was telling him to start a children’s home.

  

In 2001, Sher Lama met a man from the USA who began to support his street children’s program. In 2003, by God’s grace, Sher Lama and his wife Kalpana opened Mercy Children’s Home in Pokhara, Nepal. They went through many struggles and challenges but God was faithful to provided their every need. In 2008, Sher Lama registered Mercy Children’s Home in the government of Nepal. Now, they have 18 children in Pokhara and 13 in Kathmandu.

Mission

MCM exists as supportive Christian home’s that offer a lifeline of hope to Nepali children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and equips them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

Goal

MCM’s goal is to raise up a generation of children who will transform the communities and tribes of Nepal for the Kingdom of God.

Vision

MCM’s vision is to reach fifty of the most unreached people groups of Nepal by establishing five children homes around the country. 

Support MCM

Write "MCM" or "Sher Lama" in the memo field. 100% of any donations by check will be sent directly to Mercy Children's Ministry.

Mailing address:

Holly Liedstrand MCM

1008 Biltmore Ave.

Lynchburg, VA 24502

email: holly.liedstrand@gmail.com if you have any questions

GRACE Orphan Home

Lila Tamang comes from a small Buddhist village situated in the Himalayan Mountains. When Lila was six years old his mother became very ill. She consistently went to a witchdoctor and tried to appease the gods to no avail. One day a Christian came to her village and prayed that she would be healed in Jesus Name, slowly she was healed. She saw God’s power in healing her sickness. Her husband was curious about this Jesus who heals and decided to buy a Bible to look for errors. After reading it, he could not deny the TRUTH and PEACE he felt. Slowly his whole family came to accept Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. As his father matured in his faith he boldly shared the Gospel with his family and village neighbors. They, however, were indignant and responded with harsh persecution. They beat his father with a club. His uncle came with an axe and cut the center pillar of their house so it tumbled over. The neighbors stole their crops, corn and rice. Another uncle stole all their belongings. Eventually they were kicked out of their village for three years. After a while his father came back and the Lord opened a door for him to plant a church. Now there are nearly 300 believers in his home village!

Presently Mr. Lila and Rina Tamang care for 7 orphans and have two children of their own. They live 40 km outside Kathmandu in a city called Dhulikhel. A few years ago Lila was working with a mission organization called YWAM. His ministry commitment with this organization was about to end. He knew he needed to spend time in prayer to seek God’s guidance about his next step in life. He decided to fast for three days. The first two days he did not hear anything from God. As the third day rolled along he began to struggle with hunger pains but he persevered praying and worshiping God and as he did, he felt the Holy Spirit whisper in his heart...You have to do something for orphans and widows. He shared this with his wife and she supported him in this calling. Two years ago the Lord gave them the opportunity to start Grace Orphan Home in addition to pastoring a small church down the road. 

 

Please pray for Lila, Rina and the children at Grace Orphan Home.

If you would like to know how to support this ministry please email: holly.liedstrand@gmail.com

OUT OF darkness.....

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Saimon is from a small city, Dhulikhel,

--> 40 km outside Kathmandu, Nepal. He grew up in a Buddhist family. From his childhood he had suffered from chronic sickness. A few weeks out of each year he believed an evil spirit would severely inflict him with sickness. When he was 20 years old he became very sick once again but this sickness lasted longer and was more severe. His throat hurt, he was constantly dizzy and his knees were in pain. He lost his job and was nearly bedridden. He was tormented with nightmares of snakes and people who would chase him and try to kill him. He believed this was spiritual and tried to appease the gods through practicing Buddhist witchcraft. He would go to the witchdoctor for treatment and spent all his money offering chickens and goats. The animals were killed, the blood offered to the gods and the animal cooked as a meal.

After he had spent all his money visiting the witchdoctor he had no hope of being healed.  Soon after a Christian told him that if he came to church they would pray for him and he would be healed. Desperate for any help, he came to Pastor Misheal's house for prayer. As they prayed it was clear that Saimon was demon possessed. He would fight and kick and scream in rage. After much prayer he was delivered from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Now, two years later Saimon feels called into full time ministry and works with Pastor Misheal and Grace Orphan Home.

Names have been changed

Leadership and Prayer

Prayer is the most vital part of leadership. It is not the only aspect, but it is the single most important tool that affects all other aspects of leadership. Dr. Earley asks:

• Do you believe God can do things bigger than you can?

• Do you believe God can do things faster than you can?

• Do you believe God can do things better than you can?

• Do you believe God can do things more long lasting than you can?[1]

 “Leadership is influence…Since leadership is the ability to move and influence people, the spiritual leader will be alert to discover the most effective way of doing this…Prayer influences men by influencing God to influence them.”[2] J. O. Sanders

S.D. Gordon says, “Prayer strikes the winning blow, and service is merely picking up the pieces.”[3] Andrew Murray says, “In spiritual work everything depends upon prayer.”[4]

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[1] Ibid.

[2] Sanders, J. Oswald. Spiritual Leadership. The Moody Bible Institute, (Chicago: 1994). 82-84.

[3] “Christian Prayer Quotes”, http://www.christian-prayer-quotes.christian-attorney.net/.

[4] Murray, Andrew. Prayer Life. Wilder Publications, (Radford, VA: 2008).

Five Grand Conditions of Prevailing Prayer

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George Muller has lots of lesson’s to teach on prayer. One extraordinary lesson is his five grand conditions of prevailing prayer:

1.                    Entire dependence upon the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only ground of any claim for blessing (John 14:13-14; 15:16).

2.                    Separation from all known sin. If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us for it would be sanctioning sin (Psalm 66:18).

3.                    Faith in God’s Word of promise as confirmed by his oath. Not to believe him is to make him both a liar and a perjurer (Heb. 6:13-20; 11:6).

4.                    Asking in accordance with this will. Our motives must be godly: we must not seek any gift of God to consume it upon our own lusts (1 John 5:13-15; James 4:3).

5.                    Importunity in supplication. There must be waiting on God and waiting for God, as the husbandman has long patience to wait for the harvest (James 5:7; Luke 18:1-8).[1]

These five conditions were the foundation for Mueller’s believing prayer. He saw God work in mighty ways! Mueller has numerous stories of times when God answered very specific prayer. A favorite and well-known story is the time when there was no food for breakfast at one of the orphanages. There were about three hundred orphans at this time and there was no food available and no money to purchase any. The children lined up behind their chairs. Mueller gave thanks for what the Lord was going to provide. He did this in faith, as they had nothing to eat that morning. Soon after the children sat down there was a knock at the door. When Mueller opened the door, the baker stood there with freshly baked bread. He said that he was unable to sleep the night because he thought the orphans would need bread that morning. So he had gotten up around 2am to bake bread for them. Soon there was a second knock at the door. The milkman's truck had broken down in front of the orphanage, and he needed to remove the milk in order to repair his truck and offered the milk to the children!

 God is faithful and supplies all our needs when we pray in faith and take him at His Word!

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              [1] George Mueller, Release the Power of Prayer. New Kinsington, PA: Whitaker House, 2005. 91-94.

Encouragment and Inspiration from the Life of Martin Luther

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          The life of Martin Luther is one of the most fascinating and intriguing stories of church history. Perhaps, the single most impacting part of the Reformation was the renewal of the Word of God in the form of a book so that even peasants could read it. Luther understood that, “God preserves the experience of salvation and holiness from generation to generation by means of a book of revelation, not a bishop in Rome, and not the ecstasies of Thomas Muenzer and the Zwickau prophets.”^[1]

         Pope Leo X was in need of money to build St. Peter’s Basilica and the major income of the church came through the sale of indulgences. In 1517 he put a Dominican monk named John Tetzel in charge of selling indulgences in Saxony. Tetzel was an unscrupulous salesman who was willing to say anything to increase sales. He even promised people complete forgiveness from all sin. He also said that if a person would purchase indulgences for a loved one, they would be released from Purgatory. His famous saying was, As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.

          Some of Luther’s parishioners bought indulgences from Tetzel. This enraged Luther and drove him to write his 95 Theses against the practice of selling indulgences and other factors he saw flawed in the Church of Rome. On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg.  Pope Leo X eventually received a copy of the 95 Theses, to which he was very unimpressed and directed the Augustinian order to handle the situation.

          On October 10, 1520, the Pope issued the Exsurge Domine, a papal bull that appealed to God to protect his church from Luther’s threat. “Arise, O Lord, and defend Thy cause! A wild boar has invaded Thy vineyard.”^[2] Luther was to be excommunicated from the Church of Rome if he did not recant within 60 days. According to the Holy Roman Church, salvation is only available through the church and to be excommunicated means eternal damnation. Luther, once a fearful monk, now stood and refused to recant his newfound faith. Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther on January 3, 1521.

            Luther was summoned to stand before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to recant his views at the Diet of Worms January 22, 1521. Eck, the spokesman for Charles V, said Luther had no right to teach contrary to the Church. He asked plainly if Luther would reject his books and the errors they contained. Luther replied: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe, Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”^[3]

While the assembly was holding private conferences to determine Luther’s fate, Luther left Worms destined for Wittenberg, but was kidnapped by Prince Frederick the Wise's masked horsemen who escorted him safely to the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach. Martin Luther had no idea that he was going to be kidnapped and taken away to the Wartburg Castle. In fact, Luther was sure that the Diet of Worms would bring him to his death. On May 25, 1521, The Emperor issued the Edict of Worms, declaring Martine Luther an outlaw and a heretic and banned all his literature. 

During this year of exile, Martin grew a beard and wore the clothes of a knight, calling himself, Knight George. He worked on translating the New Testament into German, which was eventually printed, September of 1522. Yet this time of exile was not easy. He describes his feelings in a letter he wrote begging his friends for intercessory prayer:

I sit here at ease, hardened and unfeeling—alas! praying little, grieving little for the Church of God, burning rather in the fierce fires of my untamed flesh. It comes to this: I should be afire in the spirit; in reality I am afire in the flesh, with lust, laziness, idleness, sleepiness. It is perhaps because you have all ceased praying for me that God has turned away from me ... For the last eight days I have written nothing, nor prayed nor studied, partly from self-indulgence, partly from another vexatious handicap [constipation and piles] ... I really cannot stand it any longer ... Pray for me, I beg you, for in my seclusion here I am submerged in sins.^[4]

Even, Luther struggled intensely with distraction, sin, and laziness! Luther was doing a mighty work for the Lord, and the enemy was standing close by to kill, steal and destroy. Luther struggled with the passions of his flesh that waged war against his soul. He saw the power and significance of the praying saints and so begged for his fellow bearers of the cross to intercede on his behalf. Luther literally shook the whole known world with the start of this reformation and the enemy was close at hand to discourage.

Martin Luther’s boldness and courage to stand up for the truth of the Word of God led to the Protestant Reformation. His works were published and well read throughout Germany. Soon other theologians and thinkers arose and started other Protestant sects. Martin Luther’s legacy is still felt across the western world today.

Luther’s last recorded words were, “Wir sein Bettler. Hoc est verum.” ^[5] We are beggars. This is true”6 God is free in his grace. We are beggars, or in other words, we are prayers. This is how one lives and this is how one studies, so that God receives all the glory and we receive all the grace. Luther’s approach to studying the Word of God was rooted and founded on prayer.

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^[1]     Philip Schaff, ed. Religious Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, (New York: The Christian Literature Co., 1888), p. 1596. For Luther's response see A. G. Dickens and Alun Davies, eds., Documents of Modern History: Martin Luther, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1970), pp. 75-79.

^[2] Ibid. 

^[3] Ibid, 142-144.

 ^[4] E. G. Rupp and Benjamin Drewery, editors, Martin Luther: Documents of Modern History, (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1970), pp. 72-73.

 ^[5]Heiko A. Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, p. 324.