Kori and I spent a few hours this week looking through old pictures. We marvelled at the faces that smiled back at us — baby versions of my nearly-adult sons and barely-adult versions of middle-aged us. 

As parents, we're moving into a stage where we're looking at our boys' childhood in retrospect. And we find ourselves asking, "How'd we do? Did we make the right investments? Did our sacrifices pay off? Did we fight the right battles?"

I took this picture more than a decade ago. It shows the very first Asia's Hope children from our first home in Battambang, Cambodia. Many of children are now young adults heading to university and to their first jobs! 

It's sobering at times, but it is also exciting. My boys somehow survived middle school, and they're becoming intelligent, articulate adults that I can actually imagine moving out of my house at some point in the future. They're thinking about college and starting to conceive of an independent future that might someday include marriages and careers. And I can see it. Sure, I'm not ready to push them out the nest tomorrow, but their futures are bright. 

At Asia's Hope, we're experiencing this kind of transition, but on a much larger scale. Many of our high-school aged kids are excelling in their studies, taking top marks in their schools. Others, like our world-class cricketers in Thailand, are representing their country in international competition! Others have had the chance to travel abroad perform music together.

We now have more than 50 kids in university and dozens of others pursuing technical or vocational training. We have students studying to be teachers, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, barbers, pastors, interior designers, engineers and bankers. Some of our graduates have gone on to start their own businesses, others have gotten married and started families. Some have returned to work as Asia's Hope staff!

Asia's Hope has also added more than 50 new orphaned kids; we've rescued them from neglect and exploitation, and we've given them new, permanent, loving families. I can't wait to watch them heal, grow and succeed.

Thanks to the generosity of Asia's Hope supporters, many of our older kids from AH India were able to go on an educational trip to Kolkata — it was their first time to a big city, first time on a train, first time in a hotel and first time to see the ocean!

The boys' team on which our Asia's Hope cricketers play won 3rd place in the national youth competition. The girls' team one first place and will represent Thailand internationally!

Asia's Hope Cambodia director Savorn Ou presided over the wedding of Srey Pich, a student who graduated from our Prek Eng 1 home.

A choir from Asia's Hope Thailand toured Korea. What an amazing experience for them!

Scholars from Asia's Hope Thailand placed highly in their classes!

More than 1500 people joined Asia's Hope Cambodia on our Battambang campus to celebrate Christmas.

Students like Seyha, from our Prek Eng 3 home, have entered vocational training programs and apprentices, learning valuable skills that will help them be self-sufficient as adults.

And while we can never ensure success for any of our children — our own or Asia's Hope's — we have high expectations for each of the nearly 800 kids at Asia's Hope based on the successes of our older kids. And we can answer those weighty questions with confidence. "Yes. We're doing it right. We're making the right investments, we're fighting the right battles. Our sacrifices are paying off."

2015 promises to be another amazing year. Dozens more of our kids will be graduating from high school and moving on to university, to vocational training and to first jobs. And we'll be adding more homes, more staff and more kids. We'll be starting some exciting new capital campaigns, and completing construction on a number of projects currently in the works.

Will you continue to pray for us? And will you consider making a year-end gift or scheduling a meeting with me in the next few weeks to discuss how you can help us accomplish the mission God has given us in 2015?

As always, you can give directly at http://www.asiashope.org/support. You can also call me at 614.804.6233 or email me john@asiashope.org.

I believe that God is building something of eternal signficance, and I know that you'll be blessed as you continue to partner with us financially and with your prayers and advocacy.

May God give you his peace as look forward to a wonderful 2015.

John

Spending quality time with some of the beautiful kids at our homes in Battambang, Cambodia this summer

This January, Asia's Hope will be sponsoring our first ever Himalayan Leaders Conference. My wife Kori and I will be co-hosting this conference with our India director, Pastor Nandu Gurung, and his wife Anu. And we couldn't be more excited! 

We're inviting hundreds of pastors from Northeast India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh to join us in our hometown of Kalimpong, West Bengal. We'll be subsidizing transportation, lodging and food costs for pastors who would be otherwise unable to attend.

Whereas most everyone can understand the general benefits of such a conference, one might ask, "why is Asia's Hope hosting this?" 

In other words, what does a pastor's conference have to do with orphan care?

As a nearly 100% indigenous organization (outside the U.S., we have a total of zero Western employees), we have deep roots in the Christian communities our ministry serves. The majority of the children in our care were referred to us through a vast, yet under-resourced and often persecuted network of indigenous churches.

This conference gives us a chance to deepen our relationship with those local church partners, and to invite Western pastors to come see what God is doing in his Church in the Himalayas.

Although most of the teaching at the conference will be done by Nepali-Indian pastors, there will be opportunities for visiting pastors to teach, both at the conference and in other settings (e.g. local churches, village outreaches).

We hope that this conference will provide the following:

Encouragement for the indigenous leaders -- Many of the pastors attending this conference operate in relative isolation on a day-to-day basis, serving in communities that are nearly 100% unreached. By inviting a delegation of pastors from the U.S., we honor these leaders and signal both to them and to the community at large our solidarity with the indigenous Church.

Expansion of vision for visiting pastors -- Our ministry in India occupies a unique ethno-geographic and strategic intersection. Although Asia's Hope India's primary agenda is to rescue and raise orphaned kids at high risk of exploitation, we are also deeply enmeshed in a network of local churches committed to evangelism, church planting and leadership development. 

We've invited a group of Western pastors who are directly involved with Asia's Hope (their church sponsors one of our homes), indirectly involved (their church has a high concentration of Asia's Hope supporters) and not-yet-involved. We hope that these pastors' interactions with each other and with Asia's Hope's staff and kids will provide clarity for congregations that already or may someday partner with our ministry.

I believe that as Western pastors return to their congregations energized and inspired, this conference will provide a springboard for future partnerships and a deepened sense of commitment for existing ones.

How you can help

• Pray — Join us in praying that God will use this conference to encourage and equip the Himalayan Church, and expand the vision of pastors visiting from the West.
• Give — This conference will cost about $7,500. Please help us underwrite these costs with a generous, one-time gift!
• Go — If you are a Christian pastor or church looking to expand your church's partnership with Asia's Hope, maybe you should consider attending this conference. Email addison@asiashope.org or call us 614.285.5813 today, as spots are filling up quickly.

Trip itinerary:

• January 19 -- Depart USA
• January 21-- Arrive in Siliguri
• January 22 -- Travel to Kalimpong, rest
• January 23, 24, 25 -- Conference, Worship on Sunday
• January 26, 27 -- Time with Asia's Hope staff and kids in Kalimpong
• January 28 -- Village outreach, church visit
• January 29 -- Time with Asia's Hope staff and kids in Kalimpong
• January 30 -- Travel to Siliguri
• January 31 -- Depart from Siliguri

At Asia's Hope, we've long asserted that orphaned children do best in families, not institutions. Our newest video echoes other materials we've developed in asserting that our Asia's Hope homes are real families with real moms and dads and real siblings.

That terminology is not entirely uncontroversial. In fact, for the purposes of some academic and social science research into orphan care, an "institution" is any residential program with non-biological family members and paid staff.

But in common parlance, the terms "institution" and "orphanage" have become so loaded, that they complicate any real attempts to evaluate whether or not a particular setting is likely to produce good outcomes for children in difficult situations.

The Dickensian squalor evoked by the term "orphanage" does indeed exist in many of the world's low-nurture orphan care settings. Children do in many cases languish, unloved in institutions run by barely-trained, badly-paid shift workers. 

Unfortunately, that image often gets projected onto all residential orphan care models, including excellent ones like ours. As a result, we've seen an upsurge over the last few years of activist groups with a misguided agenda to eliminate, rather than innovate residential orphan care worldwide. 

But the best and most relevant research demonstrates that orphaned children can do well in residential care settings. And at Asia's Hope, we believe that our mode of care is signficantly different — and vastly better — than older, more institutional models.

So while some ideologically hardened critics of residential orphan care seem unable to accept that such a thing as "non-institutional, family-style residential care" can exist — to them, all "orphanages" are the same — we're proving them wrong. Every day.

So what's the difference between an institution and a family?

In low-nurture, institutional orphanages, the staff do not view themselves as parents -- they lack the resources, the training and the support to adequately respond to a child's psychological and emotional distres. They are often overworked, tasked with looking after far too many children in a setting that feels more like a hospital or a half-way house than a home. In many cases, caregivers work in shifts and go back to other homes when they aren't "on the job." There is little planning for a child's transition to adulthood; when a kid reaches a certain age, they're simply shown the door. As a result, the children in institutional care remain orphans. They may receive basic nutrition, shelter and medical care, but they never get what an orphaned child needs most: the love of a family.

At Asia's Hope, each home is based on a family model, run by a husband and wife who serve as parents, not simply caregivers. Their biological children live with them at the home, and are raised alongside their new siblings, the orphaned children rescued by Asia's Hope. The home parents are supported by other live-in caregivers and a wide variety of tutors, coaches, nurses and by the wider Asia's Hope community. We offer each child the opportunity to attend university or receive vocational training to help them transition to independent adulthood. And most importantly, we give each of our kids the most important gift imaginable when we remove from them the stigma and the weight of being an orphan by placing them in a loving, permanent family.

We believe Asia's Hope has been called to help change the way the world thinks about, talks about and implements residential orphan care. But we can't do it without you. We need more churches, more businesses, more families and more individuals to join our efforts to improve and expand family-style orphan care around the globe.

Watch the video. Share it with your friends. Contact me today: john@asiashope.org

Everyone loves family movies! 

Thanks to the hard work of our friends Danny Jackson, Jared Heveron and Gabe DeGarmeaux from Scarlet City Church in Columbus, Ohio and L.A.-based Seth Earnest, we're thrilled to release the first of four videos produced from footage we filmed this summer in Cambodia and India.

This first video, "This is my family," highlights Asia's Hope's key distinctive: we provide real families — not institutions — for orphaned children at high risk of sexual and economic exploitation in Cambodia, Thailand and India. 

The next three videos will go more in depth into our model and our strategies to rescue, raise and educate the next generation of Christian leaders in Asia.

We hope these videos will inspire and inform and draw more attention to the wonderful work being done by our staff, and we pray that they will bring new supporters on board to help us provide more families for more orphaned kids.

Please share with your friends, families, churches, neighbors and colleagues! And for more information, contact me directly: john@asiashope.org.

Saying goodbye to the kids and staff at the Doi Saket 1 (Thailand) homes.

I had intended to write a tidy, end-of-trip post from Thailand before heading back to the USA. Near the end of my trip, I got extraordinarily busy, and by the time I actually had the time to write, I was already sliding into the Sarlacc that is international travel with kids.

Having survived the voyage from Chiang Mai to Hanoi to Tokyo to Dallas (the Great Pit of Carkoon) to Columbus without losing my luggage, my lunch or any of my children, I weathered the usual jet lag and culture shock with pluck and aplomb.

I returned to find our new offices (more about this in a later post) almost ready for occupancy thanks to the hard work of Addison, Carol and a host of volunteers. So before I find myself inundated with meetings -- which begin in 3...2...1... -- I thought I'd write a quick update.

My trip this summer was amazing. Long, oft-arduous, but really spectacular. For the first time I think I felt the scope of what it is God is doing through Asia's Hope. It's more than just the 800 or so kids and 150-some staff for whom we provide full-time, comprehensive support. It's not only the two schools, 29 homes and countless programs we run. I really believe that God is using Asia's Hope to demonstrate to the Church and to the world at large what true excellence in orphan care can look like. 

Our organization isn't perfect; it's a huge challenge to maintain such a high level of care consistenly across so many homes. But we are constantly striving to fulfill our promise of real families for orphaned children. And when it works, it's nearly unbelievable. As one of our visiting supporters told me, "We've been all over the world. We've seen lots of "orphanages." But this is amazing. I never imagined it could be this good."

So while I've returned with a lengthy list of needs and a lot of issues to address over time, I remain so pleased about what God has given us. And I'm excited about increasing our visibility within the aid and development community -- we have a story to tell and a model that others can emulate, adapt and maybe even improve.

The next few months will be packed. We're forging new funding relationships, connecting with new networks of thinkers and doers, strategizing new campaigns and launching new support models that we think will vastly expand our ability to serve not only our existing kids but future generations as well.

I'm thankful for a new space that will allow us to host a wide variety of events, and I can't wait to see who God will bring through our doors. I'm also looking forward to writing more articles about orphan care and international ministry.

Right now I'm slightly daunted but exhilarated. This promises to be a very good, very interesting time for Asia's Hope. Please contact me if you'd like to stop by and hear more, or if you'd like to set up a Skype or phone call.

We arrived at the Asia's Hope church in Doi Saket, Thailand a few minutes late this Sunday. The service had already started. As we entered the back of the building, I heard the children and staff from our 7 local children's homes -- along with neighbors, friends and other organizations' kids -- singing in Thai one of my favorite worship songs...

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

This song has been both a comfort and challenge over the last few years. The lyrics of the bridge, taken from the book of Job, have followed me through the hardest of times: a dear friend's divorce, the loss of another friend to cancer, the dissolution of a once-firm friendship, financial difficulties, chaos at work...

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be Your name

I've asked myself more than a few times, "Does God really take away? Does he kill spouses? Does he doom businesses and friendships?" Jesus says that Satan the thief steals but he has come to give abundant life. Even Job admits that he has "spoken of things [he] didn't understand" (Job 42:3). 

I'm not sure. 

I find it deeply unsettling to think of God -- the father lights and giver of every good gift -- as a taker. Nevertheless, I was moved to the brink of tears to hear these words sung with so much gusto by children who have endured great suffering, profound darkness and life-shattering loss...

Every blessing You pour out 
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say "blessed be the name of the Lord"

All of the kids at Asia's Hope know what it's like to have "the darkness close in." Many of them have seen their parents die in accidents, of sickness, at the hands of criminals, from alcohol and drug abuse. They have been abused, exploited, abandoned, neglected. They've been homeless and hopeless. and have faced hardships and responsibilities the weight of which I can hardly imagine...

And blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Our staff also know the searing pain of injustice, death and deprivation: some are widows, others were themselves orphans, refugees, child soldiers, despised minorities...

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful 
Where your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

It's a privilege to call the staff and kids at Asia's Hope "family." Their dignity, humility, love, talent and perseverence is an inspiration. I pray that as I mature I'll become more like them, and that I will have the faith to face suffering and death with even a fraction of the grace they exhibit on a daily basis.

Our time in Thailand has been a blast. But it's been super busy. I'm here with my family (minus Kori who had to return to the U.S. for work), and with Carol Richardson, her daughter Emily, son Aaron, Emily's fiancee Zeb and their friend Joel. It's been great to see not only Tutu, the kids and staff, but also Tutu's sons Daniel and David.

I'll post more stories soon, but I'm sure you'll enjoy these pictures just as much or more!

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This is the first time I've handed my blog over to a guest. But I've been traveling with Gabe this summer, and I want you to hear his heart and his view of the work Asia's Hope is doing. Gabe is a pastor at Columbus, Ohio's Scarlet City Church. Enjoy.

---

The shortest two parables Jesus’ told are recorded in Matthew 13:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:45-46)

Two parables in three verses. But don’t let the size of the parables fool you. Jesus was a master of packing depth of insight into words. 

Until recently I had always heard these parables explained as though people are the ones searching for something, a relationship with God is the treasure, and when we find God he is worth giving everything up for to receive. That has some appeal. Truth be told, God is worth giving everything up for. But there the problem lies. Which of us has given up everything to get God?

Now consider a different way to interpret the parables. God is in search of a great treasure, and when he comes across you he is elated, and in his joy he gives up everything he has in order to bring you into his rightful possession. 

God’s grand story of redemption is like a magnificent treasure hunt. When he finds his image bearers, people, buried in the midst of this ash heap of a broken world fractured by sin, he goes and gives away everything, even to the extent of giving his life, to bring us back to him.

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:31-32)

Upon arriving in Siliguri, India we had lunch with some Asia’s Hope staff and local pastors. We learned the story of two children who were rescued the day before. One child who was abandoned and found eating with pigs in a pig pen. The other was a girl whose father was selling her for 50,000 Rupees (I was told this is considered a reasonable price in human trafficking. It translates to about $850 U.S. dollars), when one pastor connected to Asia’s Hope saw the transaction and intervened. 

A day later three new children, abandoned and scared, were brought into the Asia’s Hope India family (the leaders found another girl who recently became a double orphan — both of her parents have died). 

Whereas the world may not see much value in the life of an orphan child, the Asia’s Hope family values these children the way Jesus does — the very one who deemed them worth dying for. They are willing to sacrifice creature comforts, conveniences, space in their homes, resources, time, and energy to rescue and offer hope because when they look at people, even the ones the world says amount to little or nothing, and they see a treasure worth giving everything up for. What a sweet picture of the gospel.

Photos in this post taken by Danny Jackson

Prayer: Lord, we confess that it’s easy to overlook people. It’s easy for us to forget the ways that you gave beyond reason and beyond measure to rescue us into your family by the cross of your Son. Help us to see people as you see them. Help us to treasure people the way you treasure us. Help us to love sacrificially the way you love. Amen.