Welcome
Welcome to the My Father’s House
leader’s guide.
My Father’s House tells a story that will capture your
church’s heart. Set in Nepal, it focuses on Ramu, a
man who was paralysed in a terrible truck accident,
and it is told by his ten-year-old daughter, Diya.
Restoring broken lives
in Nepal
Ramu, like countless others in Nepal, was told that
his life was over when he shattered his spine. But,
thanks to the incredible work of BMS World Mission
occupational therapist Megan Barker and her team,
Ramu has a life to live.
My Father’s House contains a short all-age video
in which Diya shares her dad’s story, as well as a
beautiful reflection video, an all-age quiz, sermon
inspiration, fundraising ideas and promotional
material. This leader’s guide is here to help you make
the most of the resources you choose to use.
1
On this disc
All-age video
Let us transport you to a family house in rural Surkhet, Nepal, and tell
you the story of Ramu, through the eyes of his daughter Diya. From the
tragedy of a broken spine to the hope of a new life, their remarkable
journey deserves to be shared.
Great for all ages and perfect for a church service at just seven minutes
in length.
All-age quiz
Megan Barker, BMS mission worker
and occupational therapist.
This multiple choice PowerPoint quiz on Nepal and the Surkhet clinic
where Megan works is an ideal way to get your congregation or small
group engaged with the My Father’s House resource. There are two slides
for each question – the second shows the right answer with an illustration.
Reflection video
In the two-minute reflection video you will find beautiful
snapshots into the lives of Megan’s patients, set to a poem
written specially for us by Lucy Berry, former Radio 2 poet and
Catalyst Live speaker.
Ramu’s story is not uncommon, and the other faces you see on
this video demonstrate that. We would recommend watching
it with your church as you take up an offering for My Father’s
House, and then spending some time in prayer.
The text of the poem in the reflection video is featured on page 6 and is available on the DVD.
Promo video
Show the My Father’s House promo video to promote your main event.
A7 advert
Add your own text to this A7 advert to promote your event in your
church newsletter.
Welsh resources
Nhad
The all-age video and all-age PowerPoint
quiz are also available in Welsh.
Adfer bywydau toredig
yn Nepal
Printable resources
• An A4 editable poster to advertise your event
(An A3 printed poster is also available to order from BMS)
• An A4 Journey to recovery challenge chart
Adfer bywydau toredig
yn Nepal
(An A3 printed chart is also available to order)
• Children’s certificate, suitable for individual children or children’s groups
• Remittance slip to send with your gift to BMS World Mission
Nhad
2
How to use
this resource
in your service
Greet your
congregation in
Nepali
“Jaimasi!”
That’s how Christians in Nepal greet
each other. While most Nepalis say
“Namaste”, which is a Hindu greeting
meaning “I bow to the divine in
you”, Christians use “Jaimasi”, which
means “victory to the Messiah”, a way of sharing their
distinctiveness in their communities.
This is how you write it in Nepali:
You pronounce it: jay-ma-see, so it’s easy to teach to
your congregation at the beginning of your service or
talk. This picture of a nurse at the clinic shows how to
hold your hands while saying it.
Sermon inspiration
Mark 2: 1-12 and Luke 5: 17-26
In telling the story of the paralysed man who Jesus commands to pick up his mat and walk, you may want
to focus on the friends who lowered the man through the roof to get to Jesus. What determination, what
courage, what cheek they had, to dig through someone’s roof, interrupt Jesus and present their friend for
healing! Do we share their determination and their drive to see people healed?
You might ask your congregation to reflect on Luke 10: 25-37, the passage on the Good Samaritan.
If anyone in need is our neighbour, shouldn’t we have concern for those in need, whether they are on the
other side of the road or the other side of the world?
You could also ask people to consider the well-known passage about sheep and goats, Matthew 25: 31-46.
If the poor and those in need are “the least of these” and Jesus places such importance on our showing
compassion for them, then we must have a responsibility as Christians to serve and love those suffering in
countries like Nepal. We cannot help everyone in need, but we are called to share God’s message and love
among all nations.
Resources for your service
• All-age quiz
• All-age video (7 minutes)
• Reflection video, set to a poem by Lucy Berry (2 minutes)
•
Gift envelopes
3
Supporting the appeal
Printed resources
You can order a number of printed resources to help you with your
promotion of and fundraising for My Father’s House:
•
A3 poster to advertise your event
•
Gift envelopes
•A3 Journey to recovery challenge chart
•
Labels to stick on collection jars and tubs
To order these resources and get more information on
My Father’s House, call 01235 517617 or visit
bmsworldmission.org/myfathershouse
Gift envelopes
Amazing stories like Ramu’s would be impossible without the support of churches like yours. Taking a
special offering for BMS work is a great way for you to support ministries like this around the world.
My Father’s House gift envelopes are ideal to use and are available to order.
Any gift, big or small, can make a real difference to people in need all over the world. To help your
congregation picture the difference their gifts could make, share with them how lives could be changed
in Nepal:
£300 could pay for a week’s care in the clinic
£175 could buy a wheelchair
£40 could pay for one week’s training for a
new occupational therapist
£20 could help pay for medicines and tests
Send your gifts with the My Father’s House remittance slip to:
BMS World Mission, PO Box 49, 129 Broadway, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 8XA
Individual donations may also be made online at bmsworldmission.org/myfathershouse and by phoning
the donation hotline 01235 517641.
4
Collection jar labels
This year you can order My Father’s House labels from BMS that can
be stuck on empty jars or plastic tubs. Encourage your congregation
to collect small change at home using these collection jars or tubs.
You can use the collection jars for the Journey to recovery challenge
(see below).
Journey to recovery challenge
It takes just four weeks to raise money for people like Ramu and
others BMS is helping using the Journey to recovery challenge
chart. Week by week, you move through a four stage recovery
journey that is typical for patients like Ramu, and keep track of
how much money your congregation or small group is raising. No
amount is too small! Here’s how it works:
1
2
Plan a period of four weeks to raise money for
My Father’s House. This could be following
your main event or in the run-up to it.
Order your A3 Journey to recovery challenge
chart and collection jar labels by calling
01235 517617 or online at
bmsworldmission.org/myfathershouse
An A4 chart is also available on the DVD
or website.
You could have one chart for your church or have a number for
different groups (Sunday school, women’s fellowship etc). You could even
have a chart for each of the children taking part, to keep at home and mark
up their fundraising progress.
3
Share the story of Ramu by showing the My Father’s House video and
fundraise for the next four weeks. Alternatively, show the promo video four
weeks before your main event.
4
Hand out collection jars with My Father’s House labels on them. Encourage
your congregation to collect money for the next four weeks and bring in
their gifts each week.
5
The following week start to collect donations and write the amount raised
on the chart. You may like to mark your progress to each stage by colouring
in or putting stickers on the path.
6
7
Keep on raising money and marking your total on the chart for the next
three weeks.
In the final week, let people know how much they have raised in total to
help restore broken lives in Nepal and around the world!
Other fundraising ideas
For more fundraising ideas go to bmsworldmission.org/fundraise
5
Reflection poem by Lucy Berry
Lucy Berry has written a special poem (featured
in the reflection video) for My Father’s House.
Backbone
There are smashed places in some lives.
One instant, we could walk
wide distances in long strides;
the next we were broken and leaning.
Once we joked, laughed, could talk,
argue, stand up, be counted;
next, we cannot be counted on,
and no longer counting, nothing has meaning:
What once was going straight went crooked,
what once was going well went wicked.
It is terribly like a death:
this burden of being carried.
and we cannot stand
or understand this sudden evil:
being the broken back of a family
in the time it took to take a breath.
What could be more like dying?
Constrained from all trying,
what is more narrow than this space,
this closing-in of the endless place:
a bed you have not made,
but must now lie in.
We disbelieve our miracles at best,
and pray for them, (for us),
only when we are more than sore
yearning for intervention…
So, when the miracle arrives, clothed in white coats
(with the struggle and nagging,
the tussle and the coaxing of human angels,
shaping us again, nudging us back to life’s direction).
Each small and striving step alone
is spring after hopeless winter.
Life’s mended skeleton, beyond the splinter,
is like a resurrection…
©Lucy Berry 2014
You can read more poems from Lucy at lucyberry.com
and see her perform them at bmscatalystlive.com
bmsworldmission.org/myfathershouse
Baptist Missionary Society: registered as a charity in England & Wales (number 233782) and in Scotland (number SC037767)
6