SOPHIA’S HOME - Growing in Love

Rev Sabashtain Lepcha, Pastor-in-Charge Wesley Bardan Methodist Church and District Superintendent for Central Region. He oversees the ministry and work of Sophia’s Home together with his wife Grace.

Sophia’s Home (SH) celebrated her 20th Anniversary in March 2021. It all began with the heart-warming vision of two compassionate women, Grace and Shanti, the wives of Rev Sabashtain Lepcha and Rev Erick Tan. They were moved to provide for the vulnerable and disadvantaged girls that they met in the villages during their ministry in the community. From humble beginnings, they brought in five young girls, caring and providing for their physical and educational needs in the comfort of their own homes.

Today, SH is one of the important pillars for the Methodist Church in Nepal (MCN). Culturally, girls in Nepal are marginalised when compared with boys in the family. They are not accorded the same privilege in education and other opportunities, especially in families experiencing financial difficulties. To compound the problem, family life amongst the poor and needy is dismal with a very high rate of broken parental relationships and sometimes family abuse.

Amid these challenges, SH was officially established in 2001 with the objective to provide these girls with a safe and enabling environment for their holistic development. More importantly, it is a place to share God’s love and to nurture them in the knowledge of the gospel. Currently, there are 17 girls residing in the Home. They are being cared for and provided with the much-needed love to enable them grow to become responsible daughters and women in the community and the Church. SH takes in girls between the ages of four and six, and they stay in the Home until they are 18 years old or have completed their Class 12 education.

...grow to become responsible daughters and women in the community and the Church.

By God’s grace and faithfulness, SH receives financial support and other resources from our Methodist community in Singapore. Over the last 20 years, 25 girls have graduated from the Home and are now with their families or have their own families. They are also serving in their respective churches. We have been blessed as some of our girls are pursuing their tertiary and professional courses to better equip them to serve and contribute to the community and the Church. We now have three trained nurses and a dentistry student who will graduate in 2023. Others are pursuing various disciplines in the universities. These are possible because of the generous support from our sponsors in Singapore. MCN now has a greater resource of female leaders to serve in our ministries as part of our capacity building.

SH is strictly governed by Nepali rules and legislation, and it is becoming a yearly challenge for the renewal of the license to operate the Home. Our leaders have learned to place their trust in God’s faithfulness and provision. And we continue to solicit your prayers and financial support for our girls, our staff and our leaders. Much has been achieved but much more needs to be done as more of our girls seek to pursue tertiary studies when they leave the Home.

We believe that with God, all things are possible. And in Him, His work will be done. To God be the Glory!

TESTIMONY:

by Joy Tamang, a recent SH graduate

I was brought to Sophia’s Home (SH) when I was two years old. I am very fortunate to have stayed in SH for 16 years. At that point of time, I was physically very small and suffered from a lack of proper nutrition. The care, love, and support over the years in SH gave me hope and a new life. I have learnt to live in a social environment with the other girls and shared many happy times with them during play time and study. More importantly, I learnt about God’s love for each and every one of us, regardless of the background that we come from. I am so happy to attend church and to learn more about Jesus Christ. As a youth, I am glad that I am able to serve in the church worship team and the children’s ministry. I am blessed to bless the other children.

I have completed my Class 12 studies and have done well. And I am so blessed that I have someone from Singapore who cares and loves me so much and is now sponsoring my studies in Hotel Management. Someone, whom I have never met, sponsored my stay whilst I was in SH and is now sponsoring my studies. God is so good, all the time. I have much to be thankful to God and will continue to serve Him wherever He sends me.