Difficult Roads and Beautiful Destinations

*National Highway 10 between Darjeeling and Kalimpong*

The road from Darjeeling to Kalimpong is famously winding, with numerous turns and bends as it traverses the Himalayan foothills. The NH10, which connects the two towns, is approximately 31 miles and has over 100 hairpin bends and sharp curves.

This winding nature adds to the scenic beauty of the route, offering stunning views of the surrounding tea gardens, rivers, and mountains, but it also requires skilled driving and can be challenging during foggy or rainy conditions.

As we drove this road, headed back from a two-day leaders’ retreat in Darjeeling to Kalimpong, our home in the India, I noticed a sign about 90 turns in:

“DIFFICULT ROADS OFTEN LEAD TO BEAUTIFUL DESTINATIONS”

Ain’t that the truth.

Our organization’s fifteen year journey in India has been, thus far, one with as many steep turns, unexpected obstacles, treacherous cliffs — and breathtaking vistas – as the NH10.

And as our beleaguered Mahindra Bolero creaked its axles into Kalimpong, I found myself once again overwhelmed by the beauty of what God has created in this remote town in the rolling foothills of the majestic HImalayas.

We arrived late afternoon, and after checking into our hotel, we all decided to take the rest of the day to relax. But about 15 minutes after arriving, Pastor Amber sent me a message: “Reverend John, can you please have dinner at the Kalimpong 1 home tonight? The kids are eager to see you.”

I mean, that’s a no brainer. So we unpacked a little and then headed over to the Kalimpong 1 home and enjoyed not only a delicious dinner, but hours and hours of games and songs with the KP1 boys and the parents from all six of our Kalimpong homes.

*Me and Susma, one of our first Asia’s Hope India graduates*

This morning after breakfast we got to spend a little time with Susma, one of our very first Asia’s Hope India kids. When she graduated from high school, we provided her a full-ride college scholarship, and she earned a degree in Hospitality Management. She now works at the prestigious Himalayan Resort in Kalimpong. We’ve known and loved this young woman for most of her life, and we are so proud of her.

We then spent the rest of the day — including lunch and dinner — with the kids and staff of our Kalimpong 2 and Kalimpong 3 homes. And I can’t tell you just what a difference a year makes.

On my last visit, we were still coping with recent, painful changes in the staffing of our KP2 home, and at some level it felt like the kids at that home were doing okay, but still in a bit of crisis mode. But today, they’re thriving. Navin and Yogita, the new parents, have built a remarkable rapport with the kids over the last year, and the home is really full of joy. Some of the older girls speak excellent English, and I was able to talk freely with them about their feelings about the staff transition and the new leadership in the home. It’s truly going better than any of us could have hoped for.

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this update and the pictures I’ve included. I’m sure I’ll have more soon. Kori and I are heading out with some of the girls to the Gorkha Haat, a local farmers’ market. And we plan on eating and laughing our way through the whole day. And then it’s back to the homes for dinner, games and dancing.

Beautiful destinations indeed.

John McCollumJanuary 15, 2025Comment

From the Arabian Sea to the Himalayas: contrasts and contradictions

“India is a land of contradictions; whatever you can truthfully say about India, the opposite is also true.” — EM Forster

Kori and I woke up this morning in Mumbai, a roiling metropolis on the coast of the Arabian Sea with a population of nearly 30 million, and we’re going to bed in Darjeeling, a glittering hill station perched on a steep ridge in the foothills of the Himalayas.

What a contrast.

And while I love the energy of Mumbai, I have to admit that I find the city to be just a bit overwhelming – hot, dusty, crowded and loud. So I’m thrilled to be back in the cool weather and fresh air of India’s Northeast. And I’m so happy to be joined by Amber and Radha, our precious friends who lead the ministry of Asia’s Hope India.

On the way from Siliguri to Darjeeling, we stopped for tea with Amber and Radha at the Margaret’s Hope tasting room. Kori loves tea, so we’ll take any chance we can get to buy some leaves to take home and an enjoy a proper cup along the way.

Tomorrow we’re having an all-staff luncheon at the historic Glenary’s restaurant, and then we’ll celebrate Kori’s birthday with a visit to a nearby tea garden. We’ll spend a couple of days with Amber and Radha in Darjeeling and then head a bit further down the mountain to Kalimpong, where we’ll spend the next few days with the kids and staff of our six Indian children’s homes.

Internet access in the hills is notoriously fickle, but I”ll be posting as often as I can over the next few weeks as we connect with our Asia’s Hope family in India and then as we continue on to Cambodia.

Mumbai is more than a little chaotic, so I shot most of these photos in the early morning before the streets got too crowded.

Darjeeling, Queen of the Hills.

John McCollumJanuary 12, 2025Comment

The good life

Okay. So we’ve been in Thailand for almost two weeks and I haven’t written a single big post.

Sorry-not-sorry, we’ve been living the good life. Most mornings, we’ve gotten up and had breakfast by 8, and aside from a short mid-afternoon catnap, we’ve been hanging out with staff and kids — fishing, dancing, playing volleyball or pétanque, making meals, eating, visiting markets or playing music — until we crash into bed around 10.

And that’s pretty much what I “do” on these trips. Sure, I’m taking lots of photos and video, and I have some important business meetings. But the real purpose of my time here is to connect with the kids we serve, the staff with whom we work, and the communities our projects bless.

And it’s as tiring as it is rewarding. But it’s these connections that make us effective. By investing in these friendships — one meal at a time — we’re creating and reinforcing the mutual trust that allows us to run an organization that serves more than 800 kids without having to employ even one “foreigner” on the ground in Asia.

Cambodian staff run the whole show in Cambodia. From cook to country director, Thai hill tribe staff comprise our staff in Thailand. And in India’s Himalayas, all of our workers are from the local area, and speak the local language.

All of this adds up to better care for our kids. The people they look up to on a daily basis understand their culture because it’s theirs too.

So as we wrap up our time here in Thailand and prepare to return home, we do so with full hearts and bellies, confident that we’re leaving our projects in good hands, because those hands belong to our dear friends.

John McCollumFebruary 28, 2024Comment

Wrapping up our time in India

Our time in Kalimpong is over, and we’ve moved on to Seoul, for an extended layover. We’re taking the opportunity to hang out with our 25-year old son, Pak, who is working here as an English teacher.

As I look back at our time in India I’m struck with a sense of gratitude for all God has done through and for the staff and kids of Asia’s Hope in Kalimpong. They’ve been through so much over the past few months, but they’re holding together well. In fact, I haven’t felt so much warmth and camaraderie – especially among the older girls – for quite some time. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I know we’re on the right track.

We hosted all the girls from our Kalimpong 2 and 3 homes at the house we were renting, and spent the whole day dancing, laughing and making momos – Nepali/Tibeten dumplings. These girls are smart, talented and funny. And they quite obviously love each other.

On another day, we spent probably six hours with the boys from the Kalimpong 1 and 4 homes playing carrom, an Indian game similar to billiards played with checker-sized discs on a wooden board. I’ve gotten pretty good at the games over the years, and at one point, my young partner and I went on a six game winning streak! I think I earned some credibility, especially with some of the new kids I hadn’t met before.

We also had a number of really productive, open and heartfelt meetings with our staff, all of whom have faced incredible pressures over the past few months. We prayed fervently for the health of our work here in India, and emerged feeling united and energized for the year ahead.

And we ate. Lots and lots. I’m sure I had more than 200 momos during my time in Kalimpong, and I certainly drank at least a couple gallons of masala chai. And despite on 24-hour period where both Kori and I were stuck in bed due to food poisoning that we got on our last day in Mumbai, our trip was an unalloyed success. Lots of work remains to be done, but I sure feel a lot better about where we are than where I thought we’d be a few months ago.

I hope to return soon. I can’t imagine being able to stay away for a year. So it’s possible you’ll be seeing more pictures and hearing more stories from a trip to Kalimpong, sooner rather than later.

John McCollumFebruary 10, 2024 Comment

"To Be Continued..."

Well, I said it was going to be a whirlwind.

Two weeks after arriving in Cambodia it’s just about time to leave. Last night, while thinking about writing this post, I asked Kori, “How on earth can I wrap up a trip like this?” She said, “To Be Continued…” That sounds about right ot me.

We’ve crammed a lot into our days here: we visited three cities, played games at 19 of our children’s homes, attended two churches, officiated two school commencements, been in one minor traffic accident, received hundreds of hugs – and consumed countless calories.

We really have been making up for lost time. Thanks to Covid and complicated school schedules, it’s been almost five years since Kori and I traveled to Asia together, and almost a decade since we have come here without any of our kids. And while we miss being here as a family, we’re ready to embark on this new stage of our life as (mostly) empty nesters.

John Reed, our travel companion for the first leg of our journey, returns home tomorrow as we head off to our next destination. We’re going to miss him – he’s been an absolute joy: curious, kind, and eager to take whatever we’ve thrown at him. I love coming here with first-timers, especially ones like John.

As a security precaution, I’ll probably post a little less frequently over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll be sure to catch everyone up when we move on again. In the meantime, enjoy these photos from the last couple weeks of our trip.

Our friend, John, tries balut — fertilized duck egg — on the streets of Phnom Penh.

John McCollumJanuary 23, 2024Comment

What you'll remember most...

If you travel with me to Cambodia — especially if you’re a first time visitor — you’re going to experience the very best and the very worst that this world has to offer.

In a single day, we might visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum — a former primary school that the murderous Khmer Rouge regime transformed into a horrifying torture and interrogation site — and then we’ll enjoy dinner and a dance party with some of the world’s most adorable kids and their parents at Asia’s Hope.

We’ll drive past slums where street kids sniff glue to kill their hunger while Chinese billionaires and local oligarchs sweep by in their $750,000 Bentleys.

But what you’ll remember most from a visit to Asia’s Hope in Cambodia is the love. These kids, they love each other. And their parents know them, protect them and give their hearts to them every day. And that’s what will change you — if you let it.

Here are some pictures from our last few days.

John McCollumJanuary 19, 2024Comment

Behold what manner...

*I’ll remember this meal — especially its preparation — for a long, long, time. Honestly one of the best meals of my life…*

Despite our short time in Phnom Penh, we’ve been loading on with memorable experiences with the staff and kids at Asia’s Hope in Prek Eng.

At church, I preached on 1 John 3:1 — “See what kind of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” Or, as the King James Version I remember from my childhood rendered it, “Behold what manner of love the father has given unto us…”

Taking inspiration from my friend and pastor Jared Boyd, I asked the congregation, “Try to picture in your mind: identify with specificity the last time you truly experienced God’s love, when you knew not just intellectually, but knew with all your body and soul as well that you are truly safe and fully loved by God.”

To paraphrase something Jared had said recently, “Our deepest wounds will never be healed until we fully experience the love of God.” It’s not his omnipotence that makes the orphan whole. It’s not his omniscience that binds the broken places in the heart of a child who has been sexually abused. It’s his tender, intimate love that brings new life the dry and broken places in our hearts and in our world.

I don’t know if my words were effective or even well understood. I hope that at the very least, I’ve watered a seed, a seed that was planted when each of these kids first came to Asia’s Hope.

After church, I had one of the best meals of my life.

The meal was a masterpiece of traditional Khmer home cooking. We made (I kind of helped, so I think I can get away with using the first person here) three classic Cambodian dishes — samlor kako (sour pork soup with mixed traditional vegetables), kreung machu ktis sach chrouk (Khmer curry with pork) and amok trei (river fish steamed in banana leaves with coconut milk).

Each bite was a unique joy — intoxicating flavors of lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal, prahok, coconut and chili swirling effortlessly, receding and asserting themselves in an ecstatic… okay. You get the picture. It was amazing.

Taken along with the enjoyment of preparing this food with my dear friends, I’ll remember this as one of the best meals ever.

Eventually I’ll edit down some of the iPhone video my friend John Reed took of me and the staff cooking this lunch. I hope it’ll convey the familial love that makes Asia’s Hope a uniquely wonderful place for orphaned and vulnerable kids to grow up. The home parents really do adore each other. They love spending time together. They provide each other the friendship and support they need to do the nearly impossible job of rebuilding the lives of kids who have been beaten up and thrown out by the world.

And they cook a mean fish amok.

John McCollumJanuary 14, 2024Comment

Jetlagged and whirlwinded

It’s 5:30 in the morning. And I really wish I was asleep. But jet lag doesn’t work that way. So I thought I’d take a couple minutes to write a quick journal entry.

Since hitting the ground in Phnom Penh less than 48 hours ago, Kori and I have been on the go almost nonstop. This trip is, we acknowledge, going to be a whirlwind. Even though we have seven weeks total, we don’t really a lot of time to spend at each home, each project.

On previous visits, we’d take a day or so to relax upon arrival, to get over jet lag before digging in to our time with Asia’s Hope staff and kids. But this year, we’re jumping right in, and as I lie in bed contemplating the day, it occurs to me that we might have overscheduled.

Yesterday we were joined by a friend from our home church – John Reed – and I really wanted to take him to see Angkor Wat. I mean, what first-time visit to Cambodia is complete without a day at the country’s most important cultural and historical site? So that’s going to take a day or so out of the middle of our time here as well. It’ll be worth it, but we’re not building in much margin for any mishaps, missed connections or minor illnesses.

Before we picked up John Reed from the airport – we got up early, grabbed a quick plate of pork and rice at the little streetside restaurant across the street from our hotel and headed out to our campus to participate in a commencement ceremony for our Prek Eng Elementary School. It was quite an impressive little shindig, attended by dignitaries from the Ministry of Education, and our keynote speakers, the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Cults and Religions.

I’m thankful for the way Savorn, our national director, has forged excellent working relationships with the government here, and I’m grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Cambodia for providing us the support and latitude we’ve needed to build a world-class orphan care ministry in this country.

After breakfast this morning and a quick tour of our neighborhood for my buddy John, we’ll be heading back out to Prek Eng for an evening with the kids. I’ll be sure to post photos from that time in the next few days.

John McCollumJanuary 12, 2024Comment

John McCollum is the Executive Director of Asia’s Hope.

He’s been to Asia almost 40 times in the last two decades. He likes to take lots of pictures. To get an “on the ground” sense of our people and places, his posts are a great place to start.

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