I know this sounds like heresy…I understand. After arriving at Kedesh orphanage we were greeted by a long haired, bearded man with no shoes whose name
was John (Think hippie stereotype). Kedesh consists of 27 boys who during the month of December were on summer break from school.
Summer break means the youngest boys had
to care for, water, and move the goats for 2 hours a day until they graduated
from goat duty by showing the discipline and initiative required to no longer have this responsibility. Each day every boy was responsible to water
their personal garden, participate in work projects around the orphanage, and
take care of their own hygiene which include daily showers (required fetching
water at the well) and wearing clean clothes to dinner. What amazed me about all of this is that John
had to do very little checking up on most of the boys which allowed them to flourish in this
freedom. Occasionally, he would have to
come down on a boy or a group of boys but this was done with such respect
because he didn’t get frustrated with the action but rather saw what they could
become by eliminating this action. Kedesh
is full of success stories because the boys are free to run and to grow. I know I learned something this month about
freedom and allowing young people space to thrive while also giving them consistency
and promoting discipline. Kedesh means
sanctuary in Hebrew… this place is truly a place of sanctuary of the young men
there… a place of hope… and a better title for this blog would be “it’s not that bad being an
orphan at Kedesh.”
James 1:27 – Religion, that is pure and
undefiled before god, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their
affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
