This week one of the ministry opportunities we had was to go back to an orphanage we had first visited when arriving here. We were able to meet with the kids every afternoon this week Monday through Wednesday and then again on Friday. It was so amazing to actually get to know them better. It was a wonderful experience and heartbreaking all at the same time….you just want to be able to take all of them home!
One of the things we found out is that the owner of the orphanage is basically in cahoots with the government here and anything that is donated to the orphans he keeps for himself or sells it to get the money. There is nothing the people here can do about it and so instead of donating material items or money, they volunteer time and or food. It’s really sad. These kids have so little!
After being there for a day or so and getting to know Carla, the lady that worked there during the day, a little….you see that to the kids, it doesn’t matter. It’s all they know and they are happy….so full of energy and excited! And Carla, she really seems to love them. But I can’t begin to imagine how overwhelming it would be to care for nearly 15 children on your own. On top of that, about 4 of those children are special needs kids!
One child that touched all our hearts a great deal was Julio. Julio is 10 years old and from what we could find out is autistic, he cannot talk and is mostly deaf. We met Julio one of our first days there….and I don’t think would have ever gotten to meet him unless a few us hadn’t walked around the orphanage ourselves (we usually stayed outside with the kids). We found him sitting in his wheelchair in the very back of the orphanage…..by himself….his wheelchair was chained to the wall…his pants were wet from him peeing on himself and his wrists were tied to the wheelchair….not the most pleasant site to walk in on. We asked Carla if we could take him outside with the other kids….she looked surprised that we actually wanted to and seemed hesitant at first. But she ended up allowing us the freedom to take him outside. Throughout the week I wrestled with many different thoughts and emotions about the situation….the way he is being kept is SO wrong! Carla is with these kids alone all day and they obviously did not have the means like we do in America to take care of him….he needs someone to be with him all the time. It was a struggle to watch…..I wish we could have done more….but I can’t dwell on that….instead I’m going to remember that while we were there we got to love on him
J. We were allowed to take Julio out of his wheelchair and I just can’t tell you how wonderful that was to watch. Ladies and gentleman, I’d like for you to meet Julio
J ……
Gretch used to work with special needs kids and really bonded with Julio….it was so wonderful to watch! 🙂
Everyday there we started off our time with a Bible story in Spanish, thanks to our amazing and talented Kelly K
J – fantastic job at teaching girl!! We did crafts, played games, sang Bible songs with them in Spanish, and basically just loved on them! I wish you all could meet them….I don’t understand how people cannot fall in love with these kids! I hope you enjoy the pictures below
J
Kelly doin’ her thang 😉
Oh Ellie! (real name is Elise but it was really hard to pronounce so we nicknamed him 🙂 ) LOVE him!
I’m gonna miss these kids!
