Since I have been in the Philippines I have had the opportunity to work with the independent living program here at Kids International Ministries. The program is designed for teenage orphans to learn how to live on their own. The kids are mostly between the ages of 12 and 16 and most orphanages will not take children at these ages because the likelihood of them getting adopted is slim to none. I have been doing some morning devotions with them but more so I have just been trying to hang out and get to know them. Last weekend I stayed with them as their dorm mom. I was hoping to see a different side of them than what I see when we meet to hang out. I definitely did, but not so much because they were acting differently. It was more that God began to allow me to see life through their eyes. As I watched them take turns preparing meals for each other, cleaning up after themselves, and clinging to one another to the point where they would choose to sleep in the same twin bed I was broken for them. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not have a mom and dad or brothers and sisters, to not know how long I would get to be with the people that I was staying with, or to pray to God every night that He would give me a family that would want to call me their own.
I have had a really special connection with one of the girls. Her name is Donna Lynn and she is 13. At one of the Bible studies I asked all of the kids if they had any prayer requests. Donna Lynn spoke up and asked if I would pray for her family. I immediately began praying that God would be with her family and comfort her in knowing that He was taking care of them even though she was not with them. After that, there were a few more requests and then we closed in prayer and dismissed them to go to school. As everyone was walking out the door, Donna Lynn tapped me on the shoulder and said “Atte April (Atte is their word for Aunt), I didn’t mean for you to pray for that. I meant for you to pray that I could have a family because I don’t have one.”
My heart broke. I wasn’t sure how to respond. It was definitely a moment that I called on God and had to let speak through me. I don’t know what it feels like to be in her shoes but for that moment I think God allowed me to feel it. We talked and prayed. She told me that she wanted a family more than anything else but that she knew most people didn’t want to adopt a 13 year old. She has constantly been in my thoughts since then. I try to spend as much time with her as possible.
The other day, Donna and I were lying in my bed talking and when she left I realized she had left her necklace on my bed. The next morning I saw her in passing and told her that she left it. She said, “I know, I left it on purpose so that you would have to bring it to me because I wanted to make sure you would come see me again.”
Needless to say, God has given me a heart for teenage orphans. I know I am young, I still have 10 months on the Race, and that I really need to seek God about what He wants me to do with that but I hope that one day I will be able to give Donna or a child like Donna (or maybe several) the one thing they want the most… a family.
Being around these children makes me wonder why people are not taking them in. It’s so easy to say we can’t afford to take them, we are too old, too young, or we couldn’t offer them the life we want them to have but the truth is that they are not looking for anything outrageous. They just want to be loved. They just want someone to say you’re worth it. Every child deserves that.
