Last Saturday the girls of team Fuse along with Kelly and I got to spend two days at an orphanage outside of Bangalore. Because the word “orphanage” has a specific connotation what we found when we got off the bus caught us a little off guard. As soon as we entered the 
gate we were greeted by children that spoke perfect English. “Welcome Auntie!” they said while running to embrace us and telling us how glad they were that we arrived safely. We rested after our morning of travel and then spent the afternoon on the playground talking and playing with the children that were anywhere between the ages of 3 and 16. The 89 children at the orphanage come from all over India and look as display on their faces the diversity of this beautiful country.
All of the children are in school and are progressing quickly in their English classes and we were all surprised at their comprehension and ease at communicating with us, even the younger ones. The children that are from the local area (the region of Karnataka) speak Kannada and go to local schools since they can speak and write the local language fluently. The children from other regions are able to speak Kannada fluently but have more difficulty writing it so they are educated within the orphanage. Talk about smart kids a lot of the children are fluent in their local language from their home region, Kannada since they live here now and English! And their intelligence is just the beginning of them. These kids have faith enough to move mountains.
As a team we were responsible for the evening devotion so we prepared and planned on teaching the children some praise and worship songs. When th
e time came all seven of us were up in front of the 89 children ready to teach but when we started singing they all joined in and sang the song that we were trying to teach them! They basically took over the worship service! The girls and I just had to laugh and be humbled that not only were these children smart and could probably speak English better than we could but they also knew almost every praise song we could think of and had some of the sweetest worship that my ears have ever heard.
As I sat on a cement floor in a room crowded with orphans singing their lungs out to Jesus I couldn’t help but weep at the way God provides for all of His children. I was so humbled to be ministered to by these kids that know beyond a shadow of a doubt that their Heavenly
Father provides for their every need. Seeing these kids has also shown me that the hope of the nations is not left just in the hands of missionaries but in the hands of children that will bring the Kingdom to earth.
I wish I could show you each of their smiling faces in person but photographs will have to do. One of our projects while we were there was to take photographs of all the children for their records so by the grace of God I have a picture of every one of their smiling faces. I am going to make a video of the photos and post it soon but until then a few photos will have to do.
Needless to say, being at the orphanage was a blessing that I will not soon forget. Even after every missionary is long gone from this place I have the utmost confidence that India is in good hands.
