Every week in the Philippines, my team and I got to go to a juvi/orphanage in Antipolo. The two are linked, and those under the age of 15 or those who have special needs are sent to the orphanage, while the others are sent to juvi.
But the thing is, many of the kids at the orphanage actually still have parents.
There’s this thing called a national curfew in the Philippines, and if you’re a kid and you’re found outside after curfew, you get picked up and sent to juvi until your parents come to pick you up.
The kid has to provide information about their parents so they can be contacted and the kid picked up.
What’s crazy is that if you’re a little kid and don’t know or if you’re literally unable to communicate who your parents are, you don’t get picked up. You just stay there.
Many of the kids I met there had mental disabilities which prevented them from communicating clearly. And just because they didn’t know or perhaps couldn’t communicate their parent’s names, they now lived as orphans.
As we played and talked about the Bible I began to ask them about themselves. “What’s your name?”, “How old are you?”
You know, the regular stuff.
What blew me away though, was that these kids didn’t know.
Many of them didn’t know how old they were. Some of them didn’t even know their names – one of the boys I met was simply called “John Doe”.
They didn’t know where they came from, if they had siblings, or if their parents were even alive or not.
What blew me away even more though was that these kids knew that they were known by God. They called God ‘Father’ and meant it. They looked to Him for peace, joy, provision – fun! And He provided! They had so much faith that He was good and that He was for them.
As I asked them what they wanted prayer for, they would immediately pray in faith that they would be reunited with their physical families for Christmas. One boy I spoke to said that he knows God is going to reunite them because he prayed with faith, and as we learned that day, faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.
When they finished sharing, they would immediately grab each other’s hands and start praying and declaring that it was gonna happen. It was beautiful.
These so-called ‘orphans’ taught me what it looked like to live fathered. To live knowing that they were loved and known, even if the country didn’t think so. To live expecting that God was going to provide for them.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
??Matthew? ?5:3-9? ?NIV??
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Two nights ago our squad landed in THAILAND! But, not surprisingly, I’m still a bit behind on blogs from the Philippines. So please enjoy them till I get to writing about here!
I would love if you guys could join with me and my team in praying for:
– unity amongst our squad as we’re all together this month (YAY!)
– sensitivity to Papa’s voice that we would be able to hear Him when He speaks
– boldness to step out and speak to/pray for those God is calling us to (it’s already happening and I’m so excited to share with all of you!!)
if you’re joining me on this journey through prayer, thoughts, messages, etc. THANK YOU. It means the world to know I have a whole team back a at home rooting for me.
