The first time I got to work with a child with special needs I was 15. I needed community service hours to graduate high school and it made the most sense for me to do something where I could be around horses all day. Little did I know equine therapy would lead to a life long passion for me. My heart was immediately captured by how special these kids truly are. In college I worked at another equine therapy barn and that love grew even more. It has been a dream of mine for many years now to have my own equine therapy barn as my source of ministry for the Kingdom; but thats another story for a different day.
On Saturday we wet to an orphanage here in Ho Chi Minh City. Orphanages are a heartbreaking place in any country to walk into but walking into one knowing that most of these children will never have another family because of the laws here in Vietnam adds another level of heaviness. If a child doesn’t have a birth certificate they can not be adopted or go any further than primary education (about 5th grade) here in Vietnam. The only way for a child to receive a birth certificate is by the mother returning to her home town and applying for one and majority of these children are either dropped at the front gate of the orphanage or abandoned at the hospital making getting a birth certificate impossible.
One of the interns at the ministry we are partnered with this month told me about this one little girl at the orphanage who I believe has cerebral palsy and how I was just going to love her as soon as I met her. She was spot on! This little girl’s smile and laugh fed me so much joy I could have spent all day sitting there playing with and singing to her (which is exactly what I did for 2 hours). What I didn’t know going there was the orphanage had a room full of children with special needs and that my heart would be so filled with love walking into so much sadness that day. From autism, down syndrome, and cerebral palsy there were children at all ends of the spectrum who were abandoned to a life in this place. Many of them end up staying there and working at the orphanage because there is nothing else available or offered to them, as this is the only life they know.
Being a closed country we have to be really careful how we talk about Jesus here. Since not a single one of these children spoke English most of us took full advantage of that! Praying out loud, telling them how much they are loved by their Heavenly Father, and singing worship songs to them. I cuddled and loved as many of the kids in that room as I could, telling each of them how beautiful they are and how special they are to God! I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I am at peace knowing our ministry partner goes there once a month to be a constant loving presence of God in their lives.
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