Ok, so I’m sorry we have been a
little behind on blogging, traveling always throws me off my game.. So I want
to tell you about the orphanage
that stole a piece of our heart.. We went on another mini missions trip to this
little village
about 20 minutes away from where we were staying.. As soon as we
got there the kids came running out to greet us. They were barefoot, with
clothes that were too big on them~
but the smiles on their faces showed that
none of that mattered to them.
The host family sat us down and
told us their story of how God brought them to this place.. (The parents didn’t
speak any English, but thankfully two of their sons did, so they could translate
for us.)
They used to live in this area called Diamond Island. One day the
government decided that they wanted to use this area as a tourist attraction
spot, so they told a little over 2000 people that they had to leave their
homes.. Of course the people weren’t
just going to up and leave, so the government came in and burnt down all the
houses and then told the people that they could go live on this land where they
are now at. They lost everything in the
fire. So with no other option they went along with many of the other families
to this land that was given to them. At
first they had to put up tarps as roofs, and that was all they had as their
home for a while.
Before all of this had happened
they had been having a Bible study at their house so they decided not to stop
meeting together because of this tragedy. They would all come and gather under
this tarp and worship God. This was the birth of their church… They also saw the need of an orphanage as so
many families in the area couldn’t provide for their children, and other
children didn’t even have parents.. They wanted to provide a better life for
these kids, and a place where they could grow up learning about Christ. God put
that desire on their hearts so strongly that they couldn’t ignore it. So as
they managed to get supplies to build they decided to build a church and an
orphanage along side of their house.
They then proceeded to tell us that they don’t have any supporters, they
manage to provide by living completely by faith. Sometimes they will get a random donation,
but mostly, God just somehow provides! It was a beautiful story.
We played with the kids, and showed
them Christ’s love, and God just began to melt our hearts for this place like
we have never felt before! There was one little girl that Josh and I would have
taken in a heartbeat~
She stole our hearts on day 1…She was so precious!
Part of the host family slept outside while
we were there so we could sleep in the church. It was so humbling and so
honoring. What a love, where people would actually get uncomfortable to prefer
others.
The kids were so dirty and so full
of love! We went out
and found a field close to this FILTHY water,
and we
played soccer with them~ When we got to the field there was cow poop in the way of where we would play, but that didn’t stop them.. The kids just bent over and
grabbed the cow poop and threw it out of the way…
Later while we where
playing
the ball flew into the dirty water, and the kids just jumped in and got
the ball.. It was disgusting!.. But even that couldn’t stop us from hugging
them and giving them high fives!
God burned this orphanage into
Josh’s heart, and mine. This is one ministry that Josh and I want to continue
to sow into even after the race!
