I arrived to the gate at 3pm, greeted by a handful of kids and automatically immersed into their world… with hands grabbing mine and pulling me to play games in the tiki hut, towards the monkey bars, or inside to read a book [or twelve]. After hours of playing, dinner is served...
After dinner comes my favorite part of the day. Getting 14 girls ready for bed is quite the task. After showers, pjs, brushing hair and teeth, someone leads a devotion. Once we have read an entire library worth of books, tucking these sweet girls into bed steals my heart. Hug after hug… and reassurance after reassurance that we will be there tomorrow… and the ever-so-often plea to sleepover… those are a few things I believe
I will forever miss.
[me and polly].
[he’s tough stuff].
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
What are we missing?
It seems pretty clear to me what our duty is. If we are called to look after the orphans, then I have to ask myself why there is a children’s home in Manila filled with precious children living without a family of their own. Precious children that wait patiently for someone to choose them. I can name family after family that I know has the resources to make an incredible home to these children that captured my heart, and I read scripture that clearly commands what we are to do. Maybe to you, “looking after” the orphans doesn’t mean adoption… but my question to you is how are you looking after them? What are we actively doing to follow Jesus’ command?
