Each day my team and I would walk 30 minutes to the orphanage, rain or shine. While we were there we shared the Fathers love, taught English, and followed the Fathers path to breakthrough. I have seen so much growth in myself and saw so many hearts change at the orphanage. It was hard leaving all the kids the Lord allowed me to connect with and watch grow drastically, but I know the love we shared with them will always be remembered and they will share that same love with others now.
I saw…
many attitudes change
violence turn into gentleness
neglect turn into acknowledgement
and exhaustion turn into joy
these kids genuinely felt loved because we genuinely loved them. The Father changed our hearts and guided our words and actions so that we could love them well and leave His presence there even after we were gone.
The first week there I made my rounds, going into each room, making sure I loved on everyone I possibly could. But after the first week I found myself spending a lot of time in the nursery. I didn’t really know what to do while I was in there and most of the time I felt like I was in the way more than I was helping. I started off by spending individual time with the babes. I would sing songs, talk to them as if they understood what I was saying or just admired them as they fell asleep in my arms. As I did this I collected many observations and most of them broke my heart. As my heart broke I asked the Lord to help me change the atmosphere of the nursery. I had no idea what that looked like or what he wanted me to do but I waited for Him to lead me.
I started to take each baby out of their crib and lay them on the floor in front of me. Sometimes I would be feeding two at a time and singing for the rest of them. With each prayer I found new ways to help the women in the nursery and give the babies the attention they needed. I gave baths, changed diapers, folded clothes and exchanged laughs with my new friends, Di, Hai and Zan.
After spending time with these three ladies the Lord began to show me how important it was to invest in not only the babies but the ladies who dedicated their lives to these babies as well.
When we managed to get all 9 babies asleep I used this time to get to know the ladies in the nursery. With each day these women became more and more open to friendship. Soon we were able to exchange jokes and communicate through hand gestures or sentence fragments. I taught them some English and they taught me Vietnamese. At some point in the day you could catch us dancing through the isle of cribs with a baby in our arms.
So, you see we went from exhaustion and frustration to joy and laughter.
And where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.
Freedom from anything..
Please prayerfully consider donating to keep me on the field, sharing the love of the Father. I am $3,000 away from my deadline on October 1st. I can’t do this without you. Here is a direct link to donate! https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=worldrace&desc=For+Lauren+Brooks
