One of the ministries we got to do here is help replace a roof and paint a large room in an all boys orphanage. When I got a tour of the orphanage grounds, the conditions reminded me of a jail I visited in the states. Not a good thing. There was ample outdoor space but the rooms were basically caged and locked down. Not customary of any boy’s homes I’ve ever seen. What made me angry was that there was a place specifically designated for the boys when they were disobedient or disrespectful to the staff- it literally looked like some type of solitary confinement. I couldn’t bare the sight of it. The boys get their meals like prisoners through the metal bars until whoever in charge permits them to be released. What took it over the top for me was that this prison is sandwiched between an all women’s jail and a girl’s juvenile detention center. I understand boys can be unruly and some of the boys were even pretty disobedient. But can you blame them? Where is the hope? What are their surroundings teaching them?
Is this an orphanage or a prison?
I have to keep reminding myself not to put my first world standards on a third world country. However, it is extremely difficult not to. These children already don’t have parents and have to worry about getting raped by one of the older boys if/when they want to take a shower each morning. Is that not what happens in jails? However, I can say the staff seems loving and I’m sure they’re doing the best they can with the resources they have. But honestly, it is just not enough. I wonder what Jesus would have said about that orphanage had he been there for a visit.
I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that innocent children live in conditions like this. I know I can’t change everything but the workers are in the field are few! Where are all the CHRISTians? These countries are poor and some of us have no conviction for the things that are wasted and/or overly consumed each day. That money that was wasted on a super-sized drink from McDonalds could feed an entire family in one of these countries. Often times, I have a hard time understanding why we don’t help more… or even why we don’t help missionaries who are actually out in the field helping. Don’t we read the word?
The Bible has a lot to say about worldly possession and giving to the less fortunate.
1 Timothy 6: 9-10 — “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
1 John 3:17– But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Proverbs 22:9– Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
Luke 14:12-14- He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
…. I can go on and on. I don’t want to judge or condemn anyone because it is not my job, but I wonder why some of us don’t practice what the Bible teaches and commands. Some of my squad mates (even myself) are having a hard time meeting financial deadlines to finish this missionary work. We aren’t asking for accolades or praise, just prayer and support.
I think several people think this World Race is a place where we enjoy the beauty of different cultures in different countries. And yes, we do. But there is a whole part of this journey not many understand. Some of the things that happen are heart breaking. Children with no parents or homes; teenage girls pregnant by their fathers, uncles and/or grandfathers; disabled children who are left for dead because their parents don’t know how to take care of them (or don’t want to); and, locals who don’t understand why we would take a year out of our lives to travel from country to country and serve the “least of these”.
It’s not easy by any means.
The good news is this: I am finally at a place of total dependence on Christ. I know I can’t do any of this without His help. It is a good place to be spiritually and I’m glad my heart breaks for what breaks His. I just wish more church goers would wake up from their Christian American dreams in their Tempur-Pedic beds found in their lavish homes… because little innocent Christian boys over here live in orphanages that look like prisons.
*Sigh*
-Belle
