One Big Happy Family

Good Shepherd Orphanage is not your typical orphanage. I think of an orphanage as a place for children without parents to live. “Orphan” by definition is someone without parents. However, I have learned from being in orphanages around the world that the definition really needs expansion. In many places, some of the children at the orphanages have parents. The children may come from abusive homes, homes where their parents sell them into sex slavery, or their parents may simply have more children than they can afford to support and therefore some of their children are living in an orphanage while their brothers and sisters are living at home. Traditionally, the hope for every orphan is that they will be adopted by loving parents who will give them a safe home, a family, and the hope of a better life with more opportunities. Orphanages are a blessing to the children living there as they have a safe place to lay their head at night and food to eat. Many children are saved from a life of living on the streets by being taken in by orphanages around the world. However, despite how this saves children from street life, I still generally find orphanages to be a bit depressing. Many children arrive malnourished and it takes time for them to look and be healthy. Many children simply do not smile because of the horrible life experiences they have had prior to arriving at the orphanage. However, Good Shepherd orphanage is a stark contrast to any other orphanage I have been to before.

For starters, Good Shepherd has a cap of 63 children. There are mother, father, grandmother, and pastor figures living on site at this Christian orphanage. Most interestingly, they do not allow the adoption of the children at their orphanage. When I first heard this, I was curious and perplexed. WHY? The answer was simple. This Christian orphanage provides a home for these children. When a new child arrives at their place, they are welcomed as part of the family. They do not allow the adoption of these children because the chances of these children being adopted into safe Christian homes is highly unlikely in the capital city of the Bhuddist nation of Cambodia. As a result of not allowing the adoption of the children at Good Shepherd, they have a very low turnover rate. With a 63 child cap and no adoptions, children really only leave when they reach the age of 18. More astounding yet, is the fact that even once they reach the age of 18, they can choose to pursue studies at the University and are eligible for scholarships so that they can study and continue to live at the orphanage while doing so. 

Good Shepherd has created a family atmosphere at their orphanage. They have by far the most genuinely happy orphans I have ever met in my life. Meeting any one of these children, you would never believe the challenges they experienced in their past or the fact that they are “orphans.” The children who are of age attend school outside of the orphanage as well as school at the orphanage. Good Shepherd also has a good curriculum of Biblical teachings which is an integral part of the solid Christian foundation from which the orphanage was established. To learn more about the founder, see Bekah’s blog at http://rebekahkraft.theworldrace.org/?filename=winn .

I have chosen to write about this orphanage because my team spent a significant portion of our ministry time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working here. I spent three days a week teaching English, doing dramas and crafts, and playing educational games with the children each morning and afternoon. As much as I came to the orphanage each day to pour into these children, I believed they have touched my life even more than I have touched theirs. As I write this, I think back to all the fun times while teaching the kids and how much they enjoyed learning numbers, colors, clothing, body parts, the verbs to have and to be and phrases like: