Today was a bright and encouraging day for me. Our group has been working with two orphanages while here in Xela(Quetzaltenango). A government orphanage in the morning and a family runned orphanage in the gorgeous mountains that surround Xela. I will talk more on the first orphanage at a later time but I first want to begin with a glimmer of hope, as I feel like I have been very saddened for so much of this trip because of the despair I have seen.
Friends, I just want to begin by saying that Christians are beautiful. So many times, I look at the Christian world and ask, ¨How are we different from the world?¨ What do we contribute? Where can I look to see an example of someone who is giving all up to live for the gospel of love, hope, and redemtion.
Well today, I was extremely humbled. Some of the other girls on my team and I were helping in the kitchen after the 70 plus children ate their lunch. I wish you could see this beautiful scence of these kids all eating together. Small and older all in the same room, with colorful cups and quiet voices. It is unlike anything that I have ever seen. These children at this orphanage have been taught discipline and the love and fear of God and it is even evident in the way that they eat together. I know this might seem strange, but it was one of the most striking things to peer through the window and see a calm sea of beautiful faces smiling, eating and waving back at me. Anyways...back to the dishes and cleaning part of this story. As we were drying the hundreds of dishes that had been all washed by hand, I began to engage in conversation with one of the ¨mothers¨of the home. I began to just ask her simple questions and this is what I learned. Each lady who worked here was a cook, a full time mother responsible for 7 to 10 orphans, a full-time teacher and a mentor to each of these students. I asked one lady how many hours she spent in the kitchen and she said very calmly, five. Five hours!!!! They try to take one day off from work each week to rest, but if they children need them, they do not take their day. This was said without a hint of complaining but out of a pure matter of fact explanation. Each lady, or man(there are a few male ¨dads¨) that are responsible for the older boys live in the same room with the children, sharing their space, privacy and personal time every day. every day. They pour out their lives for their children. They have given up their own prospects of money, power, for some relationships with possible spouses, and time. They have not withheld ANYTHING from these children. They have EXHAUSTED THEIR OWN RESOURCES SO THAT THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST WILL PREVAIL. And let me just say that it is EVIDENT beyond a shadow of doubt that the lives of 70 plus children have been changed for ALL OF ETERNITY.
You see the difference in this orphanage and the other ones that we have been to is that it is not a job for the workers.....it is their life. The end. ¨What do you do?¨ ¨I exist so that children will have a mother and a father and learn of the love of Christ?¨ If they could describe their existence in one sentence(which they wouldn´t anyways because of their humility) This would be it.
I talked later to another orphanage ¨mom¨ who was responsible for the toddler boys. I asked her how long she had been there, and she responded ¨five years.¨ I asked her if she ever wanted a family of her own and if she wanted to be married, and she shrugged her shoulders and smiled. Complete trust in God. Complete joy and satisfaction and trust in who she was in him.
One of my friends on my team today said that to trust God as shepard was ¨to not worry about our own needs because we know that Christ has them covered. When this is in check, then we can spend all of our efforts on the needs of others.¨ This is the example that Jesus put before us when he denied his own fears of the cross and died for us in our place, trusting that Father that His will was better. Not my will but yours. AS a result of Jesus´ trust in the Father, we have access to eternal salvation and a relationship with an incredible God here on earth and after death in heaven if we accept Him. These beautiful ladies live out the gospel.
I can confidently say that these children are living proof that when one sacrifices his or her life for the gospel of love and redemption through Jesus Christ, peoples lives are restored and hearts are changed. These children all have aspirations. 7 year olds are learning to read and write. Little girls have dignity. Older girls are responsible. The boys are polite and do not hit the other kids like in the other orphanages. THESE CHILDREN ARE NOT ANGRY CHILDREN. These children know the word of God. What a beautiful place. What a place of sacrifice and yet so much blessing.
Please pray for these orphanage ¨moms¨and ¨dads¨for strength, conviction and health. They are servants and will be so blessed. Pray that the other orphanages would soon have workers that are Christians who love children with the Love of Christ. The difference is so evident in their eyes, faces, studies, bodies, they way that they relate to each other, and even in the way that they eat.
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