Today was a rough day for me. So many times, I enter into the orphanages with an excited attitude, but today I knew that I would be seeing faces that had been through so much. Today we visited a home in Antigua, Guate that houses girls ages 13 to 18. Children who are orphans sometimes still have a sparkle of hope in their eyes. Some, though definately not all or even most, still have that optimistic outlook on life. But teenage girls who have been in the system for years are not the same. They are tired of the same thing. They are entering into a confusing time of changes, life decisions, relationships decisions, and are beginning the rest of their life of the attitude formation. At this point in anyones life, one develops work ethic, self esteem, responsibility, and one decides how his or her past is going to affect his or her future.
These girls do not have mothers to help them with their first period. They don´t have fathers to tell them they are beautiful. They don´t have this security system at home. They do have 40 plus girls that they live with to compare themselves to. They have pasts that many are not healed from. Many have been in the system for what seems to them as forever, or have come in from the streets, bars, or abusive families.
As we entered into this orphanage, it was very different. In orphanages with children ranging from babies to 13 year olds, children usually run up to you and hug your leg, cutting off the circulation because they refuse to let go. Believe me we have been practically brought to our knees by these younger kids as they tackle us with hugs and kisses. But at this orphanage, when we came in, 3 girls gave us the formal greeting of a hug and a kiss, but after that we got blank stares from groups of girls.
As we began to spend time with the girls, they slowly began to open up to us. I spent time with a group of about 5 girls and as I painted their fingernails different colors, we began to talk. I learned that they were very bored with life. Many just did not have things to do at the orphanages. They kept asking me if I was married, and after I assured them that I was not, I asked them if they wanted to be married in the future. One girl looked at me and said very confidently, ¨no¨. Another girl explained that she already had a son. Her son did not live with her and she did not go into very much detail, but I could tell that she longed to be with her son.
As we kept talking, I shared with the girls that God truly cared about their lives. God saw their hurts and problems. God wanted to heal them. Trusting God with their lives is the only way to survive. People abandon us, but God doesn´t. We continued talking some more and I could see the girls faces softening and the akward tension between some of the girls softened and they had scooted in closer to sit next to me. One girl had her hand resting on my thigh.
As we left that morning, I embraced each of the 5 girls in our group and as I came to the last one, named Suimi, she would not let me go. She wispered into my ear, so that none of the other girls could hear ¨por favor ora por mi. Yo tengo muchos problemas en mi vida,¨which means, please pray for me, I have many problems in my life. I could hear the desperation in her voice and I knew that she really does want God to change her life. She wants God to heal her. She wants new life. I beg you to pray for her. Pray for healing from her past. Pray that the gospel of a broken and bleeding Jesus on the cross would change her. Pray that the gospel of Jesus rising from the dead would give her hope that God can concur her seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. Pray for God to show up in her life. Please Pray. Hear Suimi whispering in your ear, pleading for a doctor, a lover, a best friend, a personal defense attourney, a dad, a mom, a savior. Jesus, is after all, all of these things that she could ever need.
No comments:
Post a Comment