cp2

Well, the first mission trip of the summer arrived Saturday night.  Sunday afternoon we all went to the orphanage for the late afternoon.

SO many new children there between the ages of two years and seven years old.  My heart just breaks.

The parents of some didn't want to leave them there, but they knew that at the orphanage they would have food to eat.  Seriously, they just needed some food? I know that's not all they needed, but it's a large part of it.

 I fear for their future.  All I can do is pray for them and love on them when we go.

I know that children can come from a home with two loving, God-fearing parents, be trained up in the way he should go by following the Lord, memorizing Scripture and hiding it in his/her heart, be very involved in church and then grow up and their actions not line up with the Bible at all.  Their hearts seem to be so far from God. I have seen this SO many times.  Heart breaking, but it just proves that most of the time we love our flesh more.

In the same way I know that children can be abandoned and left at an orphanage, never hear the words "i love you" from a mother or father, experience all kinds of abuse, never memorize a verse from the Bible, not attend church, not have a right understanding of who Jesus is...and then.....GOD changes them.  Maybe He uses someone, like me or you, to plant some seeds of God's word in their lives....to love them right where they are.

I cling to the hope that just because their life seems so bleak and painful to me, that God's love and grace is so much greater than all of our sin combined.  If He can restore the man named "Legion" (remember that story in the Gospels??), then I am pretty sure He can transform any of our lives!

God's love is unconditional!  Though so many of these orphans seem to not have a future and seem so far from God, I know that our outward circumstances do not always determine our eternity.

Please take a minute to pray for the orphans here.  They range from two years old to in their twenties (and the older ones still desire a family, why wouldn't they?)

THANKS!