"We care for Orphans not because we are the rescuers, but because we are the rescued." (David Platt)
I remember the first time I ever visited an orphanage, it was this past summer in the beautiful country of Guatemala. I remember when we pulled into the driveway many of the kids were lined up in a row, ready to great us. The little ones were so excited that they were bouncing in place, because two white people had come to play.
There was this one little boy (who I nicknamed Hector) who caught my attention immediately. His shirt was covered in holes and stains and he couldn't talk much but my heart filled with love for him. He wasn't like the other kids, he was always off by himself, playing alone. The orphanage was packed to the max with kids, the little ones sleeping in cribs in the hall because they had run out of room. And sitting there watching Hector, it broke my heart. The entirety of the whole thing broke me.
These kids had gifts, talents and dreams, they had fears and they had hurt that cut deep. They were just kids and they had no one to help guide them through these things. They were kids and they felt alone and thats not okay! I just remember praying to God and asking "God who tells them they are important? Who tells them they are proud? Who sits with them at night when they have a bad dream? Who speaks truth into their lives?" In those moments God truly broke my heart in a far greater way for orphan ministry.
There are roughly 400,000 children in the foster care system today
As of June 2015 there are 132 million children classified as orphans
These facts are insane! To think that many children and teenagers are still waiting for homes and for families. The idea of adoption speaks very close to my own life since I was "adopted" as a seventeen year old by my youth pastors. And I know that if it wasn't for them stepping in and becoming my parents that I wouldn't be the person I am today. It took two people who loved Jesus and who loved each other to come in and show me that there was hope and that people did care. So to think that we could have the same opportunity that my parents did, to go into a orphanage and be that person for someone is huge!
There's this blog that I follow on Facebook called Jason Johnson Blog And he is an amazing speaker and writer who focuses on the orphan crisis and foster care! When he writes he writes transparent and shares the amazing things that come with that role and the hard things too. One of his quotes that he posted the other day really stood out to me, it said:
"We don't strut into their stories with a cape on our shoulders: we crawl into them with the cross on our backs." (Jason Johnson Blog)
And I think that this is so important. We sometimes get caught up in the fact that we are going in and changing a child's life, and yes this is so so true! But we need to remember who gave us that ability, who made that possible for us, we need to remember that the most important part of adoption or foster care is showing that child Jesus, showing them a love that will never fade away, we need to show them that hope. We need to do a serious heart check and find out why we are truly doing this, because if its not because God told us to and we struggle with modeling Christ in this new relationship, then we have a greater problem.
When I held Hector as he cried, and just watched him sooth himself and rest in my arms, I remember being broken by his situation, and being frustrated as I felt there was nothing I could do to help him. Through prayer, I knew I couldn't possibly adopt him. And I couldn't figure out a way I could possibly help him. But I think we get so caught up in trying to figure out the way to solve the orphan crisis as a whole that we forget the little things that we can do for each child. We forget how important it is to focus just on one rather than on the whole picture. I think one of the biggest things we need to remember is how powerful our love is to a child, just sitting there singing to Hector as he fell asleep in my lap, and holding his hand as he showed me his bed, that meant everything to him. Because in those moments he felt loved, and protected, and he knew that someone cared, even though he didn't know me and couldn't say my name those small moments meant everything. We need to remember that the little things can mean just as much if not more than the big things. We need to remember that God works in the little things too. Rather than getting frustrated that we can't do more, we need to acknowledge what we can do and do that because something is always better than nothing.
"Lets not talk about what it will cost us if we do foster or adopt, without also considering what it will cost these kids if we don't." (Jason Johnson Blog)
