October Outreach

This morning, we went with some of the 11th graders to their outreach ministry. The hour and a half car ride gave us a chance to get to know the students better and to start the day off with a devotional from the Gospel of John. We read about Jesus healing the man that was sick for many years, he tried get into the pool once it had been stirred but was never able to reach the pool in time.  So, why did Jesus heal the this man of all the lame, blind, and sick that were the pool?  Jesus wanted to demonstrate that healing, salvation/ redemption is only through Him. The man at the pool was helpless and could give nothing back, just as so many of the children we saw today at the orphanage were so physically helpless or unresponsive.  Yet Jesus showed love and compassion to these type of people, just like at the pool with this man.  With that mindset, we went into the orphanage to love on the children.  We would touch them, rub their arms/ legs, talk to them, hold them (if we could), and read them the Elleazah's children books. The kids loved the attention of the student as they read the books and loved to hear new voices and see a baby (Elleazah).  Though Steve and I are limited in our Spanish communication, we too were able to show love without speaking much Spanish. This experience gave me a flashback to 10 years ago while serving in an orphanage in Ukraine for a month with Little Lambs Ministry. Again, though I did not speak any Russian/ Ukrainian, I was still able to build relationships with the kids and show them God love. I hope we will be able to do the same with these forgotten and abandoned children, that they may experience God's love through our time with them. Please continue to pray for our students as they struggle with the heartache of seeing such low functioning kids and to have a compassionate heart to reach out and love these children.