Exciting Day!

Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; 

and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 

For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”
Luke 9:48

Tonight Ksenia, Lera and 90 other orphans from Latvia will be arriving to the states, through New Horizons for Children (NHfC) summer hosting program.  112 children from the Ukraine have already arrived and are with their host families.  NHFC is an amazing Christian based, international hosting program, which brings over orphaned children from Eastern Europe twice a year to share with them the love of God and the love of a family. 

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

JAMES 1:27 

What a rough final day or two with the precious children at Karosta Day Center.  I found myself saying good-bye to children Friday evening and again to more, Saturday night, knowing that I would be heading to Riga this morning.  My heart is heavy and burdened knowing just how vast the need is.  

I have spent the last five days building relationships and loving these children.  Their eyes tell stories...but to hear them spoken is piercing. 

Everyone just wants to be heard.  They want to know that we care about them...the lives they lived...the pain they've experienced.  Thursday, I found myself walking along the beach with a precious "child" and as we walked we found ourselves no longer with the group, but walking alone.  I found myself taking her hands in mine as I searched her face long and tried to honor her, by listening.  She wanted to tell her story.  Why, to me?  Because her story hurts deeper than the wounds that have been left, and she wanted someone to share it with.  After all, don’t we all long to be heard?  To be accepted?  To be loved?

As I listened to her story, I heard her heart...her pain stricken heart.  I listened long...and not just to her, but to many children this week.  And as I looked into their eyes, I not only saw pain but HIS face. 

After listening to them pour out their hearts, I was left with few words, as my eyes swelled with tears.  I found myself telling them, “I hear you.  I understand you.  And better, Jesus understands you.  He knows.  I know what it feels like,” I tell them, “to wonder where He is.  To wonder if He sees and how could this be the good and perfect plan, because you know, it looks pretty ugly right now.  It is ugly!  But I also know that I can trust Him anyway because I would have never put my child on the cross and He did that. He did that for me and for you.  And because of what He’s done, I trust Him with all that He is yet to do.”

And while my head spins, "where is God in this mess," my heart knows the answer, "right here."  God is right here with these children.  And He knows.  And that love and knowledge that He knows, is what we live on every day.

Water Games Turn into Mud Fight with the Americans

We were told to come prepared for an afternoon full of water fights...which quickly turned into an mud fight with the Americans.  I'll let the pics tell this story of...

CRAZY LOVE!

 

 

 

We all had an amazing time...the children loved it!  Dirt/sand was everywhere!  It was so bad the children got to leave the Center early!  And that my friends is what we in Latvia call showing some CRAZY LOVE!!!! :)

Karosta Day Center--a place where children beg to be LOVED!

Our day began at 8:30, when Ksenia arrived at our hotel to walk (it's nearby) us to the Center (which is attached/part of the church).  There we are taken to the second floor and are introduced to Pastor Serigi, a young man who loves the Lord and serving these precious children, as well as the other adults (like Tanya and Biaba) assisting with this weeks VBS.  We began with Pastor Serigi shedding some light on the need for the center and their purpose.  Then we read from the book of Psalms chapter 108, and we prayed.  It's stunning how regardless of what country I am in, or what language people are speaking, one's passion and love for the Lord is not lost.  After our meeting, we were dismissed to go and "make new friends" with the children.  And that's just what we did!  

It didn't take long for children to come running up to us in their very broken English and give us hugs, grab our hands as the pull us to wherever they wanted us to go, or jumped on our backs.  It was clear, that these children needed to feel loved.  They strive for attention...anything they can do to cause us to:  turn and watch them perform...or to hold them...to just to smile at them.  We think that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless (which these children probably are at times).  However, the poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.

Once outside, we started a game of basketball (well it wasn't a game at all).  It was more of a time of randomly shooting the ball for an hour, while Pastor Serigi set up the microphone and cd player for a time of worship.  At 10:00 we went inside where the precious Babushkas had been preparing our breakfast, to eat.  We were placed in a separate room from the kids, although our meals were the same :( Wish we were in with those children!

            

We then went back outside and had a time of worship.  Because everything had to be translated from Latvian into Russian (as the children all spoke one of these languages) there was lil’ time to translate it all into English for us, as well.  However, the message was not lost.  It was clear that the Lord was being glorified as the children lifted their voices up in praise to our God!

It was incredible! The kids were all so excited to see us…and then we knew why we had come!  This was the reason the Lord has provided a way and sent us to Latvia.  We were here to love these children.  And we found ourselves each being claimed by numerous children and were pulled in all different directions.

I escaped for an hour or so with Pastor Sergej, Tanya, and Biaba to go to the Leipaja Orphanage.  I needed to drop off some documents for a student visa for a child there, and sign out two children to be our translators.  But after meeting the director of the orphanage I was able to make plans to take a group of children (like 20) bowling on Saturday afternoon and then out for ice cream.  I can’t wait!  I also got to meet the children who are being hosted in the states this summer through New Horizons for Children (NHfC) and take pics of them for their American families.  More to come on the orphanage and children there….

Then we returned back to the Day Center in time for lunch.  After lunch we had a time of crafts that went along with their bible lesson from earlier in the day.  Then we had all the kids outside and played their wicked version of dodge ball.  It makes our American version seem “wimpy” to say the least. 

We concluded our time at the Day Center in worship to the Lord!  It was amazing to see children with so little worshiping God and giving Him thanks for the things they did have. 

Tonight, we weren’t very hungry, so we all went out to eat and ordered ice cream!!!  Yes, that was our dinner tonight!!!!  Lots and lots of COLD ice cream!  Then we met up with four little girls at the sea and spent the remainder of the evening playing with them there!  It was a great first day at the Day Center!  I can’t wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow!

Leipaja/Karosto arrival

Ran to the Baltic sea tonight and had to get my feet wet!  It's 11:00 pm and the sun is still shining.  Tomorrow will be the first day of VBS with the Leipaja/Karosto Day Center kids.  I can't wait to finally meet all these precious children I have heard so much about.   I have already met some amazing individuals and am looking forward to ministering alongside them this week.  Thanks so much for the love, support and prayers!

A Hope and a Future

Flying over here, these verses spoke so loud and clear to me.  They are powerful words because they are God's very own words found in Jeremiah 29:11-14.  

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

 

However, when you begin to recognize the vast circumstances of those you come into contact with, you must stop and ask yourself some very difficult questions:  Does this passage apply to everyone?  Can the poor and needy truly look for hope and a future?  How do the orphans have/find hope and a future?  Do these children get to claim this promise of a God-ordained destiny?

In the Word, God says, "I will not abandon you."  But put yourself in the shoes of an orphan...one with no mother or father caring for them.  How then, would you make sense of this passage?  How could you not feel abandon and alone?

I believe that is why we are here.  That is why I go.  It is for the hurting and distressed, to find hope.  It is through those of us who show up and offer a refuge, a safe place, a home.  It is through individuals living with Christ in them, living the gospel, that they begin to find hope.  It is people like you and me being obedient to the calling and commands He has given us.  It is us no longer remaining indifferent to the suffering of this world.  It is by our actions that those around us can begin to see that God has not abandoned them at all.

God has created each of us in His image.  Each one of us! That includes the orphans around the world, whom the rest of the world has dismissed because of cruelty, neglect, or indifference.  But God has a plan for each one of them.  A plan that includes a hope and future.  God has given us each the tools to give hope to the hopeless.  Unless, however, we are willing to use our tools, children will continue living without knowing that hope.

So, I ask for continued prayers.  May we be able to make Jeremiah 29:11-14 real for these hurting and hopeless children.  May we take advantage of EVERY opportunity God gives us, to proclaim His name and offer them hope and a future worth living for.  For, I have not only been called to preach the good news of the gospel, but to embody it with my very life.

The Call to Action

God is continuing to remind me that I have ONE purpose in life.  Praise God, He is so clear with what His purpose is for me, in this life.  Some people spend their entire lives "searching" (or making excuses for not living out their God ordained purpose) for their purpose...and the way I see it, our purpose is plain as day.  You see, He has given us all the same purpose and that ONE purpose is to LOVE.  He has designed me to do ONE thing, to SERVE His people in LOVE.

And that's what I will be doing for the next 18 days as I head half way around the world to Latvia.  Now, I realize that we can and should be serving those around us daily...but these next 18 days are going to precious days to me, as I find myself surrounded by the "least of these"...the fatherless...the broken and burdened...and it is with these precious ones that my is heart broken.

In Latvia I will be serving children at a day center and in orphanages.  Many of these children have lived unimaginable lives of rejection, pain,  and suffering.  And I will be there (along with some other terrific individuals) meeting them right where they are at, and allowing God's love to pour from us, so they may see a glimmer of HOPE. 

I believe each person, who calls themselves a follower of Christ, has a responsibility to love and care for the fatherless.  It is not some special, specific calling, for those of us who have a passion for hurting children.  It is the duty of ALL of us who call ourselves Christians.  There are ONE HUNDRED FORTY SEVEN MILLION fatherless, motherless, parentless children who are not (and may never have been) shown love by another human being.  147 MILLION CHILDREN!  There is SOMETHING for EVERYONE to DO!

My question is when will more of us begin claiming the unwanted and unloved, for the One who loves all?  You see, the Lord who created these children LOVES them.  He created them for a purpose and He wants them to fulfill that purpose.  Therefore, we must go to the ends of the earth and DO SOMETHING.  Why? Because the God who knows every hair on their head desires to lift them out of the dark orphanages and into His glory.

The Gospel was not only meant to be read, but to be lived.   That is my purpose on this trip...to BE the gospel!  Imagine Jesus saying this to you about today - "I will equip you as you go, so that you can handle whatever comes your way. Trust me to supply what you need when you need it."  Guess what..that IS what He is saying to each and every one of us.  So, what if we, as a body, became less terrified by the fact we've entered a place beyond our own ability and more exhilarated by the possibility, in that moment, that it could only be done by the presence and power of God manifesting Himself?  For we know, when I am at my weakest, He is at His strongest in me!