Another Orphanage

 Hello. How are you?

In Armenia, my new team and I have the opportunity to serve at an orphanage. I heard the news, and I was very excited and nervous at the same time. We arrived at the orphanage for a tour of the facility and what our next four weeks would look like serving and working with the staff here. As we walked the orphanage grounds, I was hit with a flood of memories of my time in the orphanage in China. I could see the similarities and differences and the relatable and new things. I learned that this is an orphanage for children and adults with disabilities

Specialized Children’s Home of Kharberd is a special needs orphanage, but they have physical and speech therapy, occupational therapy, hippotherapy, ceramic therapy, woodworking, and a sensory room. The orphanage has over 230 children and adults, all with various special needs such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and Down Syndrome.

The orphanage in China I was at had a separate building for children with special needs. I would only see them during meal times or special events. In my mind, I was comparing the similarities between this orphanage in Armenia and China, similar in structure but different in the heart of people that work here. In China, they cared for the children mainly because it was a job, but in Armenia, the staff cared for the people as friends and family. 

With all these thoughts going through my head, I was beginning to freak out! Fears and anxiety came to me with questions about if I could serve well at this place. I knew in my heart that this would be a place where God would reveal something to me, like a part of my story that I had not touched yet or point out a scar that hadn’t healed. In my last blog (link to my previous blog,) I mentioned a part of my story and how I can use a coping mechanism of “forget, let it go, and move on.” This mindset has become an instinctual thing for me to do. I don’t typically think about my past unless I have been triggered by something or places that remind me.

The days at the orphanage looked like having coffee with the staff, learning about each other’s lives, then we would head over to feed the residents (the ages fluctuate from children to full-grown adults) breakfast. While feeding them, we had the opportunity to ask them how their day was, even though some residents couldn’t speak. Then, we would pray over them as we fed them. After we finished feeding them, we took them out for walks. We would play worship music and continue praying over the people here. Sometimes we bring them to different therapies, mainly hippotherapy and ceramics classes. We end our day by feeding the residents lunch.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”Psalm? ?139:13-16? ?ESV??

God has intricately placed every hair on the heads of the residents at the orphanage. He loves them as much as He loves us” capable bodies.” The question came to my mind “Who are we to think that they don’t have access to God because of their incapabilities?” Seeing the indifferences due to their disabilities, I admit that I thought of the ways I can get access to God that they can’t, judging from their physical state. Wow. Talk about pride. 

As we spent our time with the residents here the more, they humbled me with their pure, unfiltered joy. This peace and pure, unfiltered joy we capable people might never be able to access fully. They have access freely because they don’t care about what others think or look at; they react to their emotions to the fullest. They may encounter and talk to God uniquely that we can not understand. The privilege that ALL can come to Him. He sees what He created as perfect and whole.                                                                               The same Spirit that lives in them lives in us! The Spirit has full access to do what it wants. Never doubt the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”-Matthew? ?5:8 ?ESV?? 

A call to Prayer 

• Pray for Orphans in your community, and love them well. Pray for orphans worldwide; we don’t need to know the situation to pray for them and to pray into their situation.

• Going to God every day asking for help because we’re incapable of anything without Him. Learn to lean in and depend upon Him.

• Pray for Missionaries in your community, outside your community, and worldwide. Pray specifically for the missionaries in the 10/40 window, risking their lives for that one name to be made known. 

• Pray that we understand the power and weight of the name of Jesus on our lips and tongues.                                                                                                                                                                                      

  “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”-James? ?1:26-27? ?ESV??

With Love & Gratitude,                                                                            Alice S.