Well, hubby and I have been home for about 3 days from a missions trip to Ukraine. We went there to serve in an orphanage in the rural town of Tulchyn. We spent 5 days at the orphanage. My primary purpose was to spend time loving and holding the children (something that they do not experience very often). Andy was working with an incredible team of men digging ditches to install a new sewer system for the orphanage.
This picture is short one ditch digger.
Now that we are home I am finding it very difficult to find the words to describe what we saw and how it affected us. The very first day we visited the orphanage was beyond overwhelming. I found myself in tears nearly every five minutes and by the evening all I could do was sit on Andy's bed and sob. When we arrived at the orphanage we were given a tour of all of the facilities. Every room we entered smelled of urine. The children looked weak and lonely. Many of the children are not held at all except to be moved from one place to another. Thinking back I don't think I saw even one worker get down onto the level of the children to comfort them or teach them about anything. Even when the children were crying they were just told to stop. The children do not wear disposable diapers, but their cloth diapers are nothing like what we think of here in America either. Their diapers are more like the thinnest least desirable rags in my cleaning closet. When the children relieve themselves the urine comes right out of the rag and sits in the crib where they are all laying together. The cribs are nothing more than a solid plank of wood with a thin sheet laid over them. This is what they sleep on. The children rock themselves back and forth in their cribs in order to achieve some level of self comfort and often all it takes to calm them from this action is a loving stroke on the cheek and hand to rest their head in. Most every child is covered in a rash from scabies. This, mind you, is one of the top rated orphanages in Ukraine.
Think of what you would do if it was your child living in these conditions. We would turn the world upside down in order to remedy these conditions if these were our children. So, here's the thing... They are all created in God's image and this is not how God intended for people created in his image to live. We live in a broken world and this is one of the many results of our broken sinfulness. Knowing how these children are living, many of them barely surviving, must result in action on our part. What can we do?
The pastor of our church, who was with us on this trip, sent an email out to our group and in it were questions that are certainly plaguing Andy and me, and I am certain the rest of the group too... What will become of these children? Who will hold and hug them in our absence? Who will pick up where we left off in teaching them stories from the Bible? Who will sing to them?
We know that God is in control, and what we need to do is pray. Pray that families will be reunited and the children will be taken out of the orphanage to live with their families. Pray that God would raise up a church in this place that will be committed to spreading the gospel and supporting the local families and orphans. Pray that God would raise up families who are willing to adopt these children into their families and love them as their own.
I also believe that we can act purposefully to care for these kids on an ongoing basis. I hope and pray that we will be able to return to further care for them. We hope to form a partnership with this orphanage in order to promote better care of the children there and see more children placed in forever families. I pray that others around this country and the world would consider more fervently the plight of the orphan and consider what steps they can take to make a difference in the lives of these children.
Consider the words to this song...
Masterpiece
by Sandi Patty
Before you had a name or opened up your eyes or anyone could recognize your face,
You were being formed so delicate in size
Secluded in God's safe and hidden place.
With your little tiny hands and little tiny feet and little eyes that shimmer like a pearl,
He breathed in you a song and to make it all complete
He brought the masterpiece into the world.
You are a masterpiece,
a new creation He has formed,
and you're as soft and fresh as a snowy winter's morn.
And I'm so glad that God has given you to me.
Little lamb of God
You are a masterpiece.
Every child made in God's image is a masterpiece and deserves to be treated as such.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and keep oneself unstained from the world.
This picture is short one ditch digger.Now that we are home I am finding it very difficult to find the words to describe what we saw and how it affected us. The very first day we visited the orphanage was beyond overwhelming. I found myself in tears nearly every five minutes and by the evening all I could do was sit on Andy's bed and sob. When we arrived at the orphanage we were given a tour of all of the facilities. Every room we entered smelled of urine. The children looked weak and lonely. Many of the children are not held at all except to be moved from one place to another. Thinking back I don't think I saw even one worker get down onto the level of the children to comfort them or teach them about anything. Even when the children were crying they were just told to stop. The children do not wear disposable diapers, but their cloth diapers are nothing like what we think of here in America either. Their diapers are more like the thinnest least desirable rags in my cleaning closet. When the children relieve themselves the urine comes right out of the rag and sits in the crib where they are all laying together. The cribs are nothing more than a solid plank of wood with a thin sheet laid over them. This is what they sleep on. The children rock themselves back and forth in their cribs in order to achieve some level of self comfort and often all it takes to calm them from this action is a loving stroke on the cheek and hand to rest their head in. Most every child is covered in a rash from scabies. This, mind you, is one of the top rated orphanages in Ukraine.
Think of what you would do if it was your child living in these conditions. We would turn the world upside down in order to remedy these conditions if these were our children. So, here's the thing... They are all created in God's image and this is not how God intended for people created in his image to live. We live in a broken world and this is one of the many results of our broken sinfulness. Knowing how these children are living, many of them barely surviving, must result in action on our part. What can we do?
The pastor of our church, who was with us on this trip, sent an email out to our group and in it were questions that are certainly plaguing Andy and me, and I am certain the rest of the group too... What will become of these children? Who will hold and hug them in our absence? Who will pick up where we left off in teaching them stories from the Bible? Who will sing to them?
We know that God is in control, and what we need to do is pray. Pray that families will be reunited and the children will be taken out of the orphanage to live with their families. Pray that God would raise up a church in this place that will be committed to spreading the gospel and supporting the local families and orphans. Pray that God would raise up families who are willing to adopt these children into their families and love them as their own.
I also believe that we can act purposefully to care for these kids on an ongoing basis. I hope and pray that we will be able to return to further care for them. We hope to form a partnership with this orphanage in order to promote better care of the children there and see more children placed in forever families. I pray that others around this country and the world would consider more fervently the plight of the orphan and consider what steps they can take to make a difference in the lives of these children.
Consider the words to this song...
Masterpiece
by Sandi Patty
Before you had a name or opened up your eyes or anyone could recognize your face,
You were being formed so delicate in size
Secluded in God's safe and hidden place.
With your little tiny hands and little tiny feet and little eyes that shimmer like a pearl,
He breathed in you a song and to make it all complete
He brought the masterpiece into the world.
You are a masterpiece,
a new creation He has formed,
and you're as soft and fresh as a snowy winter's morn.
And I'm so glad that God has given you to me.
Little lamb of God
You are a masterpiece.
Every child made in God's image is a masterpiece and deserves to be treated as such.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and keep oneself unstained from the world.
1 comment:
I'm so glad I read this, as hard as it was to read. What a life changing thing to see. You're right - these children are made in God's image just as my own son is. They don't deserve to live like that.
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