Our Call to the Orphanage
I am going to try and explain some of the things that have led us to this place in our lives. Honestly, neither Jess nor myself ever saw ourselves moving to Haiti (or anywhere else for that matter) to run an orphanage. But somewhere along the line, GOD did an amazing work in our life and He has clearly led us to this place. I want to start from a theological perspective if that is ok. I know we all like stories that we can relate to and we like to hear about the circumstances in a person’s life that has led them to a specific place. But to get to that point, it is really important to understand GOD’s heart for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the alien (Old Testament), and for any person who is left without help and without hope. Throughout the Bible that is what we see in GOD, this heart to be there for and to help those who need it. We look at verses like James 1:27 (Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.) and it gives voice to this idea of orphan ministry. But ministry to orphans is more than just one verse in the Bible. It is the heart of GOD.
These children have done nothing to get where they are and they can do nothing to change their circumstance. They are stuck, they are helpless, and they are hopeless. They need someone to step into their lives and pull them out of the situation that they are in or they will live their whole lives without knowing what it means to be hopeful and to have a future. Many of the people who read this blog may never have had parents who they felt truly loved by, and that is something I could never imagine. Some of the people who are reading this blog may have struggled with a few meals in their life or may not have had enough money to go to college. I have no way of knowing your background or your history. But here is what I do know…These orphans and other orphans all over the world (Asia, Africa, Haiti, etc.) have absolutely nothing. They have lost their parents, they do not know where their next meal is going to come from, they have no help, and they have no hope.
A couple of years ago, I began to grasp (clearly not perfectly because I never will) the love that my Father, my Savior, my Jesus, has for me. It is a love that is so worth everything I cannot imagine someone not knowing what it feels like or what it means to be loved like this. I have a GOD who gave up EVERYTHING for me, for no other reason but pure and simple love. And it has hit me, I need to make it my goal in life to show other people what this love is like. And then, I realized that on a physical level, these children are where I was on a spiritual level without GOD, and GOD saved me. He didn’t just save me, He gave up everything for me, just so I could know His love, just so I could have my sins forgiven and spend my eternity with Him.
I hope I did not ramble too much because here is the point…GOD came into my life for no other reason but love. He came when I had nothing to give to Him, when I could not live without Him, and when I was completely and utterly without hope in this evil world. The more this idea sinks into my mind and heart, the more I realize that nothing is mine and the greatest desire of my heart is to go wherever He sends me and do whatever He wants me to do. The coolest thing, He has called us to be like Him to these children. To come into their lives to help them when they cannot do that for themselves. I was reading in Luke earlier today (Luke 6) about what it means to show real love.
Our call to this orphanage, on a spiritual level, was to be like our Father!