(from July 8, 2011)
Today was a terrific and terrible day - all in one! We went to an orphanage that is allegedly run by a Voodoo priestess. She is out of town with two children seeking medical care in Miami, but her daughter allowed us to go in and serve in many ways. Tandy and I spent most of the early part of the day together, sharing an interpreter. The terrific part of the day was being able to paint lots of little girls fingernails while telling them that God loves them so much and made them beautiful; but, that even in spite of His beautiful creation, our sin keeps us from having a relationship with Him unless we have faith that His one and only perfect Son died on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, then conquered death when God raised Him again. I loved sharing with them that this is a free gift of eternal life when we confess repent and believe! Some of them said they have heard of Jesus before and even said they believed in Him and had given their lives to Him, but it was still an honor to be able to share. We prayed over and held all of the babies, too. Probably another one of my favorite memories was also being able to talk to several of the women working in the orphanage. Many were sweet and nice, but there were two we encountered that seemed to be on the defensive and less than honest or interested when I started speaking of Jesus. The Holy Spirit prompted me to simply slow down with them and try to get more personal - listen more, talk less. I won't say the conversations went super deep, with a translator involved of course, but they certainly softened and both were genuinely moved when we finally prayed over them. When we gave one of them a package of clean water and offered to watch the babies while she went to see Dr. Rick, it seemed like that was the best gift she had received in a long time.
The terrible part of today was of course seeing all of these children with the wrong size shoes on the wrong feet with clothes that didn't fit and hearts that yearned to be loved. Many of them are sick, and some desperately need surgeries which we could not offer them in these circumstances. You can imagine all of the health problems that arise in places that lack good sanitation and enough supplies. Thank you so much to Dr. Rick, Rachel, Kristin, Jesse, and Katie for running the medical clinic. Please pray especially that one boy who needs to have an eye removed would be able to do so soon. One other very difficult thing to see was a 16 year old boy who became blind as he grew up and now cannot see at all. He lives at the orphanage which is an extremely dangerous facility (steel, steep steps, lots of concrete sticking up, no walls on an upper roof deck where they play, etc.). He lays in bed virtually all day long, and his muscles have been to atrophy. Rick, Robby, and Brant taught the boy and one of his friends some exercises to help him regain some strength, physically, but emotionally and mentally, he needs a lot! He is so smart and talented.... and well, this is where I will end on one truly terrific note...
The blind boy has amazing hearing and musical talent. He played a keyboard for us that one of our translators had brought along. We are trying to find a reasonably priced one to buy for him here, but the only new one we could find today was too expensive. The first time I heard him singing while Brant and the translator were playing, the translator said he was singing about how he used to not know Christ, but then God came along and drew him to Himself and now he is walking with God. Then a few minutes later he began playing the keyboard himself and singing I Surrender All - in creole of course, but we all sang along with him in English. It was so amazing! Praise God for letting us be used and be a part of where He is working...
