Precious Children

Today we spent the entire day with the orphans from Agape. Whoa! It was absolutely amazing. We took the 20 minute ride to the site of the orphanage and we could barely get off the bus because the orphans were all crowded around the door trying to hug us. It was the best welcome we have ever had! Many of us became overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of these precious ones overcome with joy and love for us. It was beyond description.

And let me tell you: we had some church up in here today!! Several of the children shared testimonies and scripture. They thanked us over and over again for coming to see them and for supporting them. The overall theme of their message today was that "God is Love"! Amen!! One of the orphans, named Timothy, shared a powerful testimony about how the love of God transformed his life. His father died when he was 5 years old. He said, "I am an orphan, but I don't even care because I have all of you." Both our group and the children had prepared praise and worship songs, and we all lifted up our praises together as a united family in Christ. AMAZING!!

The ladies prepared an enormous feast for us of meat, bananas, beans, potatoes, pineapple, etc. We were humbled and overwhelmed by the amount of food, for we know that it was a tremendous sacrifice. Normally the children are only fed meat twice a year, on Christmas & Easter, so this feast was very out of the ordinary for them. When Peggy (ones of our leaders from sifat) asked us to save any leftover meat for the children, that really put things in perspective as to just how incredibly spoiled us Americans are.

After lunch, we had rousing games of volleyball, soccer & frisbee. Taylor even led a dance session where we taught the children how to do the chicken dance, do the macarena, and we ended with a grand finale of a congo line! Cindi also gave a wonderful VBS lesson to the children about them being made in the image of God. Each child was then given a mirror that they were able to decorate with "fancy jewels".

Many neighborhood children and curious passersby stopped to listen and even join in with the impromptu praise & worship and athletic contests going on. One of the local toddlers actually fell asleep in Katie's lap for over an hour. Our hearts couldn't help but be affected by the poverty and malnourishment of these little ones. Many of them were so tired that they could barely keep their heads up.

Also, I think there are about 6 of us who sponsor orphans at Agape that got to meet their children today. What a special moment for each of them! Pam commented that several of the children knew about her & Chuck because her sponsor child, Jane, had shared so many of Pam's letters with the other children. Truly the letters that the receive are so incredibly meaningful to them. I had a copy of a letter that I had received from one of the orphans named Rosette in my journal with me today. She carried my journal around for the rest of the day and even decorated it with some of the leftover jewels from the mirrors.

To sum up a really long post, this was a truly rewarding and amazing day that none of us will ever forget. Lord Jesus, thank you for uniting us with our brothers and sisters from across the world. We truly worshipped as a family today.