Today’s trip to the orphanage was a chance to reopen a door that has been closed for a time. The work has been nurtured by many including Vadim, Jenni, and Anya who started to build this connection.
The challenge for me today is reconciling the situation with an experience I’ve had this last year. The children at this orphanage have been classified as special needs. The classification includes everything from mild learning disabilities to more serious Downs syndrome type cases. During the last year my George Fox MBA consulting project was with the ARC in Boise. The ARC provides much more than just a curbside pickup service for your used items. The mission of the ARC revolves around serving the same group of people that this orphanage does when they are adults.
The ARC provides job training, life skills training, and real jobs for the special needs community, but most of all, the ARC provides their clients with dignity. The basic human desire to feel dignified needed and loved.
What I saw today was, our partners in Russian ministry doing these basic things for the kids at the orphanage. These kids are not in a great situation by any means, but when I saw Jenni, Vadim and others become the center of these kids world, it was overwhelming. The kids absolutely love the team from Tambov. The team shows these kids that they are important, loved and truly dignified. Hugging, listening, eye to eye contact, talking, and just loving them. We may not be able to change the entire world but this ministry is doing all within it’s power to impact the lives of the young people we met today.
This may not be a very complete or coherent thought, but allow me the liberty to process out loud and be thankful for all that God is doing, while holding out hope for more.
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