Bible lessons in orphanages
God will never leave you
The village of Mizoch is 30 kilometers or so from Rovno, Ukraine. There’s an orphanage there that our team of Agape volunteers visits every week.
To even get to Mizoch to serve the orphans there is a real effort. Each and every trip is a challenge for our team of volunteers, many of whom are students and will be missing classes or shifts at work that they’ll have to make up. Even though we visit the Mizoch orphanage only once a week, these visits have turned out to be a real test of our faith. Regardless of the challenges, each of us is eager to serve God and minister to these children. We know God is with us, guiding and encouraging us, giving us the strength we need and blessing our ministry.
This week, we made the trip once again. Our bus finally pulled into the orphanage driveway. We got out, I went inside, entered on of the 1st grade classrooms, and felt like I’d stepped into another world. And the Lord was with me there, too. I was aware of His presence every single minute of my time in that classroom, encouraging and supporting me.
This orphanage is the place where I personally became yet another witness of how truly great our God is. As we have ministered here, He’s become the center of our lives. We’ve seen His provision over and over again, especially when it seems like there’s nothing we can do. That is when He especially helps and supports us, teaching and providing. We can look back at our life and ministry here and see the road the Lord has brought us down; we can clearly see His leading and His presence. He is teaching us to see and understand His bottomless love! No conference or seminar could ever let us see Him in this way.
Every week, as we head out to this orphanage, as the kilometers go by, we all have a real desire to convey the truths of the word of God to these children. It may be a challenge in some ways, but our hearts have become so attached to these children that we can’t wait until we see them again. One winter the orphanage was quarantined with the flu or something, and we couldn’t go for 3 weeks – during those 3 weeks, every single one of us just couldn’t wait to be back with the children.
Each child becomes as close as family for you as you work with them week in and week out. I remember a situation with one of the 9th graders we worked with… he was going to be expelled from the orphanage school for disruptive behavior. Those of us who worked with him began really pray for him and support him in any way we could. Praise the Lord, he was allowed to stay! We could see His divine intervention in that case as well as many others.
Emmanuel truly is God With Us! That’s really what we need to hang on to, no matter where we may find ourselves. His amazing grace is sufficient for anything and everything, and it’s enough to give these orphans hope and change their lives.
Every week as we drive up to the orphanage, I find myself eagerly looking up the path that leads to the school: is anyone running to meet us? As soon as they see us, they come running and latch on to us like ivy, little ones and teens alike, clinging to us…it’s impossible to even move for the first few minutes.
Our goal as we minister to them is to leave kernels of the God’s love deep in their hearts, and to warm their lives with the touch of gentle, loving hands. When we’re with them, these children forget the cold walls of their little world, the harsh life of the orphanage, their daily weariness of it all. They drink in the truths of the Word of God, eagerly accepting his living Word. One time, as we were wrapping up a lesson, having just taught the parable of the ungrateful debtor, one of the boys was so affected by the story that he broke down crying right there in the classroom. Every week, even before we can get out the door, the children are excitedly confirming that we will indeed be back soon.
Orphanage ministry is not easy, but let me just say this: even if you are tired, GO. If you feel like you’re not up to it, still go, still go and love them. Show them the love of God, even if you don’t say a word. Just be there for them...
The best possible orphanage can never give these children the gentle touch of a mother or the support of a father’s shoulder to cry on. They need to know the love of God – through us. As our Heavenly Father has promised “a mother may abandon her own child, but know that your Lord will never leave you and never forsake you!”
Agape teacher,
Inna Shostak
