KDurant7 blog adventures

Santa Cruz, Bolivia & Other Countries

There are many orphan homes most everywhere you go in the world, but have you ever gone inside to do something encouraging for the kids? My wife and I had that opportunity, and we visited orphan homes with our kids almost every week. We could share of hundreds of experiences, but I will share what is most impressive at the end. We often got local factories to donate noodles, socks, or something to take to the orphan homes where two dozen, or where even one hundred kids grew up with no parents.  We sang gospel kids songs and got them to dance around the room with us and it was fun! Then we did our flannelgraph Bible stories. We would hang a 3’ by 5’ black flannel cloth on the wall and as the story was told, pull out a paper cut outs of the characters to stick on the display while telling the story. They had no TVs back then, so this way of telling Bible stories was fascinating to them. We would pray with them and then we would have to say ‘goodbye’. The goodbyes were hard as they loved our attention and the happiness, we brought them. The love we felt motivated us to keep going back to visit them so we could see their bright eyes and big smiles. Here is what became overwhelming. When we would leave, we would almost always get a huge group hug from all the kids. There were arms hugging our legs and body to the point that having a few dozen hands around us meant that we could not even walk to get out the door! We got stuck for several minutes at a time getting hugged by these sweet children who just wanted to be loved! It was heartbreaking to realize that with no parents, our time with them meant the world to them. We did shed tears over these experiences, and we wished we could have taken them all home with us, but that was not within our ability.  Do you know a child without his parents? Hug them, love them, and tell them Bible stories too, so they learn that God loves them, and it is He who will make them tough to fight the good fight of faith.