Doing ministry in a children’s home grabs your heart in a
different kind of way.
I’ve been around over time and I have seen some hard
things. Poverty, unrest, sickness,
sadness, godlessness… it absolutely hurts me to see those things. But there is just something about
orphans. Innocent kids who are for
whatever reason: lost, given up, left alone.
No home, no parents, no family. No sense of belonging to anyone or feeling
secure. No shoulder to rest on, to cry
on. They experience all the same hard things,
but they are so little, and they do it by themselves.
Every night after 5:30 tea, everyone at the orphanage comes
together into the small main room for prayer time. We open up with the twenty-four kiddos singing
a few songs in Bengali, a couple in English, a short testimony, and then we
pray out loud. This is one of my
favorite things. I love sitting in a
room full of beautiful little Indian faces worshipping and talking to God.
Yesterday I happened to be sitting in the front of the room
facing all of the kids. Always as soon
as it is time to pray, the room becomes full with the sound of all different
voices in different languages. As I was
praying, I glanced up and saw the entire room full of little eyes closed little
hands folded, every single little mouth moving.
I couldn’t help but stop for a minute and just watch them. And as I did, all I heard were the words, “Rachel, these kids are not orphans.” Wow.
In a nation over 99% Hindu, although these kids may not have parents,
they are part of the 0.3% who get to be raised knowing that they have a
heavenly Father. They are known, and
they are so loved.
The second-most common question in India next to, “what is
your name?” is the question: “What is your
father’s name?” I think this is so interesting. In a culture consumed with such poverty and
social ranking, your status as a person is weighed by who your father is and
what he does.
I lost my father four years ago to cancer. Not that this makes me an orphan by any
means, but every day when people on the streets of Calcutta ask me this
question, I guess it throws me off guard a little bit. But since I have been here, something that
God has continuously been reminding me in my spirit is “Rachel, you are not fatherless.”
‘I will proclaim the Lord’s
decree:
He said to me, “You are my
son;
Today I have become your
father.”‘ Psalm 2:7
“These kids are not
orphans, they are Mine”
And me, I am not fatherless. I am His.
So, what is my father’s name you ask? How about Abba Father,
God Almighty – King of Kings, Creator of heaven and earth.
Thankful
for this reminder, and for an entire orphanage full of sons and daughters.
