Hope for Change

As I roamed the streets of where it all began, I was reminded how my journey led me here. Where I am today is a result of what the Lord did in my life in a place called Romania. It still amazes me how He works, how He plans it all, and how He uses our whole lives to take us to wherever we are today.

I took joy in seeing the improvements in the lives of so many orphan children here. The country has come so far in 20 years. In many ways it is a miracle. It isn’t perfect just as no place truly is. 3 steps forward at times result in one step back. I saw improvement were that the government seems to understand the value of preserving families. They understand that institutionalizing children is not the solution to the orphan epidemic. They understand measures need to be taken to build families up and to break the cycle of abandonment from the beginning. How to do that is the million dollar question. It isn’t easy.

Still in the midst of trying to figure it all out. Children are left in limbo. They aren’t considered young enough to be labeled as undamaged and aren’t old enough to have learned enough lessons to be equipped with making wise decisions and lead productive lives on their own. And so…the cycle continues for them. No jobs, no money, no education, no family, where is their hope? Many don’t know the true Author and Perfector of hope. They live in a world that most would consider hell on earth. They don’t live…they exist. This is the story of so many orphan children. Then of course there are the success stories. The ones we have reached. They are the ones that were saved by the prayers of people they may never meet. Seeing the look in their eyes reminds us that yes, there IS good in the world.

It’s been two and a half years since I had been in Romania. It was way too long. This place will always hold a special place in my heart. I doubt that will ever change. The people, the language, the countryside, the culture, the history, the way the Lord has a way of showing Himself to me there, I truly love this place and am so thankful I was able to go back. However, just as each time before when the airplane lifted off the runway from this place called Romania, my heart silently cried out for the abused, abandoned, and suffering children I leave behind there.

I think of the children I saw in one orphanage that were clearly abused in more ways than I can imagine. I think of the Gypsy boys on the street that smelled as if they hadn’t been bathed in months. I think of the young children that begged me for food while I ate KFC and drank a cold Pepsi one day. I think of the young girls in a transitional home that are clawing their way out of a messed up cycle and a past they try desperately to overcome. I think of an orphan that was told her whole life she would never amount to anything and who says she just can’t seem to say the words “I love you” to others for reasons she doesn’t quite understand. I think of the blank institutionalized stares of the abandoned’s eyes that often haunt me in the darkness and silence of the night. As I whimpered through my prayers each night for those kids, I heard a quiet and still voice saying “I am in control.” I know it’s Him and I know He is calling us to go minister to others for Him. That is my hope for change.