Orphanage Visit

So I am back from my four day visit to the orphanage and I can tell you that I felt your prayers!!! And they were much needed, and answered!
I arrived in Lutrini (the small town where the orphanage is) and was brought to where I would stay.
There was a former orphan that has moved out on his own and had an apartment that he was willing to share while I was there.

These apartments are given to the orphans by the government when they are to old to stay at the orphanage. Yes, I am sure you are saying what I said…”wow, that is nice!” right? Well, not exactly! The don’t give them much. This apartment consisted of a sink in a kitchen the size of a small walk in closet with nothing in it except corroded floors and wall, will holes and wires hanging out, the bathroom was even worse, just a toilet to say the most! And then a little living room with a couch to sleep on.
Not that I am complaining about staying there because it was an absolute blessing from God to be able to stay there. But I say this just to give you an idea of what the orphans are dealing with.

I was welcomed by the staff at the orphanage, even though I was told I could not stay there with the kids. It was very cool just to hang out and play with them hug them, eat with them, just do life with them!

BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED THE NEXT DAY!!!!
I was walking up the stairs to the orphanage to go take a shower thinking everything was fine just to have the girls run down the stairs telling me to run and go outside… then I heard a word that I understood quite well that stopped me in my tracks; “Vaditai” which means director.
They were running from the director? Why? I thought everything was fine? I mean the teachers welcomed me, let me hang out with the kids for two days, why would we be running from the Director???
So she came to the stairwell and started to yell at the girls.
Some cried, some yelled back!
It was a mess!
It was not how I wanted to meet the new director, and it was definitely not the first impression I wanted to give her!!! Dangit!

So I sat downstairs waiting to have the girls come down and I would have to give them hugs and say goodbye, because I knew now that I was not a welcome there as I thought! I sat and prayed and prayed that Jesus would intervene somehow, and somehow make something good out of this terrible confusion. About an hour later some of the girls came down (the one who were not crying) and asked if I wanted to talk to the director. “she wants to talk to me?” I asked. So we went upstairs my heart was beating so hard, and I went into her office. She did not understand much English and I could only speak a little Latvian…so I had the girls help.
I apologized for the misunderstanding and told her my story of how I came to know the kids, I told her my reason for being in Latvia, and told her I really want to learn the Latvian language. She told me she wants to learn English also. Then I said I would love to come help the staff anytime and she asked if I would teach English to the kids. I said I could help them as much a possible.
She said that she would talk to the “big boss” and if he said it was ok , I would be welcome to stay at the orphanage during the weekends and be with the kids!!!

Oh Jesus is good!!!! So good!
Thank you for your prayers…I can honestly say without a doubt that this was JESUS at work! I felt it in a way like nothing else! So cool!

So that is the biggest part of the four days, but there was so much more!!! Just hanging out and loving on the kids was more than I could have asked for! I miss them already!

Click here to check out pictures of the time there: Orphanage Visit