Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Local churches or local governments refer children to our S.E Asia orphanages. Some youngsters have lost their entire families in disasters or in wars. Some of the kids were just abandoned by their relatives. These children come to us when they are very young so we do not always know the entire story of their life before we found them. James, for example, was found living on the streets when he was just five years old, alone and forgotten. It is hard to us in the west to understand or imagine such severe poverty that would cause us to abandon our children.

I read an account of other such children in a book called “No Longer a Slumdog” by K.P. Yohannan. It told one story of two young sisters who traveled by train to Bombay with their mother. At one stop, their mother told them to wait while she ran to get a drink. She never returned and the train continued with the sisters still aboard. Scared and alone, the stayed together until the train reached a large city. They got off and sat down in the train station, confused and desperate. Finally, after several hours, an elderly woman helped them get to a shelter for lost children. Unfortunately, stories like this are commonplace across the Southeast Asia.

God granted us the opportunity to care for children like the ones in the above story. We opened orphanages in Myanmar, Nepal and Sierra Leone. Between all the locations, we house about 45 children. Little ones abandoned and lost in this big world. They come to us scared and forgotten, searching for someone to love them. We are blessed by serving these beautiful children.

The stories of these children also reminds me of our own stories. We are lost and abandoned in a big, scary world. All of us are looking for someone to love us and to care for us. Our orphans found shelter and love in our homes. We can find shelter in the loving arms of Jesus. John 14:18 tells us, “No, I will not abandon you as orphans–I will come to you.”  God is our shelter as shown in Psalms 31:20 “You hide them in the shelter of your presence, safe from those who conspire against them. You shelter them in your presence, far from accusing tongues.” Seek God and He will find you and bring you into His loving shelter and you will be safe forever.

May the Lord Bless you and keep you.

Yvonne

Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”