girls orphanage

we spent the day with a great group of girls ranging from 12-22 years old at an orphanage, the house of ruth, outside of tourou.  there were several different means as to how they ended up at the orphanage, one someone could witness them in an abusive situation and tell the orphanage and they would go and get them, two the girls could check themselves in if they were in an abusive situation, trafficking, whatever, third their parents could bring them there and drop them off, none better than the other, all horrible ways to live part of your life.  once at the orphanage they are educated in french and taught a trade.  once they graduate from the program they are given  the machine they have learned their trade on so that they can start their on business.  

on the way to house of ruth we had a flat tire, we were running late, and a bit frustrated, but as we drove up the place seemed desolate.  we parked and unloaded our things and were taken to the chapel where everyone was waiting for us.  there are 50 girls in their program and as we walked in the all stood up and began singing and clapping as we walked down the isle to the front.  it was one of the most humbling things that i have ever experienced and one of the biggest honors given to me.  as we set down they continued singing welcoming us to their place.  as they sung i looked out over them and was overwhelmed with the fact that they all had horrible things take place in their lives but the joy and potential was overflowing.  the admininstration had set up a service with worship and speakers to express thanks.  as we were in worship i realized that is the way heaven will be like, different races, cultures, types of worship, all together with one purpose.  they also invited me to speak to the girls which was also a huge honor.  i spoke on forgiveness and joseph.  after the bible study we presented them with the gifts that we had brought for them. thanks to people here in the states we were able to present them with shampoos, colored pencils, sharpeners, femine products, rice, oil, and soap.  they were very grateful and excited about the gifts.  they are in need of so many items, everything from mattresses to school supplies to machines for the girls to work on.  hopefully this year we will be able to provide for some of their needs.  next we gave the girls snacks and drinks while we set up different stations for their "party."  at first we were a little nervous because we did not realize the girls were as old as they were and what we had planned was geared toward the younger ones.  it did not matter though, they girls had a blast.  we had fingernail and toenail painting station.  to all those who donated fingernail stickers, they were a hit! we gave each girl a gift bag with lip gloss and tooth brushes and tooth paste in them and set up a station for them to decorate their bags.  another station was a bead station for them to make bracelets and necklaces.  some of the girls spent the whole time at this station working so hard on their jewelry.  the last station was face painting, by the end of the day everyone was painted up.  this was a great outreach, it turned out so much better than we could ever imagine.