Visiting Orphans

Today's guest post is from Frank Pass, a part of our ONEfamily Council and on staff with Visiting Orphans, an amazing organization that leads teams of people to do just that.  Visit Orphans.  

He just got back from a trip to China and below are his thoughts about orphan care.  

If you'd like to learn more about how you can join Visiting Orphans on one of their upcoming trips, click here. 

I was asked a question today and I answered without hesitation. I was that sure of my answer, but after I did I had to ask myself why. Why am I so sure?

The question... "Why China?" Actually it was worded like this... "Do you feel you do as much good in China as you do when you go to Africa?"

I've been to places in Africa where the children have literally nothing. Where they live off of trash and are lucky if they have one meal a day. I've been in African facilities that house children that are in such poor condition that we would not house our most despised criminals there. I have seen heartbreaking situations in Africa and believe it or not I have sent teams to places far worse than I have experienced.

China by comparison is clean. It is fairly modern. The facilities in the orphanages I have seen are well kept and the children go to school. Many have equipment and somewhat trained workers for their special needs kids. The children are well fed and their basic survival needs are met. So why China? Why is the need there as great? Why do I plan to return and send more teams next year? Here are a few thoughts I have about China, a country that has my heart. A country that gave me my precious Ella Grace.

First of all it's not a competition. It's not China vs. Africa or foreign vs. domestic. God has most likely placed a call for orphans on your heart and you are drawn to a specific location. Maybe it's China, maybe it's Africa, maybe it's foster care in your community, or a special needs home in your town. Follow that call. Pure religion is to visit widows and orphans. Just do it.

But why China? Why am I so drawn to this place? Why is it so important that we continue to go?

Last year in Chifeng we met 2 young men we called Batman and Robin. Batman and Robin were always the first to greet us and the last to say goodbye. As we stepped out of the van this year, 15 months after we had left, we were almost tackled by Batman. He told us, "Every time I hear a plane in the sky, I pray that it is you."

There is a hopelessness to being an orphan and in China especially orphans have no value. It is a country where society is more important than the individual and society has deemed these children to have no worth. Girls are discarded because of their gender and those with disabilities or special needs are not wanted by their families. The children who are left at orphanages are the lucky ones.

Now imagine the joy that comes when a group of strangers with strange looking skin shows up, and we came halfway across the world just to see you. Because it is a lie that you are worthless. It is a lie that you have no hope. It is a lie that you are not loved. We love you. We value you. We came here because of you. And guess what, God loves you too. The joy that this brings is not theoretical, it is real. I have seen it and I have experienced it. I was mobbed every day by a class of special needs kids who knew. I was there for them.

Now this is China and there is a language barrier. More than that, this is China and certain things are not allowed. All those things about God and love are not spoken verbally but they are shared and they are real and make no mistake, they are communicated. I tell our China teams, you can't talk about Jesus in China but you get to be Jesus in China. One day we made crowns for the kids and I heard Christine McNeal telling each child, "You are a daughter of the king. You are a son of the king. We are probably the only groups that go into government run orphanages in China and pray for children  by name, while holding and touching them. That's one time when a language barrier works in your favor. Don't think that matters? Let me tell you a story.

Last year we saw a little boy. He never left his crib. We were told he had fragile bones and they would break if he was even picked up. He did not smile, or move or respond in any way to us. He just lay in the crib at the end of the room. I remember being petrified that a stray ball would bounce in his bed and kill him. All we could do was pray for him, and we did, but honestly he was the one child that I did not expect to see this year. He was just too sick.

That's his picture at the bottom of this note. That smiling boy in the wheelchair is the same sick kid we saw a year ago. We could not believe the change. I don't know his story and I never found out about his recovery. Did he get better because of us? No. Did our prayers make a difference? I believe so, and one of the great things about going back to an orphanage year after year is seeing the progress that children make.

Anyway, that's why we go to China. Because it matters. It matters to those children and it matters to us and it matters to God. That's why we sent 5 teams this summer and that's why we will send 6 next summer. It's not too early to start planning. I would love to see you there next year (or in Africa, or in Ukraine or in Rwanda or just to hear how you are loving orphans in your own town).