A Day with the Orphans

First things first... we want to direct your eyes to the right side of the page where the greenish looking sidebar is. In there, right above the little photo of us, is a list of prayer concerns/requests/praises that you can be going to God with on our behalf. Sometimes we don't always come right out and say what we need prayer for in these blog posts, so you can check that prayer list and find out how you can pray for us any time you want! Ingenious!

Now to the update. This past Saturday (September 20), we had the opportunity to participate in an outreach our church here planned with a local orphanage. The plan was to meet this group of orphans at a park where we would play some games, have a cookout and just plain have fun. Also, we were to going to mix in a simple salvation message in there to the best of our ability. Wellllllll.. it had been sprinkling a little in the morning, but not enough to deter us from doing the event. So we left the church for the park and arrived on schedule-- and right on schedule the downpour started. It started downpouring the minute we stepped out of the vans. We quickly set up our tents and the grill, but to no avail.. it was just too wet to do anything. So we shifted to plan B and went back to the church with the kids.

At the church, we played some games, which included one of my personal favorites - dodgeball - and a relay race where each person must run to a table lined with plates upon which sit a piece of chocolate in a big pile of cornstarch.  You have to eat the chocolate without using your hands.. this is what the result looks like:

This guy - can't even remember his name, it was so hard to pronounce - latched on to me during this game and clung to my side the rest of the day. Fine by me!

Promptly following that game, we went to another room in the church and ate ourselves silly with nice juicy American burgers and hotdogs (Ballparks, no less!). I think I (Russ) ate 3 hotdogs and a cheeseburger myself, along with some potato and macaroni salad. We were in heaven. During the meal pastor Chapman, the pastor of our church here, gave a brief salvation message which was translated by one of the Korean women who attended. Some of the kids really listened intently, and others were, well.. about 5 years old with the attention span of a.. well, a 5 year old. It was good though, and we have more things planned with this particular orphanage. After the meal, we played with the kids some more and then said our goodbyes after having made some personal connections to them.  Once we got home from the event, we laid down for a quick nap and didn't wake up until 5 hours later. 

We really felt blessed to have been able to be with those kids and shine some light into their lives.  We could tell that what they really wanted, or maybe needed, was JUST to be with us.  Just to feel loved and cared for.  Just to feel like someone is doing something JUST for them JUST BECAUSE.