Treasures in God's heart

Gitka, Valentina and Zsuzsa.....about 1/2 an hour before my departure....


We played some soccer together! :-)


Valentina did NOT want her picture taken and kept saying, "I'm not a monkey!"

Veronika, Anna and me.

I don't know this little one's name, but she is precious!!!

I made my "last" trip to Ukraine, for a while, to visit the Good Samaritan orphanage for girls there, where the Lord directed us about 3 years ago. It was 3 years ago that I met these precious girls who live in a Dutch Reformed Church sponsored orphanage in the village of Nagydobrony, Ukraine. They still speak Hungarian in this formerly Hungarian village, and even keep Hungarian time...Ukraine is one time zone to the east.

These precious girls, many of whom are handicapped, are precious children of the King. Many are severely wounded in spirit from having experienced traumas many of us will could never even imagine. I haven't even bothered to ask about their stories but some of them have been told to me...stories like one little girl whose mom murdered her twin brother right before her eyes; another couple of girls whose family is so abusive that they have been removed for their own safety; and many who, because of being disabled were turned over to the orphanage to raise because it's too hard for families to provide for them.

So, it was bittersweet to visit...the visit was too short for me and for them. The precious ones I got close to before were very stand-offish with me...angry that I'd not come to see them sooner, frustrated that I was not staying, and confused that I am returning to the U.S. Patience, prayer and perseverance finally broke down some of the walls, and in the last 4 hours of my visit there, these girls finally let me in to love them.

I sort of felt like I got a small taste of what God must feel with the children of the world (us) when we resist Him...when we are stand-offish with Him...when we reject His love...when we bring our own misconceptions and self-protecting posturings to Him and make demands that things go 'our way'. His patience in waiting, continuing to love, and again, like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son (see blog below), the Father waits, looking and longing to embrace....and runs to those who finally come home to His love and embrace!