today, i talked to the teenage boys and girls at the jelgava city orphanage.
the translators told me that these young men and women were into everything. yes…everything.
later in the evening, i went upstairs to spend some time with the 9-12 year-old boys. the difference was staggering. the translators for buckner visit this orphanage multiple times per month…and they began one year ago.
they admit that they may have come to this place too late to have a lasting effect on those 17 and over…but they are determined to break the cycle in these understaffed, secular city orphanages in latvia. that cycle, as you can imagine, includes everything from alcohol, to drugs, to promiscuous sex…etc, etc…
the work with the young boys has already produced the kind of fruit that gets them to church and sunday school on a regular basis. the regular visits by these latvian volunteers for buckner help reinforce the seeds the local church (and the american visitors) plant.
keep them in your prayers. long after we have gone, these young beleivers – many of them in high school – will still be doing the lord’s work in these places where children don’t have the most important factor of all to stay strong in their faith…
…a mom and a dad.
if you had them…be thankful. if you have them now, be thankful all the more.
and pray. without ceasing. lord, we insulate ourselves so easily from those most affected by the evils in this world. give us the boldness to walk where we’ve never walked before, and pull these precious little ones away from the flames…whether those flames are 5,000 or 5 miles from our front doors…amen.
mz in lv
