One Orphan Mission Trips: Kyrgyzstan Team
Our mission statement is, “Building families according to God’s design of adoption while caring for vulnerable children around the world.” Adoption is the first part of the mission and caring for vulnerable children is the second part. Both are so important. Some can adopt a child, but all can care for vulnerable children.
America World is primarily a Christ-centered adoption agency, but we quickly found after America World began in 1994 that there are lots of children waiting for families, and many who are not adoptable, who need extra care and attention. This is one of the reasons we offer mission trips.
Our One Orphan mission trips give individuals, families, and groups the opportunity to work with America World partner orphanages to show the love of Jesus to orphans who have little hope. Our One Orphan teams can have multiple goals for each trip, but ultimately team members are there to love on the children, assist orphanage directors and staff, and simply be the hands and feet of Jesus.
A recent team member wrote the following while in Kyrgyzstan on a One Orphan mission trip:
The hallway of the orphanage was lined with brightly colored flowers, rainbows and cartoon characters. The children had nice dresses and pigtails. On the surface, this place didn’t seem so bad, they were fed, there were plants in the hallways, we were definitely expecting conditions to be a lot worse. Then the reality sets in. It creeps into your stomach and moves up into your heart and the threat of tears is choked down.
It could be a lot worse… really? Did I really just think that? These perfect little faces looking up at me who may never know a home besides this one. Who will likely end up on the streets or in prison once they age-out of the system at 14 years old. Who have un-treated ear infections and rotting teeth. How much worse could it get for them?
The nannies do the best they can with what they have. The kids are not abused or severely mistreated. But that’s not the point. These kids could all be with loving families. All of them. They should be able to celebrate their birthdays and know they have a future. Kids deserve a family.
We have all been thankful that the past two days, the facilities have been nicer than we thought they would be. We have laughed with kids whose names we will never forget, we have held back tears as little ones cling to our necks, not wanting to let us go.
We have documented disorders and flagged health issues for the forthcoming medical team. We have played games and painted nails. We have given what we can, even though it feels like very little.
I hope that we have given these kids some hope that there are people out in the world thinking about them… that they are known. And that even if they don’t find a forever home with a family that loves them, they know that we love them. God loves them. And they will never truly be alone.
Want to join a One Orphan team? Visit our Trips page to see where we are going next!