Blessings at an Orphanage

August 04, 2010

Check out this great video of the kids!

Getting the supplies down to the orphanage.

Loading the truck with supplies provided by LDS Charities!

I came on this mission to serve others. In serving others, we can find healing and peace and I desperately needed these things. I anticipated that by serving others, I would feel better in doing good and see my many blessings more clearly and feel happier. I would be wrong if I said that has not happened, because it most certainly has. However, what I did not expect was the healing that is coming from being served by others, especially the people of Indonesia. Everyday, I meet someone who teaches me by their example. These people are gentle, kind and thankful. They live very hard lives, yet they do not seem to know it. They are quick to smile and easy to hug. They are teaching me how easy it is to reach out and physically touch another with a handshake, a hug or a kiss on the cheek. They are teaching me to be thankful and appreciative of the smallest of things. I'm am never more humbled than when we tell a patient they are ill, but we cannot help them and they thank us. They are grateful we took the time to see them and for them, that is enough.

The greatest lesson, thus far, came from the children in an orphanage. They have so little. No parents. No room of their own. Precious few belongings. They too, smile and laugh and freely give love and affection. These particular children have a great desire for fresh water. Their water comes from a nearby stream and it is contaminated. So, every Saturday for two years, they have fasted and prayed for fresh water. They donate whatever little money they may have so that once each year, they can give to children less fortunate.

Me and the orphanage director.

Saturday, we arrived at their orphanage as they were singing hymns and worshiping to break their weekly fast. Initially, I did not know it was a worship service, nor did I know about their fasting and prayer, but I felt the Spirit more strongly than I have felt it in a long time and I knew I was in the midst of something special. I listened to the prayer given in closing. The only words I understood were "Terima kasih." Thank you. Those words were spoken so many times in prayer that it caused me to wonder how they could possibly have so much to be thankful for.

You see, we did not know what they had been fasting and praying for and they did not know that we had just delivered water filters among all the supplies we brought! I am blessed that Heavenly Father used me and those with me as His hands, to answer the earnest prayers of these children. I am even more blessed to have received a great lesson in faith from them.