Editors Note: Once again, a few years ago but valid still
I took my family to see ‘Behold the Lamb’ yesterday at the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, PA. It was a great play by the way. I highly recommend it. A nice gentleman from New England was sitting next to me. We got to talking (not a hard thing for me) and our conversation came around to what I had been doing at the Michael Job Center for Orphan Girls during the last couple of months. I’ve been thinking about that – what I’ve REALLY been doing there and what the real needs are at the orphanage. I gave him my pat answers; that I’m helping to set up the digital library for the girls and the start-up of an IT park where the orphans can work (if they desire that kind of computer work) after graduating from school.
But neither of my answers seemed to really convey what I’ve been doing there. I think what the real need is, and what I’ve tried my best to do – is to play the part of a Christian Dad to the orphaned girls. The Lord miraculously provides for them in so many ways. The stories of how they got good water to the facility, electricity, and even a decent road next to the center are all miracles in and of themselves. As I watched the girls eat three meals a day (more than the vast majority of Indians) of the best food available and eat all they wanted – I marveled at how God blesses His girls there. So many of their physical and educational needs are being met that I realized the most important gift I had given was to provide them with spiritual and emotional support.
I think what they need most of all are good, solid, mature Christian men who love them unconditionally. Love them with the kind of agape love that lets them know – for sure – that even after the terrible tragedies most of them have endured such as the murder of their families – that Good Men, Loving Men, Men you can depend on– do exist in this world for them. The emotional hunger I saw every day in their eyes showed me that this was one of their most pressing needs. Satan destroyed all that was familiar to them. They need to learn how to trust again. I saw their need to believe that it is possible to go on, to play again, to laugh again, to grow past the horrible hurts of the past and thrive in this new environment. I saw that if I could do anything that would matter the most it would simply be to love them with the unconditional love of a Christian Dad. A love that is consistent, truthful, forgiving, and always encouraging them to be their best. At the end of every sermon, at the finish of every 5:45 am chapel service message, at the conclusion of each Sunday Night Worship program, I always said (and they know that I meant it…)
“Oh… One Last Thing…. (and with the sign language motions that I had taught them and that the girls demonstrated back to me as I did them; I said, and they said and we signed to each other)
I. . .LOVE. . . YOU!!!”
I think that Last Thing is what they remembered the most from whatever sermon I had just preached. Maybe it should always be that way – when it’s all said and done – what you remember – what you’ll always remember, is the Love.
On the spiritual side, I started everyone on the 40 Days of Purpose program that Rick Warren put together. It changed my life and I thought it might help these girls who also hunger to know why they are still in this world. Remember, these girls are the survivors. Not some game show survivors who scheme and connive to win a million. These girls are the ones who were not murdered. Their families were not spared but they were. They ran faster and farther, hid better, outsmarted and outwitted those who were literally out to kill them. These girls are smart. They are quick. But many of them are also left with a tremendous sense of loss – they carry within themselves a horribly depressing fissure of despair where everything they know has been swallowed up by the hate of their would-be killers. One of their most pressing needs is to know they really can go on because God has a real plan for them. That it is important for them to find their place in His purpose for their lives and accomplish it.
So they all call me Uncle Tom. They don’t know anything about the reference to Uncle Tom’s Cabin so it’s just Uncle Tom in their minds. A few call me Dad – because for them I’ve taken on that role. And that’s hard. Because a Dad should be there for you – all the time – and I already have that job with my own two wonderful children in the United States. If I’m with the girls in India, I’m missing the family I left behind in the US. I’m typing this now from the lobby of the Bird-In-Hand Inn in Lancaster, PA at 3:55 am. I’m having a great time with my US family as we reconnect during this mini-vacation but I miss my 500 nieces and just as importantly I know they miss me. I’m here. I’m not there and if you are going to correctly do your ‘Christian Dad Job’ – well you just have to be there. So maybe calling me Uncle is a more appropriate title right now.
So what do I do at the Michael Job Centre for Orphan Girls? I’m their Uncle. It’s a really good position with lots of benefits. There are more openings if you know anyone who’s interested . . .
Neighbor Tom