God Receives All Children Equally

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The title of this entry is a wonderful theological truth, bit it also is an acronym for Grace Home for Children, the name of the home/orphanage we visited today. Conceived by Libby Dearing, this is a family home for orphans that is comprised of four houses that have a "Mama" and up to six children of various ages (just like a family). Libby had originally hoped and prayed for start up funding of $85,000, but a church in Knoxville, TN, that knew Libby's husband, Fred (currently the District Superintendent of the United Methodist Churches in Yei) heard about Libby's dream and decided to take up a Christmas offering (called "for his birthday, Jesus wants you to build an orphanage in South Sudan); Libby was astonished to receive over $300,000, enough to do the construction and pay for two years of operating costs. You can read more about this on Facebook or by Googling Grace Home for Children.

This beautiful facility also has a dining/meeting room, solar powered electricity, and acres of land for a huge garden and orchard. It just opened less than two months ago, but it will someday soon produced oranges, guavas, tomatoes, kale, watermelon, okra, onion and much, much more. Right now there are 20 children in residence, but space for 4 more. Most of them are called "double orphans" (both parents deceased), but there is a pair of twins whose mother is deceased and the father proved to be unable to care for them properly. They range in age from about two to twelve and none of them are in school because they moved in after the school term had begun. They would be in preschool through fourth grade, and that should happen when the next school year begins in February.

it took about 20 minutes to reach the facility which is in the outskirts of Yei (we were leery of a trip down a long and winding road after yesterday's eight hours of jostling, so 20 minutes was a piece of cake!). Karen, Ellen and I were able to spend about 90 minutes with them singing songs, drawing pictures, reading books, making ABC and number flash cards, and playing games. The children were eager for both the attention and the opportunity to do something other than chase each other around. We will be going back tomorrow with a bit more of a plan than we had today and are eager to educate, entertain and envelop these children with love. We would have spent this week observing classes here at Harvesters, but the students are taking exams,so God put a different blessing in our itinerary. We are not sure yet what we will be doing on Friday, but as we read in Jeremiah, God has a plan for us, and it is for good.

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