"I know why you’re here,” said Vinyamin on our last day in Vohkma.
This little village of fewer than 5,000 people is more than 500 miles northeast of Moscow. It offers fresh air, brutal winter, and lots of sunlight in the summer (the sun set around 11:30 p.m. and was up by 4:00 a.m. every day). But to the orphaned, abandoned, and rejected children who find themselves in its orphanage and boarding school, it offers little else.
Vinyamin, 59, a hardened and hardworking reforming atheist and former communist, understood our mission to share God’s hope and practical help with orphaned children. He is the director of the Orphanage and Boarding School in Vohkma, where 22 of Russia’s nearly 1 million institutionalized children live. He opened the orphanage’s doors to the gospel.
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I was visiting as part of a summer project sponsored by Children’s HopeChest, an international Christian ministry to orphans. With me were my wife, Julie, our 13-month old son, Judah, and about 75 American volunteers.
Restore, Rebuild, RenovateFor these kids, justice and opportunity, affection and encouragement are not available. Their parents are alcoholics or unfit, maybe even dead. Their uncles are abusive and their older sisters are prostitutes. Their friends are addicts and thieves. What awaits them is no better.
These children have become my friends, my brothers and sisters, my children. I have looked into their eyes, and I have realized what is most important in life. Despite the challenge and despair of their condition, they are God’s kids.
In addition to being friends and fun kids to hang out with, these orphaned children have also become my teachers. I’ve learned, as the Gospels and the prophets teach us, that when our lives are turned outward in compassion to those in extreme need, we receive a priceless reward. Isaiah 58 shouts this message. It speaks of giving ourselves to the down and out: feeding, clothing, caring for those in need. What happens then? Verse 12 says that “you’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again,” (Isaiah 58:12, The Message).
Restore. Rebuild. Renovate. I’m not a handyman. Ask my wife. But I’m on the crew now. The project: God moving into dead communities and bringing life there.
Saving LivesThe trauma that has landed these orphans in the dark and dank halls of orphanages, dormitories, and boarding schools has left cancerous scars and deep wounds. Life in these places is rife with abuse, neglect, criticism, and destructive behavior. All this prepares children for failure. Upon leaving an orphanage in Russia at the age of 15 or 16, nearly 20 percent will commit suicide. An estimated 60 percent will enter prostitution and crime, usually not by choice.