“Ya!”
“Who wants the rice?”
“Ya!”
“Who wants the last cookie?”
“Ya!”
Some days our apartment turns into a live multilingual auction for food. When kids show up unexpected, we empty out our fridge and they eagerly accept! While my American cooking is usually the last to go, none of the cookies I bake are hardly on the plate long enough to cool before they’re all snatched up.
These last few weeks here, our apartment has a consistent flow of kids! About 5 or 6 days a week, we have teenagers taking over our apartment. It’s been really exciting to grow in deeper relationships with “our kids” and develop new relationships with some new faces. Here are some of our latest exciting updates!
- Kolya, 14, (above in the white) is being adopted by a local family! We’re so excited about this awesome opportunity for him! Since the orphanage doesn’t allow kids his age to go out on weeknights, when Kolya told us about the adoption, one of the first things he said was “I’ll be able to come to Wednesday nights now!”
- Two girls, Yulia and Luda, who have been previously hardened to relationship or learning about the teachings of Jesus, have been consistently seeking our friendship. They come over a couple of nights a week and even invited us to the apartment they share; Anya and I are looking forward to having a slumber party with them soon!
- On Thursday evenings, we have been having a discussion night, specifically with the purpose of seeking the Lord and encouraging each other. We have seen a major growth spurt in the spiritual lives of our kids as they are beginning to share with us testimonies of how God has worked in their lives, discuss and ask questions, and listen to the Lord for spiritual songs and words of encouragement. We love watching them grow!
Thank you so much for participating in the lives of these kids with your prayers and encouragement. God has been teaching Jared and me a lot about the family of God and we are so thankful to know that we have family all over the world! We have a good Father and are continually learning about how to better love and serve our brothers and sisters.
