Blessings in Disguise . . .

Over  the past couple days, some complications surrounding the timing of my receiving my (new) Russian passport arose.  Rather than bore everyone with every frustrating detail of the paperwork process, I'd like to assure everyone I am still participating in an internship at my former orphanage in St Petersburg, Russia.  Only the dates are changing. 

But, God knew all that ahead of time; He wasn't surprised.  Instead, some other really exciting doors haved opened in the interim:  First, I will be spending several weeks serving (abused and neglected) foster children at Camp Alandale, up in the mountains.  Secondly, I will be helping assist with a tour group of 10 orphans from Kyrgyzstan visiting OC in July.
Both these experiences will help me sharpen my goals for interning in Russia.  Both are consistent with my mission's theme "Love is the Key".  Love, God's love, is truly the key in bringing healing, wholeness and hope to both local foster children and international orphans.  

Besides being able to 'love on' local kids many of whom don't have a concept of real love, and serve the Kyrgis kids, a disproportionate whom are "Russian", some other newly realized benefits (of a winter internship) are:  

1) it provides an opportunity to work with a 'full house' of children as no groups (of resident children) will be away at summer camp and study administrative, housekeeping, culinary support when the orphanage is operating at the intensity of a regular rather than modified schedule, 
2) it affords me the opportunity to assist older, school-age orphans studying English curricula in school, 
3) it allows me to allocate more of my funds raised to programs that directly benefit the children vs merely offsetting travel (costs are half what they are in the summer months.
4) it provides me more opportunity to involve more people in my vision and get them excited about being 'the Key' to transformation in these children's lives.
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Blessed To Bless

"God never intended for us to be mere recipients of His love; He calls us to share it with others. We are not to be reservoirs, but channels by which His love can reach the world. When He pours out His love in to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, He wants us to leak like a sieve.... The whole point of being blessed is to pass the blessing on to others."  —George Foster (Bethany International Ministries)

       I've been blessed beyond belief by God. I practicably won the lottery when I got adopted from a small village in Russia to CALIFORNIA,  the land of glittering dreams.
       It is estimated there are between 143 & 210 million orphans worldwide, not including millions of children that are abandoned, sold and/or trafficked, (recent UNICEF report.) In Russia alone there are 730.000 orphans and only one out of ten becomes a functional member of society. The rest are either lost to crime, drugs and suicide.  I was the one that made it out.  Not only was I given a family but  also their love. That is the key to my healing. 
      You see as a child   I was abused, neglected and  exposed to things that traumatized me. So when I got a family, I was lost. I didn't know what it was like to be cared for by a mom and a dad.  Often I threw temper tantrums, and did weird things like rip up a  family picture and so on. I put  my new parents through so much stress, and pain. But they didn't give up on me! They still hugged me, kissed me,  and wanted to talk to me.    After about a year of constant confusion, and me trying to find my place in the family, I began to realize something..  These people who hardly knew me at first,  chose  ME  to be their daughter.  They actually wanted....  me??? Me!! At that moment  I felt a sense of value. I felt something greatly unfamiliar ... I felt LOVED.  Their love is what healed me from my traumas. It were even the little things like helping me with homework, doing my hair, just spending time with me is what helped me learn that  I also  love them. 
       
      My parents  did just  what  George Foster said,  they shared Jesus's  love with me. 
And I want to do the same, that is why I 'm going back to my former orphanage and bless those children with the same love I am blessed with. 

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