The Girls at Zau de Cimpie

This week we worked in the orphanage at Zau. It is a big old castle located on a hill overlooking the city. You can see it for miles before you drive up. This was the hardest week we have had and I felt the spiritual warfare for the entire one- our drive every morning. Satan did his hardest to discourage me and convince me that the girls did not care that we came and they were not learning anything from the Bible lessons that we gave. On Wednesday I was sitting on the porch really discouraged. I felt like I could not teach another Bible lesson. The Spirit came over me and reminded me that God is my provider. When I cannot go on, it is then that He will carry me. When I cannot love these children, He will love them through me. When I fall down, it is then that He holds me. When I am discouraged and I have no strenth, He is my strength. Although it was the hardest and most emotional week, it has been my favorite.
I worked with the teens with Mandy-one of the interns, Anca and Ioana-the in-country staff. The first few days were rough and we had a hard time getting them involved in the discussion and games. It was Thursday before they became comfortable enough with us to really participate. On Friday we received a lot of compliments on the day from the in country staff. I could not take any credit because I know that it was God working through me. That was not our program. It was very awesome to see Him work through us.
The girls were very precious. I would have taken any one of them home with me, all of them if possible. It was neat to see how they get along so well. Living in the orphanage would be like having 45 sisters around all the time.
It was heartrending to hear their stories. Some of them have 3 or four sisters in the orphanage. One family of 5 was dropped off right at Christmas time because their family did not want them anymore. The oldest was about 17. Bella has five sisters but she was the only daughter that her mother did not want. Several of the girls' parents took them home to work on the farms for the summer. The girls will come back in the fall to go to school.
One of the girls who has a special place in my heart is named Mimi. She is about 13 and one of the happiest girls I have ever met. We had very limited conversations: Hi. How are You? That is about it. Everything else that we said to each other we could not understand. She would always be smiling. No matter how mad the girls would get at her because she had already listened to the same song six times and now she was listening to it again, she would smile and laugh and keep on playing it over and over. She would come over grab my arm, and and we would dance for just a minute before she started laughing, maybe I am a bad dancer, I don't know why she laughed. Then we would do it again, I will cherish that moment forever.