Free

The preschoolers after school- they are FREE!  :)

Pastor's son Lens- he is the school principal and a wonderful man of God.

My last post was about some of the "frustrations" going on here at the orphanage, but let me tell you that for every frustration there are SO MANY happy moments- God moments.  Yesterday I was showing Stacey around the place when school was letting out and one by one the girls who had gone to school (about half of them stayed "home" cause they either don't have socks or shoes to wear- they wore them for "play" and now they are not nice enough to be accepted at the school) came home from school and came to find me/us.  They kissed us each on the cheek and told us a bit about their day- some getting out their books to show what they worked on, some showing how they are learning to write and read, etc...   What a warm feeling with one girl doing that, but when it's girl after girl seeking you out to greet you when she gets home from school before changing into play clothes and going off about her business you feel sooooo blessed to be here and be sharing this life with them.

Just before I went down to see Stacey I was sitting in my room talking to a lady on the phone about getting the girls food when all of a sudden I hear "Bonjour Crystal" from my doorway.  You have to understand that the children are not allowed on my floor of the building but sure enough there were the preschoolers-  Lorvencia, Betina, Lovely and Sophia at my door!  They looked just soooo cute so I grabbed my camera and took the photo above.  Then I told them they needed to leave but before they left they asked, "Chante'??"  (sing?)  So we went out on the porch and they proceeded to sing THREE songs for me- one of them "I am Free" - the worship song made popular by the Newsboys among others.  There they were singing, "I am free to dance!  I am free to run!  I am free to live for You!  I am free!"   Again, tears streamed down my face and I was reminded of ALL God has set these children free from!

Thank you for your prayers- for the girls and for us!  They ARE making a difference.  Last night for almost 2 hours pastor's son Lens worked with the girls on "team building" activities! Yep yep!  That's right.  He got them all into a big group and made them do different things to help them become "one unit".  I told him later how proud I was of him for taking a leadership role in their lives and for doing that.  This family cares so much for the girls and desires to help them adjust.  Prayers are making a difference for sure!  Blessings!

PS-  I WISH the internet was fast enough here for me to post video of the song.   I will try again later when we have electricity- my computer is down to 15% battery.