I sat here this morning counting, over and over how many weeks we've been back! It's been 5 1/12 weeks, yet it seems like so long ago. I'm not really sure why it seems like so long ago for me? However I think about the time we were there everyday. It has changed my life in so many ways. In some ways you can see the change, but other changes only I can see. It's like I have new eyes, like I see things so differently now. I reflect on the time we went to the orphanage of Sister Eness. It was a heartbreaking day! They didn’t have much and the place was the worst conditions I have ever seen. At that moment with the eyes I had all I saw were bars on the openings that they called windows, holes in the walls filled with ants, urine soaked, rusty, torn, and dirty matresses. All I saw was rubbish spread across a back yard, a yard full of weeds and broken glass. All I saw were the children using razor wire to hang their clothes after they washed them. All I saw was a kitchen not suitable for the worst criminals in the world. I saw them using pots that looked like you wouldn’t even feed your animals in. I was afraid to look at their restroom, and actually I never even saw one! So James got an idea to clean up the back yard, at that moment I was feeling so depressed for these children thinking that what I saw was horrible. So I started helping James clean up, that's when Jesus sent me one of his children to open my eyes and change my vision! At that moment a little boy around 8-10 years old came and started to help me, we swept all the rubbish into piles using tree branches, the boy then took a burning piece of wood from the fire they were cooking with and he lit the rubbish on fire. He then took my hand and held it and filled me with so much Love. For about half an hour we stood there, unable to communicate to each other, we just held hands and watched the fire. But through the Holy Spirit we shared the Love of Christ. Through that little boy Jesus opened my heart to look beyond what I saw through my eyes, but to see things through my heart instead. He returned a vision to me that I thought I had lost and would never get back. To see the world through a child’s eyes. To see the good in what we have. To see the joy and happiness of life. We have things so good that when we see things that are not to our standards, we are shocked. Thinking how can these people live this way...Well I realized that day there is no standard of living that Jesus has. It is in our Heart. We can have the Love of Christ in whatever situation or place we are in, and those children were glowing with the Love of Christ. Thank you Lord for helping me see!
Seeing through him,
John M. Gestrich
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