Russia - orphans

 As we prepare to go to Russia, I feel this overwhelming excitement, yet anticipation of what all will go on in Russia.  We are going to be working with the Russian orphans there.  My heart has been broken and burdened as I have learned about the lives of these orphans.  In Russia, they are discriminated against and thought of as sub-human.  Around 95% of the orphans have living parents, but they were either abandoned by them or removed from their homes for different reasons. When babies are born, if there seems to be any abnormality of any type, they are advised to abandon their baby.  There are right now about 1 million orphans in these institutions.  The death rate in these orphanages is 2-3 times more than the average child due to disease from being medically neglected.  There is no funding for the orphanages from the government, so the children are usually malnourished and have poor housing.  Rape within the orphanages is very common.  They influence hazing too whenever the children get out of line.  In some of the orphanages, they allow the orphans to prostitute themselves, so that the headmaster can make money off of them.  At age 18, the orphans have to leave the institution.  Most cannot function in the real world though, since they were never taught to take care of themselves.  They also have been physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abused. Once leaving the institution, statistics show that 80% of all orphans turn to prostitution to make money.  Within the first year of being in the real world, over 10% commit suicide.

 Once learning all of this, I just sobbed.  I was so completely burdened for these orphans, and all that they have had to go through.  I was overwhelmed by the evil and injustices that these children have had to live with.   These past few days, I feared that my heart would just completely fail me when I entered these orphanages.  I started to pray that God would strengthen my heart and prepare my team for this mission trip.  I then came across Psalm 73:25-26, Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. This was just what I needed to hear from God.  It was comforting to know that He will be the strength of our hearts and our portion forever.  He will provide us the strength to love on these children and we will just have to trust in Him during these difficult times.  Also, these verses apply to those precious little orphans.  I know that they too can have God be their strength and their everlasting portion. I pray that many orphans will soon know that they have a heavenly father who loves them and will be there strength for them. It will be incredible to see how God is made known through these orphans in the next week to come.  

Lauren Bournique