the children

My friend Vanessa is in Cambodia right now. She is volunteering with an orphanage. I am so encouraged by my friends who are actively loving and serving the people in this great big world. Vanessa wrote me this morning and she described her experiences so beautifully. Here is a clip from her email:


the children are so very beautiful, april....

it's nothing, absolutely nothing like i expected. ...or ever could have dreamed up, really. there are 70 children. and me.

i am not a teacher...i expected to help in small ways...but they look at me as though i hold the key to the very universe and maybe, because i smile with them and touch them...maybe because they know i'll reach for their scarred up little hands and offer them what i can from my small bag of food--maybe i am the key....

i will change nothing here, though.

it's ....it's more filthy than anything i've ever seen. the kids have been in the same clothes since i arrived. they eat from dishes that have not been washed, drink water that the adults around them have been shitting in...

....they are the most exquisite, receptive humans i've ever ever known.

i love them very very deeply.


Pray for her please. Pray for the people in your own life, the people who are out there being the hands to your heart. When we support these people, we are connected.