by Ashley, Children at Risk DTS Staff
How do you fit eleven YWAMers and eleven rescued orphans into a small pick-up truck (sungtow) that has three benches in the truck bed?
A little something like this…
Yep, 22 people fit in here.
We pile in and squish together. When there is absolutely no room left for anyone else, we drive to church. A couple minutes into our ride, someone starts singing. Soon, everyone sings along to fun kids' songs. After a quiet moment, one of the children starts the next song, one of my favorite worship songs.
I look around me and my heart just melts. Some of the kids close their eyes, some sing at the top of their lungs, and others gently lift their sweet little voices toward Heaven. Tears come to my eyes as their song wraps around me.
The song splits into two parts, with the kids taking the harmony and melody, and I'm surrounded by a heavenly choir!
Worship with Thai orphans (click to download, it's an .m4a file that should open with iTunes.)
As we worship together, I think about how we come from such different places: Them–orphaned, then rescued to another country to live a better life. Their future is unsure, with no family to call their own but each other. Us–families at home, many people missing us, praying for us, and awaiting our return. Yet as our voices blend together, so do our worlds.
My heart is overwhelmed with the sweetness of the moment and I am overtaken by the realization of God's goodness, His redemption, His grace.
Here we are, all the same to Him: just a bunch of His kids singing in the back of a truck. It's like I can feel God's smile. And I wonder, maybe tears are coming to his eyes, too, as he listens to His kids from totally different worlds become a family and sing to their Daddy.
These kids who once had no hope now know the One who brings hope. They are safe, protected, loved.
They know it too, and in response they just sing.
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