Rachel's Reflection on Liberia & THINK & Rafiki Village

Hello, my name is Rachel. I recently graduated from Baylor with a degree in PR. By the grace of God, I received the opportunity to serve with this team, and I feel beyond blessed.

"You're going to receive a blessing," were my grandfather's last words to me as I left for Liberia. Despite my reluctance to take part in the trip, he kept repeating that phrase to me. At the time, I thought he was crazy.

For an entire month prior to this trip, I told my grandfather that I had already made plans with my life. I was going to move to Colorado, find a job and become independent. That's what people do after college. No way was I going to move back at home with my parents.

Slowly the doors began shutting in Colorado, and I found myself living at home with my parents. God clearly had different plans. Here I am sitting in Liberia, thousands of miles away from the plans that I had made for myself. But through all of the changes, one thing was consistent. My grandfather continued to tell me, I had a blessing waiting for me.

The first few days of the trip were an adjustment for me. I was surrounded by new people in a new country. Eventhough I didn't understand the purpose for me being here, God knew exactly what he was doing. It just took me letting go and allowing God to move for me to receive my blessing.

Yesterday at THINK, a 3-year-old girl named Maria was the first girl who jumped into my arms when we arrived to the compound. From that first moment, she clung to my neck, never letting me out of site. She followed me around the compound, treating me like your mother. During our small group time, she even fell asleep on my chest for 2 hours. It completely melted my heart. For the first part of the day, I was told her name was Maria, but after a few hours I noticed that her mother was calling her Blessing.

At first, I didn't think anything of it. We were at a safe house. Of course they renamed the girls in order to protect their identity and to place value upon them. It wasn't until debriefing tonight that Blessing was in fact the blessing that God had told my grandfather about. God is incredible.

I'd like to introduce you to someone. Meet Blessing.

She was God's gift to me. Her love broke through my bitterness and the walls I had built up. She melted my heart and blessed me more than I could have imagined. If you knew my story for the past year, you would know that I've been through heartbreak. This was God's way of helping me feel again, and showing me how to love. I'm incredibly grateful and blown away by God's providence.

Today we traveled to THINK to be with the younger children for the last time. I had completely and utterly fallen in love with Blessing and couldn't imagine having to be separated from her.

The minute we arrived to the compound, there she was. Waiting for me, with her big brown eyes and arms lifted high for me to hold her. Throughout the day, she called me Mama with the most tender, sweet voice you could possible imagine.

After hanging out with the children, the group broke up into our small groups. This time we shared with them our favorite verses (we had previously shared these verses with our group during our morning devotional). Taylor and I's group had the unique experience of having one of the women in the group share her favorite verses as well. Dimitri was prayed over by the girls in his group. The time was incredibly powerful as the body of Christ worked to encourage and support one another through prayer and scripture.

Most of the girls understand who God is and that he loves them, but many don’t understand that he hasn’t forsaken him. For that reason, we felt God leading us to share the story of Ruth with them. When Ruth and Naomi’s husbands died, they were left without a guardian. Naomi, who had little trust in God, turned her back on him, changed her name to “Bitter One”, and moved back home. Ruth, on the other hand, was faithful and continued to love her mother-in-law and trust God. In the end, God provided, not only a guardian for their family, but a son. This son would become the grandfather of Jesus. This is a tremendous story of home, love and redemption that we hope made them see that God will provide, even though at times it seems he’s abandoned us.

The story of Ruth then led into Taylor explaining the gospel and how to make a gospel bracelet. The children spent the next hour making bracelets with us. We hope that these bracelets will serve as a reminder of not only God’s love, but our love as well. The rest of the time we held the children and soaked in our last few hours with them.

One of the more precious moments of the day was watching Junior kick a soccer ball. He isn’t able to walk, but he was able to kick a ball. This gives us hope that one day he will be healed. At one point, Dave was holding Jacob, a small 3-month-old child. It was an incredibly precious moment. For him, this was a beautiful reminder of how God holds us and cares for us. Once again, we are learning to love Jesus more and more through his tender children.

Leaving THINK was incredibly difficult. We had fallen in love with the children, and had bonded to specific children. For me, saying goodbye to Blessing was nearly impossible. She didn't make it easier by putting on her shoes, waving goodbye with me and crying when she found out that I wasn't going to be taking her with me.

It’s heartbreaking to know there is so much need and feel like there's little we can do about it. Children like Junior, changed our world, as we watched him grow stronger and stronger each day. His smile growing bigger and bigger, too. We can only pray that the ministry and children at THINK will be blessed and that God will have his hand of protection over them.

Making the transition from THINK to Rafiki Village was a challenge. Initially, our group felt off. We couldn’t put our finger on it, but something didn’t feel right. How could Rafiki have so much, while other orphanages have so little? The drastic lifestyle and infrastructure differences were enormous. The other few orphanages we had visited were somewhat dilapidated with paint chipping off the walls. The rooms were small, and all of the girls and boys lived together in their respected rooms. They children clung to you because the caretakers aren’t able to feed, clothe, pay overhead and provide individual attention to each child. Meanwhile, things were quite different at Rafaki.

Rafiki was a structured, organized and well-planned living community for the most privileged orphans in Liberia. Each home on the campus housed 8 children and a “mom.” The goal was to provide as close to a family unit as they possible could. From education to healthcare, all of their needs, except church, were met on campus. All of the homes and facilities were particularly Westernized. This Westernization also extended to the way they both disciplined and educated the children.

When we arrived to the cafeteria to share our VBS lesson, the children were neatly sitting on mats and in rows of chairs. This was quite a contrast to the previous places we had visited. Chris shared the lesson and Kristin led the songs. After praying, we broke the boys and girls up into teams for soccer and kickball games.

Although we didn’t stay long at Rafiki Village, it was good to see a different side of the Liberian orphan care system. For our group, it was easy to judge because they clearly were well-funded. It’s easy to look for pride and hypocrisy in a rich system, but we had to realize that God is using both Rafiki and Orphan Relief & Rescue to accomplish his purpose in Liberian. Both organizations are equally needed in order to raise up leaders and bring transformation to Liberia.

At times the day felt long and emotional, but in the end, it was worth it. We gained wisdom from the children at THINK and insight into the orphanage system at Rafiki Village. Tomorrow will be a new day, with new mercies and challenges. We pray that we will continue to walk in humility and act justly, treating everyone we meet with compassion.

Overall, I simply feel blessed.