RESTORING HOPE BLOG
children's lives transformed, cycles of poverty broken, and opportunities before us
Fruit in Its Season: On the Ground in South Asia
By Sean, Co-Director of Restoring Hope
My wife and I lived in South Asia working with orphan care starting in 2011. We thought it was a one- or two-year commitment, but then we fell in love with these orphaned and vulnerable kids whom we were indirectly serving through local leaders and staff.
For the next five years, working closely with locals to provide the best orphan care possible for the many orphaned and vulnerable children in our geographical area, we established the operational side of this indigenously-led ministry.
Since then we have made annual or twice-annual trips to visit, train, encourage, instruct, inspire and receive mutual edification as the children have become students, and are now well on their way to becoming adults. So when these visits stopped for three years due to the pandemic and other reasons, we knew the next time we returned would feel like a momentous occasion.
And we were right.
I just returned from two weeks on the ground, and what a joy to be with children and families that seem to be thriving.
Spending time with 200 of our college students—who were eight to ten years old when we first arrived eleven years ago—was a fulfilling time of seeing fruit in its season. The adult caregivers, the staff dedication, and the family care that is now in place has put these “formerly” orphaned and vulnerable children on a path to the holistic restoration we have dreamed of. Physically, emotionally, socially, educationally, and spiritually.
While there, Restoring Hope conducted our first-ever College Student Weekend Conference, where most of our 250 “former” orphaned children-now-college students attended while on the brink of their future.
This event was nothing short of the most gratifying time of this fourteen-year undertaking. It induced plenty of reflecting on the past eleven years, and all that is to come for these students and the kids following in their footsteps in years to come (450 more children and students are currently coming up through Restoring Hope’s ranks).
For example, Sujuna* was eight years old when we first met her in 2011. One of her parents had tragically died, and the local pastor wanted to support her family in raising her.
Restoring Hope’s commitment not just to food support, not just to educational support, but also to family support and spiritual guidance has produced someone in Sujuna who stood out at this weekend conference for her ability to think and speak, and for a future that is shining brilliantly as she pursues her undergraduate college degree.
Without Restoring Hope’s commitment to her family, Sujuna would perhaps have made it through her sophomore year of high school, and then not had the financial ability or family support to advance more. She will be the first college graduate in her family.
We took lots of photos and video from the College Student Weekend Conference, and created this 50-second montage for you. Watch here:
We are forever grateful for the partners that have helped us each step of the way to arrive to this point of seeing this very special fruit in its season. Thank you!
*Pseudonyms are used to protect the identities of people and areas Restoring Hope serves.
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