This is the story of our contact's good friend, who spent the majority of her life in an orphanage. Read on...
Meet Lisa*. Lisa's mother never married her father (they were actually from different countries). She never knew her father and her mother raised her alone. Her mother was always poor and never had quite enough food or money to take care of Lisa properly. Lisa remembers as a young girl that the husband of her mother's friend would often come over demanding money. He would almost always be in a drunken rage. Lisa's mother would not have any money to give him, therefore he would beat her ruthlessly. Lisa would watch in horror. Her uncles would come over from time to time in a drunken rage as well and do horrible things to Lisa and her mother. Lisa recollects one time when her uncle held her out of the third story window threatening to drop her. The other uncle ran into the room and grabbed her before she plummeted to her death.
Oftentimes Lisa would have to go out on the streets and beg for food and money for her mother and herself. At one point they were so poor they didn't even have a place to live. They slept under the stairwell in an apartment complex and lit candles for light.
One particular day the husband of her mother's friend came, like so many other times. He was drunk and demanded money she could not give, yet again. In a rage of anger he beat her so badly she was knocked unconscious. Lisa cried hysterically while trying to wake her mother. The man kept telling Lisa to stop crying, but she couldn't. So he beat her and then left them both. Lisa ran to her neighbor's house for help. They called the police, who then came over to find Lisa's mother dead. Lisa never saw her mother again, and was taken to an orphanage.
After a few days she tried to escape from the orphanage. But they found her and brought her back. To punish her for running away, they beat her every day with a chair for a month, and only gave her a little bit of bread for that month as well. She never ran away again.
Lisa grew up in two different orphanages until she was old enough to leave. A local ministry running a safe-house for young woman brought her under their roof. Many grown up girls leaving the orphanage end up living in prostitution or are sold into human trafficking, therefore the safe-house ministry seeks to find these girls before they are taken. It was then that Lisa was introduced to Jesus Christ, and she accepted Him as her personal Savior and gave her life to Him. The ministry asked her what profession she would like to pursue, and she chose housecleaning. They paid for her to receive special training at a prestigious hotel, and then they found jobs for her within the homes of Americans needing a house helper.
That is when I met Lisa. We moved to Central Asia last year and were looking for a responsible young woman to help us clean the house and look after our daughter from time to time. We don't trust just anyone with our daughter- we hardly ever leave her with anyone, ever! We talked with other American families who employed Lisa and we spent much time with her before we decided she would be our helper.
Our lives in Central Asia would not be complete without Lisa! She has become much more than a house helper, she has become our sister. Whenever she comes over we laugh, drink tea together, eat meals, and help each other with language skills. (She helps us practice the local language and we help her learn English). She is one of the sweetest, most humble and caring people I have ever met in my entire life. She never complains about her life. She has absolutely no family members left that she knows of. All she has is the safe-house workers and the Americans who employ her. She said that most girls want to get married for silly reasons, but one of the reasons she longs to be married is that she will finally have a family to call her own. She has been pursued by several men in the past few years, some Christians and some not. She has kindly turned them all down because she knew none of them was the man God has for her life. She doesn't want to settle for just anyone. She is waiting patiently and praying that Jesus will bring her the man of her dreams.
Will you remember Lisa in your prayers? That God would provide all her needs, emotional and material. That He would prepare her future husband and bring them together when the time is right? You see, God loves orphans even more than we do. Lisa was an orphan. But in my opinion, the day she accepted Jesus Christ in her life she no longer was an orphan. God is now her Father and she has brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow believers and followers of Jesus! We love Lisa like family and are willing to help her in any way possible, and desire to see her blessed in this life.
God sees every orphan and the tears they cry. He saw Lisa as a young girl watching her mother die right before her eyes. He had a plan for her life, and knew that someday she would find Him and the peace He brings.
*Lisa's real name has been changed for security purposes.
" I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live." John 14:18-19
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Thanks for following,
-Lindsey
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