A Visit to the T-town Orphanage

Last month, Becky and I took a group of EGT students to the orphanage in Tisovec to share an evening activity with them. The majority of the children who live there are Roman (gypsy), and for this reason (among many reasons), I am particularly interested in being a part of this ministry. I think its important for our students to interact as much as possible with the Roma population. Sometimes I feel that Slovaks forget that the Roma have faces, names, histories and futures. What better way to remind them of this fact than by bringing them to the orphanage where they get to play and do crafts with these children?

Our activity and devotion were centered on two stories: The Good Shepherd and Jesus saying “Let the little children come to me.” Becky and I facilitated our visit, but our students were the ones translating. The students helped the children make sheep out of construction paper and cotton, and I learned how to compliment the kids on their artwork (krasne! (Beautiful!), pekne (Nice), and of course lots of ooohs and aaaahs.)

Here we are at craft time.



Once everyone was done with their sheep, we sat in a circle and I told the story of the Good Shepherd. My students translated – with their own creative story-telling flourishes.

These are pictures from circle time.







After this, we simply had face time. Our students looked into the children's faces and our children looked into our students' faces, and they talked. And they laughed. And they played. And it was good, very, very good.