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The Gift of Love By Shauna Davidson It is the individual orphans you meet and fall in love with that change your life. The first time I walked into an orphanage, I knew I would never be the same. But it was more than just seeing the pitiful conditions that the children of Guatemala were living in and feeling the heaviness that weighed the place down. It was seeing the individual children personally and knowing and loving each of them that left the biggest impression on me.
I had a similar experience in one of the other orphanages I visited for the second time. When we walked into Manchen, we were greeted by the beautiful sound of all the girls singing to us to welcome us to their home. After they finished, one of the girls ran to me to give me a hug. I recognized her as one of the special needs girls that I remembered from the year before that I had tickled and laughed with. Once again, an overwhelming happiness filled my heart at being able to hug her and continue to share the love that I once gave her. Later on in our stay I saw her sitting by herself while everyone else was participating in Vacation Bible School activities. She said she was resting. I motioned for her to come with me and she grabbed on to me and didn’t want to let go. It’s as if she was saying, “Look I do matter. This girl cares about me!” It was such a blessing to be able to bring that gift to her and the other orphans I came in contact with. In every orphanage there is a certain child that captures your heart and refuses to leave your mind, even after you return home. For me, last year in Xela, that girl was Christina. This is my most memorable experience with her:
Mother Theresa once said, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” I feel like God has showed me the incredible power of love and how it changes lives. Every time I smile at an orphan and give them a hug I am trying to use my life as a living sacrifice for God and become his hands and feet, showering love onto his orphans. And although I always have to leave them, I know that God never leaves. Shauna worked as an intern in the Buckner Missions office during the summer. She has traveled with Buckner to minister to orphans in Guatemala twice. |
Have you ever been on a Buckner Mission trip? Volunteered with Buckner locally? Are you a foster or adoptive parent? We want to hear your stories! |
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This year I returned to the same orphanage that I had been called to a year ago. I was only able to go back for one day, but I still felt like it was important for me to go. Right before I was about to leave the home, I saw a boy that I recognized from last year. My heart lit up into a huge smile on my face because I was so inexplicably happy to see him. And he looked right back at me to see that smile and the love in my heart, and he smiled back. I saw him a few more times before I left and every time he looked at me a huge smile lit up his face. That is the reason why going to orphanages in Guatemala has captured my heart: the joy of being able to bring a smile to a child’s face.
She grabbed me by the hand and led me out into the courtyard where the rain was falling cool, peaceful and refreshing. She took me to a sheltered spot underneath the doorway and we sat together, two disparate souls brought together through need and love. She searched through my heart as she began to mirror the rain, tears falling down her face, asking me never to leave her but to take her home with me because she had no one else. I looked down at her beautiful face, her childish innocence that had been tested, blemished so undeservingly, and started to cry with her because I couldn’t save her from her life. She reached up and wiped away the tears falling from my eyes and she lay in my lap and faded asleep crying in my arms. Later on I tried to tuck her in bed, surrounded by bunk beds of other orphaned girls crying themselves to sleep, but she followed me down the stairs and watched me walk out the door. My heart broke as I forced myself to walk out of her life like everyone else had before me. From then on, I decided I would do everything I could to make sure that every child in the world knows that they are loved, because I discovered that I had this enormously simple gift to give -- the gift of love -- and all I had to do was set it free.
