Elena B, Our Daughter In Christ

The first day of the last week of camp we took the kids on a long hike and ended up by the soccer field. Some kids didn't want to play soccer and neither did I because it's too competitive so we played frisbee instead. We played in circles throwing the frisbee to the next person, and after a while there weren't many kids still playing. One girl that I ended up playing with was Elena. We had lots of fun. Through the rest of the week I didn't really see her much because I was leading games and she wasn't on my team.

By the end of the week I could hardly remember what we did at the beginning, and I was really tired. There was going to be a long hike to the monastery, and I didn't really feel like going. But at the last minute I had a thought, this was going to be the last hike I could go on with the kids, so I really should go. So I went and somehow ended up talking to Elena through Sarah the interpreter. I asked her what she liked about camp and she said everything, especially the games, and she said she liked having me run the games. Then she talked about us playing frisbee and I remembered. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about that. So we talked some more, I asked her more questions and we had a lot of fun talking.

She told me that her favorite subject was physical education and that she likes to run, so I suggested that maybe we could race when we got back. She was so excited! She said that she had wanted to ask me to race the whole week but was too shy, and that she was so happy that I wanted to race her. She said that racing me would make camp so much better for her. And then she said what I'll never forget: that she would love it if I was her dad. My heart totally melted and I felt a such a strong connection with her. We talked more and enjoyed exploring the monastery together.

Later that night we had a dance party for the kids before the campfire. Elena was standing off to the side and I really wanted to talk more since it was the last night. So I asked her if she wanted to talk and she did so we went to a cabin porch with Sarah and Rebecca came too. Rebecca had been in Elena's cabin for quiet time so they had talked a little too, but Elena is quite shy so she hadn't opened up in that setting. So we talked for a long time, telling her all about us and she told us all about herself. She told us that she had gone home to her mom from the orphanage once and it was so bad there that she ran 25 km until she could get a taxi back to the orphanage. She has had a really rough life. But she said that she enjoyed going to church and singing in the choir and that she has accepted Jesus into her life, which made us overjoyed! She also said that she was so excited to see the Americans and that she could tell that we were different from the way we acted, as in how we lovingly interacted with eachother. She told us that she would like both of us as her parents which just made us so overjoyed. When we were done we told her we would keep in touch and be praying for her a lot, which we already have been doing. Saying goodbye to her the next morning was so hard, knowing that she is going back to her orphanage and that we can't be there for her.

It's so amazing that a relationship this deep can be formed in such a short amount of time. It really goes to show how starved these kids are for true love that they are missing from not having loving parents. It was such an awesome feeling to know that God was pouring out his love through us and I can only have faith that he'll continue to use people to pour love into the kids' lives.

Elena and Mark on the hike to the monastery.

Elena standing by some pretty flowers by the monastery.

Elena with both of us looking a lot like a family.

The epic race, guess who won - she is really fast!