No Longer an Orphan
In 2021, a new member joined the Teacher’s Garden team. Her name was Amy, and we sensed that God was entrusting her to us for a purpose. She shared that although she was not a believer, she was aware that the Teacher’s Garden is a Christian education ministry. She was willing to help as needed, and she proved to be diligent in providing administrative and hospitality support for our training programs and participants.
Over the following months, a deeper level of trust and openness developed between Amy and the Teacher’s Garden team. With a broken heart of compassion, we learned about her difficult childhood as an orphan. At the age of 6, she was placed into a local orphanage where she grew up alongside many other orphaned children. When she became a legal adult at the age of 18, like her other peers, she was asked to leave the orphanage to settle into life on her own. Amy shared:
“I found myself lost in the unfamiliar life and practices of the wider community. The orphanage didn’t prepare me for that and I didn’t know what to expect. It was like starting life from nowhere, because the way we were raised at the orphanage was very different.”
Amy struggled with the stigma of “being an orphan,” rejection, loneliness, and trauma from the many abuses she experienced throughout her difficult childhood. She shared through tears in one of our conversations: “I am just tired of life. I feel no purpose or hope in being alive.” We shared with her about grace, healing and eternal hope in Christ. The relationship between Amy and the Teacher’s Garden team grew through prayer, socializing and meditating in the Word of God as we sought answers together to her many questions about life, truth, love, and God.
The Teacher’s Garden team blessed Amy with a Bible, and she often spent extended lengths of time reading it and coming to us with more questions. There were days when Amy told us about dreams in which she found herself praying to Jesus and singing “Christian songs.” We learned with joy that Amy had begun to attend a nearby evangelical church. God’s grace abounded as we wrapped up the year 2021 with a special celebration in which we welcomed Amy again, but this time, as an eternal daughter of God. She was born anew in Christ and baptized on December 26, amen!
As the eternal daughter of God in Christ, Amy is no longer an orphan. Indeed, she joyfully informed our team: “My new name as God’s daughter is Lydia, because the testimony of that godly woman in the Bible (Acts 16) has influenced my faith and I want to be like her.”
Since then, Amy has continued the journey of healing through her faith in Jesus and has moved on to support and leadership roles with other Christian organizations. She is deeply involved in her local church and is a gifted evangelist. She loves to share what God has done for her and has brought new people to faith in Christ.