{"id":55,"date":"2008-08-08T07:59:51","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T13:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/?p=51"},"modified":"2008-08-08T07:59:51","modified_gmt":"2008-08-08T13:59:51","slug":"the-valley-of-the-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/2008\/08\/08\/the-valley-of-the-shadow\/","title":{"rendered":"the valley of the shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We have not yet posted about the second activity we did on Wednesday.\u00a0 This is in large part because it has taken a while to process and be ready to post about it.\u00a0 On Thursday afternoon, after lunch we did not return to CAI for more “efficiency in motion”.\u00a0 Rather, we went over to an orphanage that has been around in Costa Rica for over 100 years, Vista Del Mar.\u00a0 When it was founded it was an orphanage in the traditional sense, a place for children with no families for whatever reason.\u00a0 Now, it is mainly a place for abused and neglected children that the Costa Rican government has removed from families.<\/p>\n

When we arrived we toured around the facility with Charlie and he told us about the ministry of the orphanage and what his work teams have done out there.\u00a0 He only shared a couple of the stories of how the children ended up there.\u00a0 He told us that he has learned to stop asking why children end up there, he says that if he knew them all he would not be able to sleep at night.\u00a0 After hearing the one story\u00a0that he did share I’m glad he stopped there.\u00a0 After seeing the whole facility we split up and went into two of the houses to meet some of the younger kids and play for a little while.\u00a0 This was a joyous experience and a heart breaking experience all at once.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I was playing with an 11 month old boy named Darien.\u00a0 He was fascinated with my hat and loved to walk around (actually waddle around) while holding my hand for balance.\u00a0 As someone who is preparing for his first son to be born this December I just kept looking at this precious little boy asking myself, “How could anyone ever treat you poorly?\u00a0 How could anyone not love you with their whole heart or actually want to hurt you?”\u00a0 These were questions that had no answer, and yet I found them constantly in my head.\u00a0 Even now it is hard to even think about.\u00a0 This was the experience for all of our people as we played with these children and tried to love them the best way we knew how for the time we had with them.\u00a0 Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them.”\u00a0 I hope and pray that they found some measure of Jesus-like-joy while we were there.<\/p>\n

Just before we left the grounds of the orphanage we turned back toward it, each stretched a hand and prayed a blessing over that place.\u00a0 That though it is a place of sadness and despair, truly a place in the valley of the shadow, that God would rain down his redemption on the lives of each and every child in that place.\u00a0 At the end of Genesis after Joseph has endured so many trials and evils at the hands of others, God has redeemed it all and used Joseph in a mighty way.\u00a0 The way Joseph describes it is, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”\u00a0 May it be for these children as well.<\/p>\n

Adam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have not yet posted about the second activity we did on Wednesday.\u00a0 This is in large part because it has taken a while to process and be ready to post about it.\u00a0 On Thursday afternoon, after lunch we did not return to CAI for more “efficiency in motion”.\u00a0 Rather, we went over to an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-costa-rica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/costarica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}