Impossible Mission or Not

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt things would not work out? Do you have friends or people in your church that are as they say “a hard nut to crack,” and you feel that they will never make it and nothing good will come out of their life? This kind of feeling is not strange to me at all. Working with children, both in church and in the Bread of Life programs, I sometimes meet young ones that have such harmful combinations of temperament types, trauma and difficult beginnings, that unless you have great compassion, you will consider them to have no chance for improvement. It almost feels like working with them to overcome their past is an impossible mission. I recently had this feeling when Ciprian and his siblings came to the Bread of Life Home in Brosteni, Romania. I knew they came out of a rough village where they probably experienced things most of us never will. When most other children would go to their parents for protection, at a very young age, they learned to defend themselves with their fists and act tough to stay safe and protect themselves.

The many small scars on their faces tell the sad story. We were happy to rescue Ciprian and his siblings but we knew this will be quite a challenge. We brought them into our home during the summer and took them with us to our ministry camp. It is always a hard transition for children such as this, children that in a way come from a war zone and feel that everyone is their enemy. It was not long before they began to stretch our staff member’s limits and even made some of the ladies cry. At times the pressure of working with a seemingly impossible child can wear heavy on staff and I could see the stress beginning to weigh on them. I confess I had to have a long talk with God about Ciprian and his siblings because there are some cases where there is a fine line between wanting to help a child or risk him hurting others around him. But, and there is always a but, never in our 17-year history have we ever sent a child back to where he came. We have had some that did not follow our guidelines and left but we did not renounce them. We believe we are God’s extended hand reaching out to the lost. We want to follow His example clearly stated in Matthew 18: “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish”.

Foreseeing many difficulties ahead, by faith, we decided to keep Ciprian and his siblings, knowing that with God, we can overcome anything. Ciprian has been with us for more than six months now. And yes, I was right in my estimations of how difficult this would be. He still has many problems and we must keep an extra eye on him, but he has surprised us in so many good ways. With the affection and dedication of our staff, he has made significant progress. Now he cries at the thought of leaving the BOL Children’s Home and in school, he has gone from last in his class to the top of his class. A generous smile has replaced his bitter aggressive attitude, and what before seemed a hopeless situation is quickly changing for the better.

When I look at Ciprian now, it reminds me that everything is possible when God is with you. Yes, with God, it is possible to rescue a child from the muddy street life of a village and help him find a future in God’s family. Every day we continue to write another page of Ciprian’s life story and pray that this is an encouragement for you. Never give up hope because God is able!

Alin Panican