Truth and Consequences...
Cause and Effect ...
We begin to instill these concepts into our children from birth.
Crying brings food.
Crying brings a clean diaper.
Crying brings comfort.
Laughing brings happy faces and cheery sounds.
But what about the child who never got that? What about the neglected child who cried and cried, but no one came? What about the orphanage child who had his needs met only according to institution schedule? For them cause-and-effect do not compute.
I am amazed as I look at my two girls -- one born to us by flesh, the other brought to us through God's gracious gift of adoption. Although eight months younger, our biological daughter fully grasps cause-and-effect. "If I choose to disobey, then I must face the consequences." But our adopted daughter does not get it, yet. Even after more than a year on consistent boundaries and discipline, she does not yet fully comprehend that her choices have consequences.
CHOICES. That is a fundamental topic for the teen girls conference we have scheduled for Feb, 7-10. It is a joint conference for the Miskolc orphanage girls and our youth group girls here in Debrecen.
Choices about health. Choices about friends. Choices about guys and sex. Choices about God.
A teen girl's life today is fully of choices. But for the orphanage girls, this concept may be completely new and perhaps a little incomprehensible. They are victims of neglect, abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment ...etc. They see all these tragedies as simply part of life. And life just happens. And even in the areas where they can take control, they have simply let life happen to them. The result: being used by boys, unwanted pregnancies, multiple abortions ...etc. They do not really grasp cause-and-effect. It has never been taught to them.
This conference has the potential to reshape how they see themselves, their relationships with others, and their relationship with God.
But we would be naive to expect such a dramatic reshaping to occur in single weekend. It will take discipleship. And discipleship is neither easy nor instant. Perhaps, this weekend, will mark a new beginning, a starting point, from which they will begin to discover how their choices have long-term implications.
So I invite you to pray for this event.
Pray for group coming from Ohio to lead the conference.
Pray for the conference leader, Gina from FIT Decisions.
Pray for the orphanage girls who will be attending
Pray for the youth group girls who will be attending.
Simply pray that God will use this according to His will to do a work in the lives of these desperate teens.
And most of all, Pray that God raises up young women in Miskolc who will disciple these orphanage girls as to how to live a Christian life.
