Meet Natasha (pictured left):
The first time I met Natasha she was getting scolded for her attitude. That’s probably not the best way to start a blog, but it’s the truth.
Natasha is part of the orphanage at the mission and she is one of our oldest. When the kids first moved back to the St. Louis campus from the far west all I remember about Natasha was that she thought she was too good to obey authority. I was actually slightly afraid of her, teenage girls with attitudes can be intimidating.
During the fall last year, myself and several of the other missionaries decided that God was calling us to start discipling the older girls in the orphanage. After writing all the names down there were the girls that we all just adored and then there were the ones that were on the difficult side (Natasha being one of them). I’m often drawn to the underdogs or maybe in this case you would say I’m drawn to a challenge, either way I decided to go for it and disciple Natasha. It has ended up being one of the biggest blessings, though some days she’s a hard one to crack most days I love the time I get to spend with her.
Natasha is 17 years old and in the 12th grade. She came to the orphanage when she was just 3 years old and is 1 of 13, 8 sisters and 4 brothers. Her dad cannot walk and lives a good distance from the mission, but she seems to have a good relationship with him.
Throughout the past year of getting to know her better I have seen her grow into such a mature and beautiful women, inside and out. One of my favorite things about her personality is one minute she will be dead serious and then the next she’ll be completely silly. She even plays along with my “lets take a silly picture” requests, which definitely makes her a winner in my book.
Fun times at the One Stop (Natasha is on the right)
Enjoying (I think) some ice cream during discipleship
One of the things I love most about this girl is that she is very inquisitive. At the beginning of discipleship I always tell the girls that anytime they have a question about what we’re studying or just about the Bible in general that they can ask and if I don’t know the answer then I will try and figure it out. With most of the girls its like pulling teeth to even get them to open up during discipleship so for the most part they don’t really ask questions, but Natasha took my words to heart. That girl shows up with like three questions every week when we meet. She really knows the Word too and is always the first one to pipe up when I ask questions about what we’ve been reading that week. She continually blows me away.
Recently she has started helping out in The Miriam Center, our special needs home at the mission. On the week nights her and three of the other older orphanage girls help feed, bathe, and get the kids ready for bed. She really seems to be enjoying it and I can tell she really takes time to love on the kids, its more then just a job to her.
One of my favorite memories with Natasha was recently. I get to continue discipleship with her this year and she continues to blow me away. Now, instead of coming to discipleship with questions she brings verses that she’s read and explains to me what they mean to her. She shared with me the verses in James 2:1-5 and explained how we are not to judge others and we are to treat everyone the same. She brought up an example of the church here is Haiti. She reminded me how people think you can only come to church if you have nice clothes and how we should set an example and go and sit with that person who isn’t dressed in beautiful clothes instead of talking about them. Wow. I’m just so proud of her and am so excited to see how she grows and how God continues to use her.
This amazing young woman is still in need of 7 sponsors at $30 per month. If you would like to join me in sponsoring Natasha you can click on this link: http://nwhcm.org/sponsorship/our-orphanage/natasha-gentilhomme.
Beautiful Are The Feet... 