The Fields of the Fatherless

Tom Davis, in his book, The Fields of the Fatherless, may have committed the words to paper, but I’m pretty sure they were words he’d stolen from the loud emptiness ruminating inside of me. He wrote:

What am I missing? Some years ago, I found myself asking this question almost daily. As a pastor, I thought I knew what mattered to God. I read my Bible almost every day. I tithed, I watched the “right” movies, I prayed as often as I could, I kept my devotions on track and I even journaled in an attempt to reflect on what was happening in my life! But none of this could shake my conviction that I was still missing something. Something important.

The rest of the book talks about Davis’ journey into finding Jesus in a whole new dimension as he joined Jesus in the “fields of the fatherless” – orphan ministry in post communist Russia. I found Him in Odessa, Ukraine. A friend we hadn’t seen in a decade reconnected with us and told us of the orphan crisis they had been working with in this post-soviet bloc country. The government admitted to there being 250,000 orphans, but it’s likely there are more than 500,000 of them. We listened in horror as we heard of the barely livable facilities housing them and of society’s distain for them. Our friend had been filming a documentary about this pandemic when she walked into one of the “infant” orphanages. Babies, sometimes 25-30 of them in one room with only one worker, lying in their own urine and feces, screaming in their cribs! Our overwhelmed friend laid down her video camera and picked up the calling of her life - to turn around this horrible atrocity. By the time we reconnected, she had been at work for nearly a decade. She invited us to join her in her efforts.

I will never forget the night I first walked into a group of Ukrainian orphans. They have no sense of “personal space” that we Americans value so highly. A couple hundred of them were gathered outside on that hot July evening in Odessa. As our team walked in we were swarmed! In our laps… onto our shoulders… swinging from our arms… squeezing our faces between their hands… hugging… showing us the hidden treasures of their meager existence. Could it be that they knew love as we didn’t in their lack of it? Love sponges - that’s what they were. As the night concluded, I wept, we wept. It was the night I began to regain my heart and re-meet Jesus. I joined Him in the “fields of the fatherless” and began to learn the reality of what “pure and undefiled religion” really is. I found the “something important” that had been missing despite my years of full-time ministry. It happened one warm July night when a young boy named Zhenya crawled up onto my lap and into my heart.

Who would have thought that our experience that night would lead to many U.S. and U.K. Vineyard churches partnering together to restore orphanages? We clothe the children, provide medical care, and supply heaters to get them through the bitterly cold winters hoping to make the orphanages livable. Through our partnership with other Vineyard Associations we’ve “‘adopted” several orphanages and sent teams every summer to hold Bible Camps. Those times have been incredibly amazing. Literally hundreds of children have prayed to receive Jesus every session. We now have three camps running in different areas over the course of a summer.

Unfortunately, at age sixteen orphans must leave the orphanage to return to, well frankly, life in the streets. You can well imagine that generally means drugs, prostitution, etc. There is now a scholarship program that has been established in which $57.00 per month will send an orphan to university, as well as house and feed him/her. Not too bad, eh?

Perhaps you’ve noticed much activity in our movement these past couple years addressing the atrocity of Human Trafficking. Do you know how Vineyard awareness and involvement began? Orphans! Over the course of time we began to find that the Ukrainian orphans who were being dismissed from orphanages at age 16 became prey to sex traffickers. Additionally, one of the primary places they were ending up was in Baltimore (our own backyard!). Who would have thought that the night an orphan crawled up into my lap would lead to our working to pass anti- trafficking legislation and speaking globally about this horrible modern day slavery? And yet, that’s where it led. Holding conferences, making documentaries, being part of our state’s Anti-Trafficking task force, helping in “after bust” neighborhood cleanup, and helping develop a team from Vineyards across the nation who are finding pockets of trafficking in their own communities all began with rolling up our sleeves and involving ourselves with those who are near and dear to the heart of our Father. This is pure and undefiled religion!

Finally, there are Vineyard churches in Ukraine because of…you guessed it…orphans! Because of our involvement with orphans in Ukraine, I was asked by Vineyard USA to meet with a group of pastors and leaders in Ukraine who wanted to learn about “all things Vineyard.” There are now three Vineyard churches, an imminent adoption, and a couple of new plants on the horizon. More than that, we have found new “family!” I think perhaps the sweetest time of my thirty plus years of ministry has been the years of planting Vineyards in Ukraine. The presence and power of God has been like the earliest days in the Vineyard. We now partner equally with the UK and Nordic Vineyards in our planting efforts. Vineyard is also leading the way in bringing back together the denominationally fractured post-communistic church which won’t even interact with each other. Kingdom, unity, love, worship, power…wow!…it feels to me like the beginning of my days in Christ. When the Ukrainians asked if I would help them plant Vineyards, I told them I would with one stipulation…they would need to commit to help solve the orphan crisis in their own country…the very thing they were eager to do! (Galatians 2:10)

At home in “The Fields of the Fatherless”…that’s what I have become. And I am grateful to Jesus that I have found Him in a way I had been missing for the majority of my life in Him.