Oak Tree Project – Difficult Decisions
After raising funds, petitioning different possible mentors, and accepting applications from children from different orphanages in Seoul, the staff of Oak Tree Project had to make the difficult decision today of who to accept and who to say no to. We received 12 applications but only have enough funds for 5 new students (along with retaining our 3 returning students). The applications included kids who lived homeless on the streets for a period of their lives, kids who were babies in a basket found at the children’s home, and kids abandoned for other reasons. Some of them have relatives, but because of abuse or abandonment or handicap, they aren’t able to live with them. Our 12 applicants represented most of the types of backgrounds of kids who grow up in children’s homes in Korea.
Last year we only received 4 applications and so we accepted all 4 (with just enough funds), despite 2 of the applicants not having any relationship with God and 1 of them having a particularly weak application. We took those 2 on out of sympathy. Both were true orphans (no relatives whatsoever) and both were from the same children’s home along with 1 of the other applicants. While both of those 2 have struggled this past year with their classes, 1 of them has really responded to the program and has grown in a number of ways (though he still hasn’t met Christ). The other hasn’t responded as much and we almost had to drop him because of his low grades and poor response. Because we have a lot of experience serving orphans we understood his different struggles and why he was acting in different ways. His mentor who kept trying to get through to him asked him, “Who is it that you allow to speak into your life? Who is it that you go to for help?” He silently thought for a moment and then shrugged saying, “I don’t know.” Then he turned to her and said, “I guess, you?” It was a sad truth that because of this boy’s past of abandonment (he has blocked out his memories from before he was put in the children’s home) he has had walls up to everyone. Our mentor is continuing to faithfully work with him and we are praying for those walls to fully fall down. His grades slightly improved (just over the threshold of the scholarship requirement) last semester, but he is still quite a work in progress.
This year our 12 applicants were far superior compared to last year. Some of them got into exceptional schools and others in their application shared well about their faith in God. While there was a small number of clear cuts from the beginning, we were still left with 9 applications that we all wanted to accept; we just didn’t have the funds or the mentors for all of them. So that meant having to say no to some worthy candidates, including 2 girls that are dear to my heart from the children’s home I’ve served at for eight years. For one of the applicants, I taught her English for my first five years in Korea (5th – 9th grade). Sadly her application and situation just didn’t measure up to some of the applicants ranked ahead of her (who had more faith in God, better schools, and are just as much in need). It breaks my heart that we can’t accept her, but I’m praying that she will get scholarship funds from another source. I heard from the office last week that there was a chance that the 2 girls from my home we ended up saying no to might receive another scholarship.
Serving orphans isn’t easy. Our hearts are to receive them all and care for them all, but we really need to have wisdom and discernment in how we steward what we have. Even if we had overflowing funds for all these kids, we would still be in need of more mentors (in fact we are still short one mentor for this year, but currently one person is praying into it and we have a few people we might ask if that person praying can’t commit… ***update, praise the Lord, this last person has committed so we have enough mentors for 2014!). Mentoring requires fluency in the Korean language and is quite a commitment: up to 4 years living in Korea, calling the student each week and seeing the student once a month. While my goal is to raise $120,000 this year to provide for 20 students next year (12 new recipients along with our 8 students who will return), I feel finding 12 new mentors requires more faith than the money goal. I trust God will provide, though.
My heart breaks for the kids who applied but couldn’t make it, but I have to trust the Lord will provide and take care of them in His own way.
If you would be interested in supporting Oak Tree Project you can see our website www.oaktreeproject.com or go to a basic support site we have set up give.oaktreeproject.com. I’m hoping to connect with different churches, corporations, and groups of people who would be willing to sponsor one child ($525/month) or halfway sponsor a child ($265/month). For sponsors we will provide periodic updates about how the child is doing and any specific prayer requests for him or her.
If you would like to support us in prayer, please e-mail us at OTPKorea@gmail.com. We will send a monthly e-mail update about the ministry with some different prayer requests. We would really appreciate prayer!
Thank you for reading! Please comment below with any questions or e-mail us at OTPKorea@gmail.com.
