Scholar Nicole Roccas writes, “We need time— to perceive God’s love, time to understand it, time to accept it (or not). Finally, we need time to respond…”
Because of the early childhood trauma so many of our youth experience, they especially need time. Trauma affects their relationships and their ability to manage daily tasks and cope with disappointment and loss; and it can cause long-term damage to mental health.
Even in ministry, it’s easy to seek instant gratification. And while many orphanage grads do benefit quickly from our help, part of Last Bell’s story—woven into our history and core values—is choosing not to turn away when the results are uncertain. God’s command to care for orphans still holds.
We met Alina* three years ago. She’s been in and out of psychiatric clinics with a mental illness. Her Last Bell case manager, Abram, has watched her damage relationships, neglect and abuse her body, leave safe places, and squander help.
Recently, Alina needed emergency surgery. As an NGO, we were able to step in quickly, where government services would have been too late. Director Andrey shared, “If not for us, she would be dead already. But help was given in time.” So time was one of our first gifts to Alina.
Part of her intestines were removed. After the hospital, we helped Alina reunite with her grandmother, who began to manage her new colostomy bag. But Alina ran away, turning up at a local homeless shelter. She didn’t have supplies or know how to manage colostomy care, so a former nurse at the shelter has been assisting her, using regular plastic bags.
Our prayer is that her body will heal, and when she no longer needs the colostomy bag, we’ll find a facility where she can receive the mental health care she needs.
Another orphanage graduate, Sasha*, who also has a mental illness, attacked someone with a knife. The victim recovered and was very forgiving. But Sasha is now in prison, and will be remanded to psychiatric care for years. He isn’t lucid and often talks about strange things when we visit.
Alina and Sasha’s current situations seem bleak. Yet we believe God desires a relationship with each one, in His time.
Abram has a healthy mindset: not to worry about results, but to keep taking the next step. “We just stay in relationship,” said Andrey. And we work closely with others in our community, like our friend who directs the homeless shelter, so the burden doesn’t fall too heavily on anyone.
This winter we’ll be sharing about how we measure the success of the Last Bell model. But we remember that measuring success is a (necessary) part of the chronos wisdom we use within the spacious kairos wisdom of God’s eternal Kingdom.
“Until the last tick of the last clock,” Roccos writes, “until the last breath on our last day, there is reason to hope. Creation was fashioned in such a way that we are never stranded within our worst selves forever, at least not against our will—as long as we are in time, we always have some step forward we can take, however insignificant or impossible that step may seem.”
*Not their real names
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“…With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you… He’s giving everyone space and time to change” (The Message, II Peter 3:8-9).