Children are very important to me. I believe they truly are God's best gift. I have always had a heart and a passion for children. In 1994, the Lord sent me to Belarus as a missionary for 2 years. We were there to start a church and ended up starting 5. While there, I was the children's minister and instantly fell in love with these children and ministering to them. As part of that ministry, we were often in the orphanages of Belarus and my heart would break for these precious little ones. As a result, the Lord began to lay on my heart the importance of ministering and loving on orphans. "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27