
Elizabeth arrived in Macedonia in December 2013. In April 2014 Elizabeth Burton acquired a vision to rescue orphans in Skopje, Macedonia. She wanted to provide them a secure place of living and a place that will give every opportunity to succeed in life and experience unconditional love. With the partenrship of brothers and sisters in America, Shields High was created in Macedonia. Shields High will provide family home environment solutions for orphans with excellent opportunities in higher education, domestic life, sports and talents, with above standard social integration and adulthood preparation.
UPDATE: In 2019 the Macedonian government, without warning, cruelly pulled all volunteers from the orphanages throughout the country and created a new law that only allows citizens of Macedonia who also work for and are approved by the government to serve and help the orphans in the orphanage systems. With this, after being with the orphans for over 7 years, Elizabeth decided to wait "outside the gate" for each child that she had "grown up with" to exit the "system" at 18 years of age. Shields High was able to continue to walk with each individual (now a young adult) and help them with shelter, food, domestics and work. All of the kids that we were involved with since 2011 are now adults and on their own. Sadly, many of them returned to their cultures (Roma) but we were able to assist them with chances of finding good work and needs of domestic life, to try to help integrate them into society. A few of them did well and are living on their own, working good jobs, and taking steps to improve their lives. Our oldest is 29 years old now! We continue to hope in the future to assist orphans again. With all the kids that we have served, the seeds have been planted. We hope that those seeds will grow over the years and the kids (now adults) will come to the realization of the love of God through Jesus Christ that we shared with them.
However, we still continue to serve at-risk kids whenever the Lord presents the opportunity. That never ends!