Greetings. Dear brothers and sisters, I want to share my gratitude for your support and your prayers for serving orphans in Belarus. 
With each visit to the boarding school, we get to 
know new teachers and educators, because our trips take place in the evenings and not everyone stays to work until the evening. Communicating with educators and teachers, they said that the guys after our meetings became more confident and responsive. We can also say that the children’s inner emotional clamps gradually disappear and the guys smile more and communicate more willingly. When we are told about the changes in the guys, we simply thank God that He is transforming the guys. We thought about how we can diversify our trips so 
that they can also be unique. Therefore, we decided
to make a meeting with the guys in an unusual way for them, we did crafts. We made a bracelet and each color had its own meaning. On this trip, Nastya was with us, who lead and help us with crafts. Nastya asked to take a yellow bead and yellow means that God took care of the person and placed him in paradise. But then the man sinned and the next bead that we strung was black. But God did not want people to perish in their sins, and God sent His son, and He died for people, and everyone understood that the next color after yellow and black is red. The guys sat with waiting for the next color in the bracelet. And this color was blue, which symbolizes repentance and baptism. And then all the guys were surprised by the next color – green. It is the green color that reminds us of spiritual growth. Indeed, in order 
to grow in the knowledge of God, we need to 
read the Bible, pray to help our neighbors, and then our life will become full-fledged and beautiful. And the last bead was purple, this color indicates the great mercy of God. Guys, when they collected the first bracelet, they said, can we collect more for our friends, educators? One boy said: “this bracelet will always remind me of God’s love for me”. When we arrived another time, the guys said that other guys asked: “what kind of bracelet did you do?” and then the guys themselves told the gospel to other peers in a simple way. And when the guys told they were so happy. We also talked this month about trusting God and how God answers our prayers. We discussed the story about 
Esther and the guys realized that the fears they face 
can be overcome not alone, but with God. Alena said: “that fears look like a big Goliath and it can be so scary, but please pray with me for God to help me to win once and for all”. Sometimes simplicity helps to reach the guys faster. We are glad that the guys get to know a loving God and understand that they just need to trust Him and then the whole life will change and sparkle with new colors. I want to thank God for the open doors of children’s hearts, because everyone in life needs hope and confidence that He is not alone. Let’s pray that the knowledge of God in the lives of children becomes stronger and the children will grow in faith.
Greetings brothers and sisters. February has flown by, but we are glad that the doors to minister to orphans are open like never 
before. We see that despite all the difficulties that 
occur, God opens hearts of the people and people themselves begin to seek God. This month we were able to visit orphans in Byalynichy. Just recently we brought children’s Bibles for children and teenagers. We want to instill a love for the word of God. When we have distributed the Bibles, we ask the children to read the stories in advance, which we will discuss in the next lesson. We were looking forward to the arrival at the boarding school. During the trip, we discussed whether the children had read the story of Ruth or not. When we drove up, we met joyful guys who shouted: “we were so glad to see you, we missed you”. Then the guys were telling us, interrupting one another, how their week went and then they said: we want to tell Nikita what we read! We were glad that the Bibles were not just 
handed out, but the guys actually read them. It was 
not easy for Nikita because the guys with whom he communicated were children with impaired attention and speech, as well as with mental problems. Nikita is a leader who has been riding with us since the new school year. Nikita listened attentively to each and for each child, seeing his features, Nikita selected questions. I thank God for such leaders who are flexible and know how to work with the guys. When the children told the story of Ruth and Esther they received a special gift. The guys smiled and were happy that they could not only retell, but also get a sweet prize. The subject of Ruth did not go so easily. After all, the guys sometimes even added some facts during the topic. When we talked another time about Esther, some guys shouted out some fact that I missed because the story is big. It was at these moments that I realized that I was so great that the children had a thirst and the word of God through faith 
instilled into the lives of the children. Also in this 
month we did crafts for the guys. This is a special event that the guys were looking forward to with joy. During the crafts, we communicate a lot with the guys. Tanya, a girl who was born without an ear, said that it is difficult for her to accept herself because of her appearance and the lack of an ear. And we prayed for her that God would send her comfort. We cannot say why this happened, but we can say that you are special and God’s love is not built on our appearance and our deeds. God loves us because He is our Father. And when we talked about the love of God and His acceptance, Tanya said: “thank you”. Personally I lacked such words and was glad to hear it. We also talked with Vlada and she said that she was thinking about baptism. And Alla from our team tried to explain what baptism means, that it is not just water and a pectoral cross, but a covenant. It’s nice to see teenagers starting to take an interest in more serious questions. Dear brothers and sisters, we are negotiating about summer camp for orphans, pray with us that God will provide and open the doors for a summer camp. We see that many children do not have a connection with the world because they have developmental issues, and the camp is a great opportunity to show love and be a source of God’s love. Thank you friends who prayed for new team members, thank God there are new people in team and it make me happy. God hears and answers. Blessings to all of you!
Greetings, brothers and sisters. We want to thank you for your prayers for orphan ministry in Belarus. This month we have an 
update: Dasha, Yana, Vlad and Stas (which are siblings)
are leaving the orphanage. These children were taken from their families to an orphanage so that their parents could improve their living conditions. When they arrived at the orphanage, they watched and listened carefully to everything we said, in addition they didn’t know much about God and saw christians for the first time. The team tried to create an atmosphere where the kids could feel safe. This month we talked about Ruth and about the importance of listening to the advice of elders. We said that Ruth obeyed Naomi and as a result of her right decisions and deeds she became progenitress of Jesus Christ. The kids were amazed by the act of Boaz, who chose a poor girl as his wife and that Boaz became a relative of the Redeemer as well. In conclusion, we said that for all people Jesus is the Redeemer.
The next time we came, we made some crafts with kids. When the children entered the classroom, they were very surprised, because before that they have only seen crafts in stores (as Polina said). We told them that we are going to make some bracelets, as well as thermal mosaic. The kids were excited, full of joy and interest. Polina decided to make a cat, but she was too excited so some small pieces constantly fell out. Some children have great fine motor skills but unfortunately others don’t. This is so great that the kids can practice and develop new skills! It was nice to see when the guys united so quickly to collect figures of the same color without our help. We said to kids that it’s great how they act when someone of them has a need, because in this case they immediately left their work and helped each other as it should be. Making crafts that evening was really unifying, even the educators were interested in watching how the children enthusiastically were making them. During that, kids talked about themselves and their hobbies, it was a great time to get to know each other better.
When we came for another time, we were told that new children had arrived. There were 11 kids that evening. All of them came from a family where the mother was admitted to the hospital and the children were sent to this orphanage. After we met we played for a while. During the game children were distracted from the stress of moving to the orphanage. Loud laughter filled the hall, where we were playing. When we came back to the classroom I told them the story about Esther, that she was an orphan and how God blessed her that she became a Queen. Children were told that she had fears like each of us. Esther was also afraid when Mordecai asked her to go to the king and ask for the people. This story shows that we should overcome our fears and that it is easier to go through difficult situations with our God. At the end of this bible story we asked them about the most surprising part of it. One of them said: I like that she asked the king for the people despite the fact that she was afraid because there was a chance to be killed. Another child said: Fear is something that binds me but her example inspires me a lot. Thank God for busy February, for answering to prayers and for the fact that kids are leaving the orphanage and come back home. Thanks for your dedication!
Greetings brothers and sisters! I want to share how our February went and what we did this month. This month was full of trips, as 
well as fellowship with the guys. Even though many
are leaving Belarus God is blessing us with new kids on the team. We are happy that God hears and sends his servants to the field. Anya and David are new helpers in sharing the Good News with the orphans. Pray for the kids. This month we started with the topic of stealing and what to do if you really want to. All of our meetings are held as a dialogue and many of the kids get involved with what is going on in their lives. “Dima I often have people take things without asking, tell them it’s not allowed!” And we dealt with the topic of stealing. We realized that for many of the kids, the topic is very relevant, and also that for them there is a very blurry line between stealing and borrowing things without asking, which is definitely a sin. When they take things themselves without asking, e.g. deodorant, shampoo, a phone to play with so it’s just borrowing. And we used to say that there would be a consequence for all the guys who do that. 
Because when you get out of school and go
out to work, go out to school, and if you do something like that, the consequence is you’re either fined or locked up. And at times like that, you realize even more how much more at risk these kids are because of their naivety. The other time we came, we were doing a creative activity. We were making beautiful gift cards. The kids were very happy when they found out that we would be making cards because they don’t often get the chance. And it can be noticed that such creative breaks bring the children an opportunity to disconnect from all the problems, as well as those guys who come with us can communicate a lot while helping the guys. Polina said that this year she wanted to learn even more about God, so she decided to go to correspondence Bible school and then Petya said the same thing. The kids are doing 
an assignment from the Bible school and mailing everything 
back. We are so happy that the guys want to learn more about our Savior, Praise God. They also said they were thinking of getting baptized this summer! The next time we came we talked about the subject of Esther. Many of the kids at boarding school have low self-esteem and it is important for them to hear stories like this. We talked about how Esther dealt with challenges and fear. It was a revelation to many of the children that an orphan became a princess! That God can help the most unprotected, as Pauline said. But I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that, Masha said, because it’s hard for me to fight my fears. At the end of the meeting, we suggested that we pray for them and ask God to help them overcome their fears. The next lesson we had was on the wonder of Jesus. How Jesus healed a paralyzed man. Friends brought a paralyzed man and seeing their faith Jesus healed him. And the guys said we wish we had friends like that, then we said, so you can be like that for somebody. Because of your faith, the people who don’t come to our meetings can believe and have the salvation that God offers. Dear Brothers and Sisters, please pray for the children!
In January, we introduced the children from the Belynichi boarding school to the story of Anna, 
who prayed in the temple, asking 
God to give her a son, whom she would later bring to the temple, thereby fulfilling the promise she made to God. Then the children learned about the life of Samuel (Anna’s son) in the temple, under the supervision of Priest Elijah, and how Samuel’s life eventually turned out. Through this biblical example, the children learned about how faithful God Himself is, and how much He blesses people who are faithful to Him. It is amazing how such examples strengthen children’s faith and give hope that God hears their prayers and that at the right time, they will definitely receive their answer!
The brightest and most memorable event of this month 
was Christmas event which was followed by the distribution of present boxes! Due to the fact that it was more difficult to collect the required number of presents this year, the event was held a little later than usual. But this did not prevent the festive atmosphere, the opportunity to tell children about the meaning of the Birth of Jesus on earth, and at the end to receive a lot of positive emotions, admiring the moment when children receive and then open their presents! Children are happy with every smallest toy, every pencil and every candy that they find in their boxes. And we rejoice and thank God for every open heart that has been collecting these presents!
The second highlight of this month was our visit to the graduate students who are in a disabled 
home now. These guys have serious mental and physical disabilities, what makes it difficult for them to adapt to the surrounding reality, and their capabilities are seriously limited, so they are in such an institution. For many years we have not had the opportunity to visit these guys, but they have tried in every way to keep in touch with our team. Some said that they believed and prayed for years that we would come to them someday. And finally, our long-awaited meeting happened! It is impossible to describe in words the degree of joy that every person who was at this meeting experienced! The guys greeted our team with strong hugs and even applause, which was unexpected for us!
Then, we just talked to them, learning about what is happening in their lives, what they are doing and what they dream about. It’s amazing that despite the limited opportunities, these guys are very talented! Someone is engaged in creativity, creating beautiful paintings from beads and other materials, someone sings, and someone composes poems. Then there was a moment when the guys asked us to hold a meeting in the format that we usually used when we came to their school. We gladly agreed! We played a little with them and remembered their favorite songs with movements. We knew that the time we spent with those children was valuable and needed for them, and that for all the years of separation, they had a serious reassessment of values.
And also I noticed that, despite the fact that these guys are already quite mature people externally, inside they are still the same children who, as before, need the simplest hugs, acceptance, love and affection. Their eyes are still the same children’s eyes, hiding dislike, rejection and a very difficult life path. That is why we used the opportunity to remind them of God’s love for each of them, as well as to tell them about Christmas and congratulate them on this wonderful holiday! At the end of the meeting, each graduate received his Christmas present! The guys hugged and thanked each of us and said they would be waiting for us again! And by the way, we also left them with presents – the children gave each member of our team pictures that they’ve made on their own!
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 