LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Greetings, dear friends!
In August we had a camp for children from Grozovo orphanage. We are very grateful that you gave this wonderful opportunity to the orphans to be able to attend this camp! I came to the conclusion and I am very sure that a camp it is most wonderful time for the orphans. The camp went on for 14 days and during each day the gospel was preached. The cap attended the children from age 8 to 14. Despite the fact that I serve the orphans for a long time it was a new experience for me. During the camp I shared the room with the boys. Each one of them is different and everyone has its own pain, its own wounds. Despite their young age all of them experienced separation and even death of the close ones. When we first came to the camp we had evening where children told their stories. They shared the reason why they are in the orphanage. In their stories we could feel their pain and hopelessness. Before bed time we read the parable of the prodigal son and tried to apply it to our lives. Just as the prodigal son the orphans are far away from home without parents and without proper role models. But there is hope because God does not leave Its children and constantly knocking on the door of their hearts to tell them that He is near.
    For 14 days we witnessed how God performed miracles and how the children were changing. But not all the children were open and because of this we prayed for them and continue to pray now that the seed that we sow will bring fruit at its proper time. The brightest moment of the camp was repentance of three children. I believe that the boys consciously came out and prayed the prayer of repentance. Praise The Lord! At that very moment I even remembered the statistics that teens of ages 14 to 16 more often accept Christ than the adults. Therefore there is hope for both – for those who already asked God for forgiveness and for those who did not reconciled with Him yet.
    My prayer is for these orphans that every one of them would find a Christian family and would feel parent’s love in those families. Sometime the children asked me to seat next to them while they fall asleep – they deeply yearn for parental love – sometimes they would fall asleep in my hands. Many of them dream to see their parents when they wake up.
It is also good that the children had the opportunity to change their surroundings for a time. Many of them did not have an opportunity to spend this summer in a family or in other country therefore this camp has helped the children to forget the orphanage for at least 14 days. We also hope that this opportunity to get to know the children closer would help us in future meetings with them.
Also in this camp we had an opportunity to have some small medical checkups for the children. As the result we found out that two children have medical problems. A boy named Nikita has problems with breathing and probably he would need to undergo a surgery to fix the problem. And a girl named Ann has problems with thyroid. She needs a consultation of a specialist and farther treatment. Right now we are planning how to help these children in farther testing and treatment. Please pray that God would send all that is needed for their treatment (including specialists) and heal them.
I am very grateful to everyone who prays for us and for these children. I am especially thankful to those who helped financially in organizing this camp!