This December appeared to be a very interesting and exciti
ng month. At the very beginning of this month we focused on studying the characteristics of God. Both kids and the team were amazed at how great our God is. When a member of the team is getting prepared for the Bible lesson he is definitely meditating on what he’s going to teach about and what he’s going to tell the kids. This is when God also keeps on working in our hearts.
There were only girls at the orphanage this month. There were 6 of them there but at the end of the month one of the girls left the orphanage. Her name is Veronika and she’s 15. This was not her first time at the orphanage. She got there even after being adopted. We don’t know a lot about he
r life but it’s sad she got to the orphanage after being adopted to a family and then she had to return to the orphanage as her adopting family refused to have her adopted any more. As she left the orphanage we want to keep on praying for her so that God would richly bless her life and she’d 
remember everything she has been taught about God so far.
We also watched a cartoon with the kids, talked about God, the Creator of all who made all of us special. We are unique in the way how God created us. We also talked about friendship. Especially two of the girls were touched by this and when I asked them if they had some true friends they can trust they said no. We wanted to show God’s attitude to friendship (Proverbs 18:24).
We were very glad to congratulate the orphans on Christmas at the end of this month. We made a puppet show for them. That was a good opportunity for them to hear the story of Jesus Christ birth, for some girls that was the first time they heard it. At the end of the show they got presents. We were so amazed to see them so excited and happy. Be the name of the Lord glorified for his Son’s birth!
Archive for December, 2014
I send greetings to you, brothers and sisters!
One more year has come to an end. What was it? How did God blessed us this month? This yea
r we saw how great and caring our God is thr
ough the open hearts of the authorities of the orphanage. This is a good opportunity for us to serve both the kids and the staff. We were able to see how the kids are growing and are changing and how the Word of God touches them and they make a conscious choice towards Jesus.
This month we talked about a common-law marriage with the kids. After leaving the orphanage a lot of young people are deceived by entering such kind of light relationship as a common-law marriage. These relationships are ones that have no right Biblical ground. We told that this is one of the lies that Satan off
ers: we can have relationships without a family, without being married. We’re so delighted that we definitely relied on the work of the Holy Spirit th
at guided us in teaching. Without it we wouldn’t be able to cover this. This topic appeared to be so essential that it provoked a discussion. The kids were surprised at the fact that they used to have different parents or their parents were constantly changing the partners and it was wrong. They have had a wrong picture of what family is like and they’ve had wrong principles about a family life since their childhood as they had bad examples of their own parents. As we serve these kids we always face with their so called low self-esteem and guilty consciousness which make them depressive an fearful. “ We are losers, we’ll never do better,” – this is w
hat we can often hear from the kids. They are wrong to believe that they can’t change and knowing it we also had a discussion called “There’s nothing i
mpossible”. We told that you can achieve whatever you want if only you make efforts and entrust your life in God’s hands. We believe God heals, changes, restores and helps. This was the first time the kids saw our support and that we believe in them, we believe they can achieve their goals, get better with their studies and we are ready to help them.
In order to sum up I’m going to come to some conclusions: this month was marked with the kids being open to teaching which leads to knowing God more and dedication to praying more. Another good thing is that they started using their knowledge about God in their practical everyday life.
As Christmas is coming we see a good opportunity to share God’s love and mercy with the kids and the staff of the orphanage. We ask for prayers for the hearts of the kids and the staff.
In November: Conference: “Belarus without orphans”
Posted: December 21, 2014 by Dobr9k in Conferences
On November 29, 2014 we organized a conference dedicated to the Christian ministry of salvation to orphans: “Belarus without orphans”. The main slogan of the conference is “Life for the children”! I would like to thank everyone who was part of this conference through the prayers, finances and through sharing of information! Your support was very timely and essential for the implementation of this project!
In these latter days more and more often we hear that Christian ministers and Christian parents who took orphans to their families lose their heart. This is the challenge for the whole Christianity! When we meet with the administration of the National Adoption Center, it is painful to hear statistics numbers of how many Christian families return orphans 
back to the orphanages… Wounded children, wounded parents and pangs of conscience which constantly says “What kind of disciple of Christ you are, if you failed God’s work?”
We constantly receive letters from the parents with cries for help: “Help us! We do not know what to do with teenagers!” Here is an example of one of letters: “Dear brother, Dmitry! It is already 11 years since I have become a foster mother. Most children grew up but I have a foster daughter who is going to turn 15 soon. We have a problem. How to help the girl to have a proper attitude toward boys? How to help her to have a proper attitude toward unbelieving teenagers? How to protect her from temptation of early relations 
between teenagers of different genders?” So many letters soaked in pain and helplessness!
Having observed all these grievous facts, we have decided to organize annual conferences in which we are going give answers to the arising problems. To the conferences traveled 70 parents who already adopted or foster orphans and 30 parents who are thinking about adoption or fostering. There were some unbelieving families who found out about the conference and decided to come. We believe that together, with God’s help, we would be able to change statistic of social and spiritual orphanhood in our society!
Where if not in the church? Where if not among Christians one can find help, encouragement, 
when broken faith on the edge of burning out? What to do if you are on the edge of returning children back to the orphanage? In our country it is not so easy to ask for help because this family would be at risk of losing children. This is why so many problems and pain are hidden in the families who foster orphans. It seems that the whole country wants to change the statistics but for the lack of support we lose our heart and it looks like that God does not hear our prayers. But it is not so! And we are together with you, seeing all the pain, are trying to change the statistics of returns, by saving through Jesus Christ and his anointed ones the families of those who are on the edge of returning orphans.
W
e invited to the conference wonderful speakers who have tremendous experience in fostering children in their families. They are people who know by experience what families who foster orphans in their homes will run into. This is why many seminars were so relevant, so practical that you could see the response not just in eyes but also in the hearts of those who listened! On the seminars it was visible that it is for the lack of knowledge that the nation and children are suffering. The whole pain of families was lifted. For example, early and teenagers’ problems with sexual maturation in boys and girls. Finally many families opened up about problems that tormented them for a long time. After all, in our culture little is spoken about sexual maturation and about problems
that teenagers and their guardians encounter.
For years we lived in isolation from each other without fellowship facing alone the problems that we encounter. The conference has allowed us to meet each other and created a platform where we can exchange our experiences. Many families have acquired new friends who are going to help them to better face problems because everyone has its own experience. Families that came to the conference to learn about adoption, fostering, guardianship received qualitative, professional help. And experience of speakers help to dispel the gossips! After all through the prism of experience everything is perceived differently!
From the response of conference participants we see that the conference gave many answers to the many delicate questions that tormented the families. It is wonderful that together with rich experience of speakers and participants of the conference the answers were found to the most uncomfortable but the most worrying questions! We are thankful to God for His presence on the conference and help in solving of these problematic questions!
We believe that the seed that was planted will bear its fruit and our country will become the country without orphans!
This month we had the opportunities to visit the children at Rudensk orphanage-school again. 
We glorify God for that and are thankful to all those who participate in this together with us (both financially and in prayers)
This time we touched upon actual topics for the children: happiness and dreams. The actuality was evoked by the fact that the children in the orphanage grow up without parents, without proper love, without a good example of right relations in the family. So, in the majority of cases, these children don’t have any guidelines how it is right to build a happy life. Undoubtedly, each of these young people dreams of a good and happy family, of achieving something in life. But the reality is that many people whom they encounter (peers, mentors, teachers), just put an end to their future lives outside the orphanage, to their dreams of a happy life. 
That’s the reason why these two topics are closely connected.
During communication with the children at our meetings, we were telling them that every person has a missing God-sized ‘puzzle’. And when people try to put other pieces into this ‘puzzle’ using something in what they seek happiness (alcohol, girlfriends or boyfriends, much money) – they will not feel happier. 
We showed it using the example of David. Although he was a king and had huge wealth, he found real happiness only in God and in close relationships with Him. This is why Daved was called ‘a man after God’s heart’.
We were also talking that to dream of a nice house, a car, a good job and decent pay is not bad! 
And God is not against to bless them in every possible way in their earthy life. Above all their dreams shouldn’t be more important than Christ and relationships with Him.
We finished our meetings with the words from the Gospel of Matthew ‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’
It was nice to see that these themes touched the children when they came and thanked us. It was also nice to see enthusiasm in their eyes because their dreams were accepted, but not mocked at and crushed. Now these children know and believe that they have hope of a happy life.
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 