LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

They say you love those who you keep in touch with. The more I come to this boarding-school the more I become attached to the kids and teenagers here. Our meeting on 07.10 was special. We enjoy gathering in the school hall. Kids are self-collected there and when there are chairs standing in a circle, the atmosphere is more trustful. They like active games. When we play you can see sparkles of enthusiasm and excitement. While sitting in a circle we shared about our qualities and favourite dishes. After dinner there was a talk on how they should choose friends. Relationships worries everybody, and teenagers are not an exception. That’s why during Dima’s preaching they were very attentive and after that they asked lots of questions. At the end of 1,5 hour meeting kids got a surprise – a 20 kg watermelon. Even though everybody wanted to get his piece they were very friendly: they didn’t push each other and were patiently waiting for their turn to get a long-awaited piece. We were also surprised when after finishing eating they organised a clean-up – they found a bucket for the water, a mop, a rubbish bin and they put the chairs back. Saying good-bye was very warm for me. Those kids who always kept distance now were hugging with the hope for the next meeting.

Just before coming the the school we were praying together about building relationships and becoming closer to kids. And this meeting was a powerful answer and testimony of God’s grace.
Next long-awaited meeting was also full of activities. We continued talking about friendship after the games. This time we talked about being a good friend yourself. There was a big interest for it as well. In the moments like this you understand that this ministry is not in vain, and God’s working.

There was another meeting on 21 September 2016. We played a game on team-building. While passing the ball to each other we had to be very attentive, we had to remember the person who was passing the ball to us and the person we were passing the ball to. Children had to think about strategies on how to pass the balls and keep them going as the quantity of them was rising. We talked about a true example of friendship – Jesus’ example.

I would like to say that the meeting on 22nd October was a special one for kids. Together with the cook from the church “Bethlehem” Valery Strigotski we had a culinary club for older kids. This was a special time, when children watched Valery who was masterfully using a knife…with closed eyes. The administration was so inspired that they asked to come and do this club more often. Kids learnt some basics of cooking, talked to those who was helping the cook and listened to biblical stories prepared by Roman. That’s a success given by God. We believe that this attention,care and interest to kids’ lives from our side won’t leave them indifferent.

We got another team member in October, it’s Valentin. Together with Alex Zhuikov they work with kids from the 3rd form. Valik has got a lot of love for kids and a desire to do this ministry, We believe he’ll be a big blessing for the team.