LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

It is well known that autumn is the time of harvest and thanksgiving. Traditionally, there are celebrations in churches at Sunday services where people thank God for the abundant harvest, which is not just connected with the appearing of different fruit or vegetables, but it raises us spiritually. Our team had an idea to make the truest Thanksgiving Day in the orphanage. Thankfulness is a quality you need to learn from the earliest years of your life. We wish the orphans would learn not to take for granted the help from teachers, foreigners, each other and finally our meetings, despite of their hard lives.
So, on the 13 of October we prepared for the Thanksgiving Day in the orphanage. Looking back at our experiences, we decided not to gather all children at once. We divided them into 2 big groups: younger and older children.
At the beginning, there was a part for those from primary school. We played games, sang songs with actions. Children were especially keen on rhymed riddles about vegetables and fruit. You can not stay indifferent to what’s happening around you if there is a chance to win a sweet prize. Even teachers helped kids to win and get those sweets.
Children were watching the little play we put on that was informative but at the same time, it was fun. So-called “baptists” as children call us, in one moment turned into a sailor, a neighbor, a friend and even in to a grandma. After that, Misha Tishkevich shared about the meaning of that play. Every one of us has thousands reasons to be thankful for. Ungratefulness makes us blind and prevents us from moving forward and developing.
Older children also watched this play and got a practical advice to start a journal of things they are thankful for and to write down those things every day, even one little thing that makes them grateful.
They had a chance to get a prize that was starting from the letters in the word “THANKFULNESS”. If they named the thing that was in a bag correctly then they were able to take that thing. It was a lot of fun!
We prepared The Tree of Thanks for every team at the end of celebration. Children wrote down on little pieces of paper what they were thankful to God for. Here is some of things they wrote down.
I’m thankful to God for:
– For the life, for my dear dad
– for the game
– for the freckles
– for health
– for love
– for bread
– for friends
– that God helps me to be successful
– for the help for God
– that I was born
– for my sister
– for the apple
– our friends who come visit us
– that my brother and relatives found me.

Everybody got a juicy apple at the end. It’s a special joy for the team – to hear the words of children’s thankfulness addressed to us. Praise God for Hos work!