April is truly a festive month. The most joyful spring holiday is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it was celebrated on April 8. 
We decided to organise a celebration for our friends from Vileyka boarding school. We prepared a programme, a little play, prizes and set off on the way to children.
Our Easter meeting happened to be on April 13. 
To make it more enjoyable we separated younger kids from older ones to keep them attentive and interested.
This kind of meeting is a great chance for us to tell the kids and their teachers about true meaning of Easter, to give them hope for eternal life wit God, to proclaim the victory over death.
All children followed along the play we put on – there was true angel and the good news from God. 
Older kids eagerly took part in an Easter quiz. Everyone got a handmade prize – a badge with fish shaped Christian sign. One of our leaders, who joined recently, Sasha Shvedov, told us about the meaning of this symbol and hand it out to everyone who came to this meeting.
On Saturday April 21, we had a long-awaited outing to the river Bank of Vileyka 
water reservoir with the whole school. Our leaders’ team had nearly 40 people. It was quite a while ago, I guess, since this “beach” had so much going on at this time of the year. Uncle Valera’s culinary school never lacks people who are helping : kids were cutting vegetables and making salad, older boys were proudly helping adults with BBQ. When table was all full and set up for us, one of the kids said : “Finally, we can start on food!”
We don’t have enough time to speak to everyone we want,
when we come to the school on Fridays, and this Saturday outing was a great opportunity for us to catch up on it: just to talk, listen, hug and have pictures taken.
Seems like the most popular person that day was a 6 year old boy called Nazariy, whom parents brought with them to this celebration. Girls were kind of competing to hold him, 
some were saying that one day they will have a baby of their own.
Even though the day was windy and there was dust and sand flying around, and you could feel it in your mouth, nobody complained. Everyone was smiling, playing games, talking, admiring nature.
Another thing that made us even closer was singing songs with guitar while sitting on a river bank.
Children are usually not that eager on comments and saying thank you, but this time it was such a big number feedback and it wasn’t just “it was cool”, but rather “thank you very much for this day, it was great!”. I’m sure that “great” meant not only the food we had, but they will be dreaming about repeating it again and remember it forever.
Archive for April, 2018
I want to start my story about the children with the testimony of Vitalik from grade 4, he began improving with health and mental development. 
It began with the Bible lessons about the miracles of Jesus Christ, which we conducted earlier, when he heard that the Lord Jesus healed the sick, he asked the question: how can I pray so I can became healthy and did not be in the hospital every month? We showed him an example of prayer for ourselves and said that we will also pray for him. From that day we see how everything is becoming better, Thank God! 
He became not only better at feeling physically, but also mentally.
The month of April began with a beautiful Easter holiday and, our goal was to convey to every child of different ages, the real essence of this holiday. After we conducted this topic, we invited a Christian theater group, 
where professional actors showed the production about this grandiose event. Watching the children, we saw a good reaction and openness to that good and bright things that the Savior gave us! The end of the holiday was the distribution of gifts with
everything necessary for every child.
At other meetings, we continued to talk with older children about the biblical heroes of faith, those who sought God and learned obedience, despite their status and experience (Naaman and Queen Esther). On the example of Queen Esther, who was also an orphan, the children learned that pious and righteous life always leads to success and blessings. 
And on the example of the story of Naaman, the guys learned that faith in God works miracles!
We also had separate meetings with girls and boys. Each of the girls could write one question on the topic of interest, and our task was to answer wisely and show the way out. When I answered, many cried from hidden deep inside the pain and resentment. Others decided to stop watching horror movies or to swear as they found out that this leads to those nightmares and fears that torment them. The most important was the prayer for the forgiveness of their sins and with a request to God to heal and completely change their lives!
Dear friends! From March 30 to March 31 in Minsk in the church “Light of the Gospel” an annual conference “You are not alone” was held. 
Families and volunteers who work with orphans were invited , as well as representatives of guardianship agencies and ministers of different churches. In all, 70 families attended the conference.
Topics of the conference: “Diagnosis of trauma. 
How to help a child with pronounced aggression and disobedience “, as well as” Helping children who survived violence “. The next block was dedicated to families that are in a state of burnout! “We are exhausted. We already do not want anything “- said the people who came to this seminar. “Our dream is to bring the children back to the orphanage,
because we are so devastated, our relationship with our children in the family is destroyed and, by accepting orphans, we are losing our own children,” the seminar participants said. Two categories of people who needed to not only help on an emotional level, but also on the spiritual level. 
I thank God for the speakers and pastors who came forward and served this category of people. Pain, tears filled people when they came to the conference. But God worked in the hearts of people and they received healing through the word of God, as well as through the testimonies of families who took orphans into their homes.
The conference was coming to its end with every hour,
but the atmosphere that appeared allowed not only to speak out to those wishing conference participants, but also to receive healing and help. We are glad that when someone meet some dificulties, we can be on the front line to help people cope with their fears and difficulties! Thanks to all who prayed and participated in their time and finances! The work before God always brings fruit to the kingdom of God!
This month I could communicate with both small and older children from the Rudensk orphanage. I am always very pleased with the hospitality of the children, as well as the teachers a
nd the orphanage administration! Each meeting is filled with a warm atmosphere, good smiles and acceptance.
The older children have finished acquaintance with the stories about the life of David and his son Solomon. In addition, the older children had a “boy’s party” and a “girl’s party”. These are the favorite meetings of the children from Rudensk, when the girls gather 
separately from the boys. The girls talked about chastity, how important it is to value and respect yourself and keep clean. We had the opportunity to show the girls of how God sees a chastity. We have talked
about the value of the family in the eyes of God. Each girl shared her ideas about a strong and healthy family. At the end of the meeting, We have prayed that God would help each of them keep themselves clean, and also that in the future they will have good families and their children will never learned what life in an orphanage is.
The Boys have talked about the fears that men can have. At the beginning of the meeting, the boys pretended that they are very brave and do not know what the fear is. But when the themes of parents began, about relat
ionships, about nightmares, children began to recognize their own fears. We talked about how fear can influence our behavior. But, besides that we told about the
fear, we gave to the children a tool, how to fight a fear. We told about a psalmist who says that he was looking for the Lord, and He delivered him from all fears. And it was a good encouragement for the boys, because they can do the same as this psalmist.
In addition to general meetings, we held relay races, which are very popular with high school students. And at the end of the month, a funny clown came to the orphanage, who not only entertained and amused the children, but also told them about God. After the meeting with the clown, all the children and teachers got sweet prizes and sports balls.
I want to share with you how our trips to the orphanage on Tuesdays are taking place. The new children,
who were brought earlier this month, were very open to us and to the word of God, so we decided to talk about sin, devoting a lot of time to it. In order to make this topic easier to understand, many moments were presented in a playful form and even the educators wanted to join us, 
expressing their approval. After all, all the children we come to had lived in families where sin is the norm of life for their parents, grandparents. Almost from birth, they see cruelty, the immense use of alcohol, drugs and other sinful behavior from the most authoritative people – moms and dads. One of the girls, Snezhana, said that her mother does nothing for her upbringing, often goes away at night and leads an immoral lifestyle than traumatizes her baby’s heart. Remaining alone, not to be afraid, 
Snezhana prayed, and then fell asleep with faith that her mother would return home and nothing bad would happen to her. One of these days, Snezhana’s mother was brought to the hospital because of an overdose, and she was taken to the orphanage. “Why? Why God, if You are such Almighty, you can not make my mother not to sin and become a good mom? Snejana asked. ” 
There was so much pain and disappointment in her voice and eyes. We answered her questions and supported her, surrounding her with care and attention. Praise God for the opportunity to influence these children and give them the love they need so much!
During our next meeting, we talked with the children about what to do if you have already sinned and your conscience torments you. In my opinion, it’s not enough just to tell a person about sin and show all its disadvantages. It is important to give these children a way out and help them to deal with sin. The purpose of this meeting is to teach children how to ask forgiveness if they are in some way wrong with people or God, and also learn how to forgive others.
Last week, we arranged a lesson for creativity for the children. Sveta taught girls how to do hair clips, and Zhenya with Nazar painted engravings. Everyone were pleased with the time spent and the result of their work. For Vasilisa this time was especially joyful, because she dreamed of a beautiful hairpin and even managed to make two during our meeting.
We are very grateful to all who are praying for these beautiful children and our team! Thank God!
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 