Have you ever wondered to see the fruits that God grows in the hearts of people? We want to tell you about the Smilovichi orphanage, 
which we have been visiting this month. We had several visits where we could see the changes in the hearts of the children.
This month there was an unusual situation – the children approached us and asked the Bible, because they haven’t had their own. 
After some time, when we phoned to the teachers, we were told that the children had already read dozens of pages in their Bibles. I want to give praise to God for opening children’s hearts for wanting to know him more. In addition, this month we talked about why we need a church. We showed and told the children that God wants to communicate with them and that they can find fellowship with believers in the church and listen to the Word of God.
One of the topics of our meeting was obedience. At the beginning there was a game in which the children had to collect their paper cards of a special color. But there were another cards that were not necessary to collect with a lot of interesting things. 
Therefore, the children had to make decisions about whether they obey the rules of the game or not. It is noteworthy that there were those who obeyed, as well as those who showed disobedience. And after such an example, we began to talk with the children about what benefits we have in life, if we show obedience to our teachers, and most importantly – obedience to God. A week later we discussed the topic of 
Mercy and Compassion on the example of the story of the Good Samaritan. This simple story was an example of the fact that we should have these qualities in our life. After all, God is compassionate and merciful to us. We also talked about such a feeling as envy. Told some examples about the pros and cons of this emotion. After that we decided to get rid of envy in our life.
In general, the month in the Smilovichi orphanage turned out to be quite eventful. We are very glad that we can attend Him, and even more be joyful because God is working in this orphanage. Therefore, we hope that God can convey this joy to you – to everyone who is not indifferent to the orphans of Belarus and everyone who helps us sow God’s word in the lives of the children.
Archive for October, 2018
In September we restarted our lessons with younger children after a short summer break. A lot of changes happened in their lives. 
They grew up and were very glad to see us. Our regular 3 groups were partly disbanded, and new children have joined us this year. The children met us joyfully screaming as usually. They missed us as well as us. It’s so nice when someone looks forward to you and you are welcome. 
We had a talk, found out how they had spent their summer, prayed, sang some favorite songs. The new guys quickly became part of the team and were active during the whole lesson. We decided to devote our first lesson to the topic “God exists” and told the children indisputable facts about the existence of God. At the end of the lesson we asked some 
questions to revise. In September we had simple, well-known, but important and actual topics: “Prayer”, “The Bible – the word of God”, “Faith”. The children especially enjoyed the lesson about the Bible. It was full of nice pictures and good examples which showed them that there are a lot of books with their messages and aims, but there’s only one Book which contains everything you need 
to know about true life. The guys listened to us very attentively and next time easily answered all our questions. With the older children we discussed the same 
topics. The teenagers like discussions very much. Some new guys joined our older group too. They are very open and talkative. I remembered the boy Gena. He’s 12, very smiling and pleasant. From the very beginning it seemed we have known each other for long. He told us about his childhood and parents, about the place he had lived before. He said he liked our meeting very much and would continue visiting us. He didn’t miss a single meeting, which is very nice!
All the meetings we had in September are clear and easy to understand in all the ages. We believe that everything we explain to them will give results some day!
The next school year began at schools in our country. And also the next season of our ministry to orphans. The first meeting with the children from Rudensk was filled with the most vivid and positive emotions. It was felt that the children really 
missed us and were very happy about the arrival of our team. Each of them wanted to share there impressions of trips to Italy or local summer camps, about meetings with relatives, about new friends, or simply to say that they had moved to the next grade of the school! And we were happy seeing the children’s smiles and the fact that, despite the summer break, the children came at full strength to our meeting and even brought new children with them!
Throughout the month, we 
introduced both older and younger children with the foundations of the Christian faith. Despite the fact that the younger children gathered separately from the elders, they had the same theme of biblical lessons. The theme of the first meeting is “God is here, God exists.” At this meeting we tried to show the children that God is alive today, that He is unique and has a great power, capable of changing the lives of people who let Him into their hearts. At subsequent meetings we talked about prayer and its power, and also about the Bible through which God Himself speaks to people and influences their
lives. And at the very last meeting of this month we talked about “faith.” To the older children, Dima spoke about how important is human faith for God and how many miracles He can do in the hearts and lives of believing people. He also talked about how faith is born.
I was engaged this month with younger children. I want to say that each meeting with them was special. In the younger group there is a boy called Lesha. 
Usually he was not the most active child and sometimes very distracted during our meetings. But I was once again convinced that God is great! Today Lesha is one of the most active child. He remembers very well the Bible lessons and actively answeres the questions. Thank God! At one of the meetings, the teacher told me a story about how the
children found a tattered Bible on the street, were very upset that someone tried to spoil the “God’s book” and brought it to their classroom. I was pleased that the teacher fully approved the children’s act and supported them in this! Now the Bible is kept in their group. But it’s amazing that this story coincided with my biblical lesson “About the book that changes lives.” I was just introducing the children to the Bible, telling them that this book can become the most important landmark in the lives of people who constantly read it. It is through the Bible that God communicates with people! Now I wholeheartedly hope that the children will not just protect the Bible they found on the street, but they will read it, getting acquainted with the Great Creator!
Hello dear brothers and sisters as well as our regular readers in whose hearts God has put the love for orphans!
The academic year began and when we arrived to Smilovichi, 
we saw new children. When a child comes to a boarding school, he or she is very constrained and trusts very few people. Betrayal of parents begins to be painted invented as a defensive reaction, an imaginary world. “Why did you come to the orphanage? – I asked. And child told: 
“I do not know, everything was fine. My mother drank, but not much. “” The child, without understanding himself, began to embellish the situation and shield his mother. Most of the children who enter orphanages are children with live parents. Fear and shame make these children very vulnerable.
We began to teach about the basics of faith. When we talked about prayer, I asked the children if somebody ever prayed for them, most of them answered “no”. After this topic, the teacher explained that prayer really helps not only to open and speak out, but also allows the child to be safe. After all, God accepts all and does not look at their history! It’s nice to realize that there are people who help children to overcome the crisis of change (when children come from the family to the orphanage)!
When we started the topic “The book that changed millions of people,” it turned out that children do not have a single Bible and living in the 21st century they hear the Bibical stories for the first time. Every time we come to the orphanage, we see how the children starting to be openhearted and happily retell everything that was said at our previous meetings. “Can The Bible be interesting?” – 
to the teacher’s question, we say: “Of cource it can!” With personal communication, children talk about their desires and dreams to return to the family more quickly, they are dreaming about that parents will stop drinking and start paying attention to them, which every child need. We began to pray for about a month about worries of the children and God answered! Brother and sister who were in the orphanage were taken back to the family! Everything became possible due to the fact that someone stood in the gap and started to pray for the children! The children themselves are happy to tell us about how God answers our joint prayers, through which faith is born in children’s hearts. Small victories claim strong faith!
Thank you to everyone who pray for us and for the ministry to orphans! Let God piece out any need in right time in your life!
Summer has flown by as usual, and it’s time to go back to children from Vileyka boarding school. Many of them have grown over the summer, have been to summer camps, 
have visited different countries, and it is still a great joy to see them. 
We could tell that they missed us and were looking forward to meeting again.
I’d like to share a little about one boy Maksim, who is 13. His parents are alcoholics, that’s why he happened to be in this boarding school, just like his brothers. He never gets a chance to go abroad during summer holidays like other orphaned kids, because he has a family, so he spends summer in the village with them. We deicide to make his summer fun and offered him to go to a Christian camp not far from Mogilev. For one week there was a lot of Bible-studying, 
sport and other activities. People helped Maksim and his mum to get to and 
navigate through Minsk, to get to Mogilev and and in general showed him care. He was really pleased with the time he spent among Christians and grateful for so much care that was shown to him.
Our regular trips to Vileyka started in September. Our team changed a bit. Olya is now a wife. And by the way, her husband, Misha plays the guitar, loves kids and tries to go with us to Vileyka whenever possible. There is also a new volunteer in our team, Masha. It’s nice that God Himself puts desires to look after those, He Himself looks after.
We had a meeting for everyone in school on September 28. 
The atmosphere was great! Children really missed us, and they were so eager to do all the activities, to answer questions, to remember facts about volunteers, joyfully sang songs. Victor prepared an interesting talk about friendship, as this is the base of a happy life and long-term relationships. You are accepted in friendship and learn to give. Sweet corn sticks were the best ending for the evening.We have a prayer request : school administration started after-school clubs for kids on Fridays during the time we come, so some kids have to go to these clubs and can’t meet with us. At the moment we are talking with administration about changing the time for the clubs, so that we could have our meetings with kids the way we used to do. We need your support.
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 