LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Hello, dear friends!  This new year we had the opportunity to attend the Rudensk orphanage.  I am grateful to God for the opportunity to see how children are enriched when we come to them.  When we go to orphanage teenagers and children run out to meet us.  One situation I have remembered: “we went to the orphanage and we see a little girl sitting.  I thought that she arrived here not long time ago and she was delighted when she saw us.  We went up and asked her name, she was embarrassed, but still answered.  Looking at Veronica, the girl from our team, she said a little audibly: “can you hug me?” Veronica agreed and the girl hugged her very tightly, and then said: “I really miss hugs”.  There are many similar stories and we see children who do not have enough hugs.  Teenage girls, growing up, build an early relationship to fill their void, which emerged from a lack of parental attention. We were also able to hold a Christmas performance. When we were talking with the administration, they told that we were the first this year who made a Christmas performance and said about the Nativity of Jesus.  Many people come for the new year, but no one spoke about the birth of Jesus.  All the children came to the show, as well as the teachers.  We are pleased that we can speak directly about our Savior and celebrate the Birth of Jesus together.  Thank God!  Looking at the children, I saw that seeing the performance they seemed to forget where they were and what was with them 20-30 minutes ago.  Everything seemed to be transferred to the story of the Birth of Christ.  The Christmas performance flew by and the children, as well as the teenagers, were so inspired by everything that was happening that they told us how time flew by imperceptibly!  It  was a good occasion to  remind the children once again about our weekly meetings, as well as invite new children who have not yet come to us. We had several more meetings where we talked about mats and their impact on human life, as well as theft, which is a real problem for most orphans.  I really want the graduate students, who will finish school in a few months, not to be in a situation where, due to the inability to use money and plan their budget, they begin to steal and for this they are sent to prison.  But we want every child to be savvy and to know and understand what his theft will lead to.  We also talked about pure speech.  Children are so injured that talking obscenely is just normal for them!  Often, because of this, the children have a lot of problems, when they fight with the teachers, they are more punished for their words.  We talked about the power of words and the consequences of bad words.  The children thought and said: “Dima, we will try to restrain ourselves and try to say less offensive words.”  We also see that the children actively participate in the study of bible verses.  They copy them in notebooks and then show them to us.  And we make out verse by verse. Dear brothers and sisters, we thank God for you, that together with you we can serve our God, visiting places of despair!  Pray for the children, that the life of orphans will change!