LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Greetings, brothers and sisters! February is a special month, so many things are going on in Belarus now! We thank everyone who prays for peace and asks God to stop the war!

This month we had the opportunity to serve at the Rudensky orphanage. When we come to the guys we meet not just children running out to meet us, but the guys who have become a part of our lives. More and more guys are coming to our meetings, the guys who used to ignore them. Bozhena is one of them. I asked this girl once why she decided to come to our meetings. She replied that she didn’t understand everything before and therefore it wasn’t really interesting. But now our meetings become more and more enteresting for her and things that we discuss become more clear as well. “I like that I am not alone. I feel accepted here,” — once she said. This month we talked about friendship. Such a simple concept but how difficult it can be to trust somebody or to believe that you can be accepted. Every child wants to have friends but not everyone knows how to do that. Nastya was talking about four friends who brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. She asked the question: “Guys, what was special about that paralyzed man? Why did he have friends?”

Many children in the orphanages worry that they have no friends because of their appearance. But the point is not the appearance but your heart, are you ready to have friends and to open your heart to be friendly? In addition to friendship Nastya told the story about the healing of a paralyzed man, who was brought by his friends to Jesus through the roof. That was the continuation of the series of topics about the miracles of Jesus Christ. We talked about the miracle (what it is) and how it differs from magic or illusion. I like that our topics are very relevant. Often they reveal the lie that the devil put in the children’s mind, calling these things “help”. The consequences of this lie are much more destructive than it seems at first glance! Ilya at one of the meetings talked about the miraculous satiation of 5,000 people. He asked the guys a question: “If you needed a miracle now and Jesus did it, would you believe it?” All the guys answered: “Yes, we would believe it!”Ilya said that to notice all the good things that God does in our lives and thank Him for that is very important . After the meeting the guys came up and told us about different situations they were going through. They realized that certain situations were not coincidences but God’s help. It is so encouraging to understand that the guys on their own have come to such conclusion!

Also during this month we talked about faith. We raised the question about faith. “Faith or doubt? Which is stronger?” And opinions divided. Some shouted that faith is stronger but others kept saying that doubts are stronger than faith. It’s always nice to see that the guys have their own perspective on things and can substantiate it. We talked about faith and that it is formed in childhood. It is in childhood when we start to trust and believe. We also said that the family where the child is growing defines what this child will believe in. In our case the caregivers form children’s faith because they tell them what is true and what is wrong. And if he or she says that faith in God is the best thing that God gives to us, in this case faith will bring hope and the whole group of children will be believers! But if guys are under the influence of a teacher or a caregiver who does not believe then it will be much harder for such guys to believe in God. We based the lesson about faith on the story about Jairus and his daughter. Faith always suppress doubts and on the contrary doubts try to choke the faith off. But in this story Jesus says something very important: – “Do not be afraid! Only believe!”. In many cases that’s all a person needs to know. Doubts may come but we should not be afraid instead we should believe that God will help. And sometimes we need to separate ourselves from the

people who laughs at us or pushes us to do something wrong. But there is great joy even in such situation when we have to make efforts to protect the seeds of faith in the soil of our hearts. Joy and peace floods our hearts when we came through such season. I really like that the guys strive to implement the things they’ve heard in their lives!

Thank you very much, friends, for your prayers! We believe that the word of God will give abundant fruit in the lives of children! Pray that God would continue to help children open their hearts and make the right decisions!