LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

We have resumed our trips to Smilovichy asylum in May. There were no children for three months as all of them were placed in families what made us really happy. However, in May one young girl called Nika came to stay at the asylum. She is 17 and has been experiencing difficult life situation. She is psychologically and emotionally challenged and is going through a stormy teenage period. Nika is harboring an enormous amount of wounds, fears and rejection. Since early childhood she was left by her parents and she was raised by her granny. Every effort she made to make up with her parents was futile and each time she saw one of her parents, she was hurt again and again what only exacerbated her feeling of rejection and not wanting to live. This all brought Nika to alcohol addiction and several suicide attempts. After those incidents, she was expelled from school and sent to the asylum as her granny, who is now very elderly and has health issues, can no longer take care after Nika. We cannot disclose more personal information about this girl, but we think that from what already has been said you can imagine how hard it is for her. Frankly speaking, we were really concerned with whether our first meeting with Nika will go well and if she was going to be open to hear about God. At first, indeed, we had to make some effort to build up a dialogue as the girl didn’t fully understand why we came and tried to distance herself. However, one of our girls called Vera managed to melt Nika’s heart. Vera is 6 and she is one of team member’s daughter. For some reason she fell for Nika and was hugging her, sharing candy and trying to engage Nika in our program. For example, when we were speaking about the creation of the world and were reproducing the garden of Eden with pictures, Nika became very skeptical but then Vera approached her and said: “Here, take the giraffe and find a place for him”. And then Nika smiled and took the giraffe while Vera was hugging her so that Nika almost cried. This is when she was becoming more open, step by step. Vera brought candy with her to the next meeting which she bought with her own pocket money that she had saved in her piggy bank. Vera gave the candy to Nika saying: “I love you”. And Nika began to cry saying that nobody told her those words before. Since that moment it seemed that her heart has melted and she began to share her life story and share her feelings and fears. And when we began to talk about God and His Love to people, Nika burst into tears. With each new meeting she was opening more and more and getting more engaged in our activities. Praise the Lord!