In October, I went with the team to the orphan house in Belynichi.
This year I have been to the camp in this boarding school for the first time, and it left a deep mark on me. We managed to make more friends with children during the week of living together, so for me our meetings became more personal. I see with what joy the guys are waiting for us and come out to meet us in the lobby. I feel their sincerity. I want to give them back even more. There are a lot of new kids this year. On the one hand, I am surprised that they begin to trust us so
quickly, constantly come, participate in activities, that they are open hearted in conversations. But on the other hand, I notice that this is the result of the atmosphere that has already been created here during the time of communication with children who had been here before the arrival of the newcomers. Our meetings as usual consist of games, songs, bible themes, communication and hugs).Since there are a lot of new ones, we decided to take topics from the very beginning. This month, for example, we talked about Abraham, the Tower of Babel. It is clear that the guys, whom we have been communicating with for more than a year, remember 
these stories. We try to involve newcomers into more communication, specifically ask them some questions. We show that it is very important to listen carefully, that it is important for us to convey the essence of the stories to them. That these are God’s messages for them. I try to get to know new kids more. I pay attention to those whom I already know well. I regret that our time together passes so quickly. Also at the beginning of the month, we distributed children’s Bibles to the kids and suggested 
them specific homework – to find and read some stories by themselves. We divide them into 2 categories – senior and junior. Each has its own theme. However it is not obligational. On the following visit, we ask those who had prepared and read the assigned story. There are always such kids! Most of them are always prepared. We ask them questions separately to make sure that they have completed the task. We answer their questions. Also this month we managed to take some children from the boarding school to visit us for the weekend. The idea came to a person from our team. Luckily, we managed to arrange everything and spent the whole weekend with 5 kids. These were the children whom we had known for many years. We remember them as 6-7 years of age. And now they 
are already 12-15. When planning this time, the main task for us was to put the children into a family atmosphere, to talk seriously about their lives, to please them. During this time spent together, we visited a zoo, walked around the city, jumped on trampolines, ate in interesting places, cooked dinner together, played board games, sang songs with the guitar, went to church on Sunday, were at a Sunday lesson, sang songs on the road, talked heart to heart before going to bed. 
Of course, it was a fun time for the guys, but for me it was the time of revelation about God’s love and care! It is impossible to look indifferently at the kids’ sincere admiration and joy for such simple, to others, things. I spent a lot of time with Katya, who has diagnoses on physical and mental health. It was a whole adventure for her – we saw her favorite animal, the lynx, she was able to jump on the trampoline, initially with my help, and then by herself, admiring how she overcame her fear of heights.
Katya has short fingers by birth. She helped me to cook dinner. I thanked her for help and said that she did great! We had a conversation before going to bed. She shared with me that she wants her own family, that she is offended by the people making fun of her because of her appearance, and her fear that a home for disabled is waiting for her. She asked if I could be her mother. She recalls and fantasizes about her own mother a lot. I understand that she is very lonely, although the other kids who were with us tried to take care of her. But rather as a younger sister, not as a friend. That’s why I hugged Katya a lot and said a lot of kind things to her. She said it was the best day of her life! I think it was. We have heard many words of gratitude and love from the children. I also talked to them about the Halloween holiday, about fortune-telling. What the Bible says about it, what harm they do to their spiritual life and what consequences they can face.
the orphanage — Alesya and Maxim, they are siblings. They are waiting for a court decision, after which the fate of these guys will be known. Let me remind you that they were taken from a family with addicted to alcohol parents. These guys have never heard of God before. I am still surprised by the fact that in the Belarusian villages so little is known about Christ! That’s why we started with the basics. Namely: “The Creation of the world, the Fall, the history of the flood and Noah’s Ark.” In October we spoke with Alyosha and Maxim about the story of the failing construction of the Tower of Babel. 
We talked about people who wanted to reach God by their deeds, as a result, God’s reaction was a mixture of languages. After listening to the story Maxim asked why God did this to people? I told him that we cannot reach God by our deeds, because there is too much sin in our life. The only mediator because of whom we come to know God and can live with God is Jesus. After all if by deeds You can reach God and please Him, then God wouldn’t have had to send Jesus to us. The main goal of people would be to glorify themselves not God. Pride is a problem of people, as well as envy. They pass through generations and are still relevant.
Also after our lesson I offered coloring pages on the topic of the Tower of Babel saying: “Guys, if you colour these pages, you will get a prize.” The goal is to help get rid of an orphan mindset (everyone owes me), but to enhance the desire to take control over the situation and think what I can do to be rewarded. When we arrived another time Alesya ran up and asked: “Dima, where do you think Maxim’s drawing is, and where is mine”? I assumed it was the right one, and she said, “No, the left one”! Then the teacher, who was nearby said: “Alesya, you should always tell the truth”! Alesya blushed at that moment, and the teacher once again asked to tell the truth no matter how difficult it is. Then Alesya said that Maxim had a lot of homework and she decided to help him earn candy, so she coloured the drawing instead of Maxim. But she also lied in order to get her own benefit and because of this she was very ashamed at that moment. The teacher praised the truth and said that it was better to tell the truth and then people will be more open and even more willing to help. “The truth helps people to be friends and even God likes it when people are honest. After all God sees our heart as once, He saw the Cain’s heart. I was just surprised when the teacher came to such a conclusion! “Thank God, I thought!” 
Then we sat down and I told the story of Joseph. About his childhood in a big family, his dad’s love to him, and his brother’s envy against him. He told about Joseph’s brothers, their evil actions against Joseph when they sold him into slavery and then deceived Joseph’s father.
After Joseph’s story I said, “Guys, look, our reactions and actions are often similar to those of Joseph’s brothers. We also envy when parents take care of someone more than about us. When someone is given new and beautiful things but we have only old ones. And of course we get offended by this and get envy and anger.” And the guys admitted they are often jealous of one another. Also we talked about Joseph’s sincere trust in God that didn’t vanished when even when he was sold into slavery. Instead he relied on God and God helped him. Joseph was also like an orphan. He lived in a place that he did not choose. At that moment Maxim said: “Oh, an orphan like us”! I replied: “That’s right, Maxim!
cheat on her husband with Joseph, he didn’t want to betray his master Patiphar.” “Why did Joseph refused to do this? Because Joseph knew that if he did this, it would bring pain to God. Joseph did not want to upset God because he loved Him very much.” At the next meeting, we finished the story of Joseph’s life. Summing up, we reasoned that sometimes we do not understand much of what is happening in our lives. But if we trust God, He can turn any circumstances into good for us. “Today you are in a shelter, far from your parents and friends, but God has a plan for you. Therefore, if you learn to trust Him, then God will help you in your lives. After all, only God can greatly change your life and change orphanhood to loyalty and heirship. But you need to believe in God get to know Him better and have strong hope in God’s plan for your life”. Friends, thank you very much for your prayers! Let’s continue to pray that the guys return to their families as soon as possible and that God help all these parents to change their lifestyle to have their kids with them and not in orphanages.
are greeted with smiles by a crowd of children who 
are ready to spend time with us. Every month we take a topic that is relevant for the children. Those topics might be painful for some of them, but some of them didn’t even think about it before. God’s сare was the key topic of last month, the purpose of which was to show each of the children the special role of God in our lives. Care is something those children lack.
Using the examples of biblical characters, we revealed God’s love for each of them. We talked about how valuable each of us is for God; how God cares and keeps us safe; we talked about the fact that the One who created everyone doesn’t make any mistakes; about the fact that nothing happens in our life without His will, and God has a plan for each of us personally. The topics of last month were “God’s Care”, “God looks into the heart”, “Plan for you personally”, and “Always near”. We played a lot of games with the children, learned and sang new wonderful songs on the topics we’d covered. For me personally, each of the topics we’d covered was really special and important. I believe that we were able to share this understanding with the children. I hope that not a single word spoken through us would turn out to be in vain. I pray that within this time the Lord will find each of the children for His Kingdom.
I am sharing with you the news of Vileika for October.
This year there weren’t many graduates at Rudensk orphanage, that’s why not so many children left school. Currently, the majority of children continue attending our meetings. According to our good tradition, we devoted the first meeting to the conversation with the children so they could share their news and tell us about the events that took place in their lives during the summer vacation. It’s interesting that the children in Rudensk, unlike the children in all the other orphanages we visit, eagerly asked where our team was and how our summer went. They were trying to find out about every person, who had been visiting them during the previous study year. We devoted our next meeting to the relay race as the children from Rudensk orphanage like it so much. Sport is highly appreciated here.
The children go swimming actively, play football, and are keen on skiing during the winter period. They often take part in different contests and competitions among other schools and regions and often take prize-winning places. During one of our meetings, they asked Alyona to pray for the coming football competition. They were asking for getting exactly the first place not second or third. When we came the next time we heard a lot of words of admiration for how God had answered Aloyna’s and their prayers and God himself had helped them win! In such moments, we are filled with joy because God answers prayers and sends such great testimonies to these children’s lives! Glory be to Him for that!
During our next meetings, we started the series of topics of our program ‘You are special’. The fact is that these children experienced rejection, and had problems with self-acceptance, and their appearance which had traumatized them deeply. Sometimes such a state leads children, especially teenagers, to either closedness and insecurity or aggressiveness and wish to mock others or humiliate them. Exactly for that reason, we decided to discuss the series of topics from the program ‘You are special’ so that everyone will be able to know that God treats every person with such love and affection and He created each of these children unique and incomparable!
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 