LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Greetings, dear friends!

The month of November passed quickly. During that month we had a wonderful opportunity to attend the Vileika orphan boarding school. At this difficult time, which the whole world and our country are passing through, we see how grace is multiplying. Every meeting with children is special and our meeting topics are too. We are discussing what concerns young people the most now. This month we talked a lot about plans in life. Many guys don’t know how to make plans, they don’t even understand why do this. Because everything is scheduled for children in orphanages, every day they wake up at the same time, at the exact time they go to eat, study and etc. We see that in the future, if the guys are not taught how to make plans, they will have big problems! That’s why we talked to them about planning, about who and what influences our choices and how to avoid people who can ruin our lives. The older guys said that they and their friends are already deciding what they are going to do in the future. Then we discussed different situations and talked about what this or that choice could lead to. But taking care of the future we can forget that it is also necessary and important to build relationships with God. Cause we do not know how long we will live, and only God can give us confidence and hope! Then one teenager said: “I understand that we need to build relationships with God, but it’s not popular!”.

Then we talked about death and what happens after it — every person will meet God and it is important during our earthly life to make a decision to follow God. If we say we don’t believe in God then when we die and see God, what will happen then? The guys said that it would be scary! And then I said, “In order not to have fear we need hope, which only God can give.” At that moment the grins and jokes stopped and silence reigned in the hall. “Nobody tells us about it,” the guys said. Then I said that we are here so that you have as few mistakes in your life as possible. Evil companies, premature pregnancy, theft, deception – even all of this we can’t compare to the last day when God will reject all those who love evil. Therefore when planning life we should not forget about this.

When we visited children another time we told them that God is looking for a meeting with them. So our first topic for discussion was how to build our relationships with friends, teachers, relatives. The guys expressed many interesting points but there wasn’t any unified response. “We would love to be able to trust and feel safe with our loved ones and friends, but we are not because we have been betrayed so often that now we cannot have complete trust to anyone,” the guys shared. But as we gradually were unveiling the topic we came to the understanding that God can become our close friend who will never betray. We said to the guys that when anyone is praying and reveals his heart and problems to God he would notice that God has put all of these in order and it brings peace and comfort to the heart. Sometime during a prayer God reveals what is best to do or who you need to forgive. Prayer is a conversation between God and man. Therefore it is important not only to speak but also to listen, and when thoughts come into your mind memorize or write them down, so that later you can think whether these thoughts were from God or not. Prayer is a powerful weapon that helps to fight against depression as well as unforgiveness. Therefore we were talking about the importance of forgiveness of your offenders as well as parents, teachers, friends. We considered the steps how to do it. Also guys were taught how to pray. All the topics are simple and it is parents who instill them into our hearts in our childhood. We are glad that we can be part of a team that fills in the gaps of education in the lives of these guys!