LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Greetings brothers and sisters. February has flown by, but we are glad that the doors to minister to orphans are open like never before. We see that despite all the difficulties that occur, God opens hearts of the people and people themselves begin to seek God. This month we were able to visit orphans in Byalynichy. Just recently we brought children’s Bibles for children and teenagers. We want to instill a love for the word of God. When we have distributed the Bibles, we ask the children to read the stories in advance, which we will discuss in the next lesson. We were looking forward to the arrival at the boarding school. During the trip, we discussed whether the children had read the story of Ruth or not. When we drove up, we met joyful guys who shouted: “we were so glad to see you, we missed you”. Then the guys were telling us, interrupting one another, how their week went and then they said: we want to tell Nikita what we read! We were glad that the Bibles were not just handed out, but the guys actually read them. It was not easy for Nikita because the guys with whom he communicated were children with impaired attention and speech, as well as with mental problems. Nikita is a leader who has been riding with us since the new school year. Nikita listened attentively to each and for each child, seeing his features, Nikita selected questions. I thank God for such leaders who are flexible and know how to work with the guys. When the children told the story of Ruth and Esther they received a special gift. The guys smiled and were happy that they could not only retell, but also get a sweet prize. The subject of Ruth did not go so easily. After all, the guys sometimes even added some facts during the topic. When we talked another time about Esther, some guys shouted out some fact that I missed because the story is big. It was at these moments that I realized that I was so great that the children had a thirst and the word of God through faith instilled into the lives of the children. Also in this month we did crafts for the guys. This is a special event that the guys were looking forward to with joy. During the crafts, we communicate a lot with the guys. Tanya, a girl who was born without an ear, said that it is difficult for her to accept herself because of her appearance and the lack of an ear. And we prayed for her that God would send her comfort. We cannot say why this happened, but we can say that you are special and God’s love is not built on our appearance and our deeds. God loves us because He is our Father. And when we talked about the love of God and His acceptance, Tanya said: “thank you”. Personally I lacked such words and was glad to hear it. We also talked with Vlada and she said that she was thinking about baptism. And Alla from our team tried to explain what baptism means, that it is not just water and a pectoral cross, but a covenant. It’s nice to see teenagers starting to take an interest in more serious questions. Dear brothers and sisters, we are negotiating about summer camp for orphans, pray with us that God will provide and open the doors for a summer camp. We see that many children do not have a connection with the world because they have developmental issues, and the camp is a great opportunity to show love and be a source of God’s love. Thank you friends who prayed for new team members, thank God there are new people in team and it make me happy. God hears and answers. Blessings to all of you!