LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

I want to share with you the good news: the camp that we planned for orphans from the Belinichy boarding school took place, Thank God! We called our camp “The Secret Inside” and chose a golden verse from the Bible, Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart most of all, because from it are the sources of life.” Conducting Bible lessons in the morning and evening meetings, we focused on the state of our hearts, what we think, what we worry about and what we believe. Every day we had a special name, for example: the secret of obedience, the secret of forgiveness, the secret of loyalty, the secret of love. Throughout the day, communication with children, games, creativity, and most importantly, examples from God’s Word were focused on making everyone understand the importance of kindness, obedience or love. The first day began with a secret in kindness, and the children talked about how they had seen very little kindness in their lives and rarely managed to be kind to others. Nadia said that it was easy for her to be kind to dogs, because they do not betray, but not with people, because the closest people abandoned her and when she asked them to come, at least to visit, they cheated and did not keep their promises. Already towards the end of the camp, after the topic of forgiveness, she decided not to be kind on her own, but to learn from Jesus and draw kindness from communion with God and Bible study.

In serving orphaned children, it is important to understand that their bad behavior stems from wounds and pain that destroys their heart. That is why we did not try to correct their behavior, but allowed God, through the truth of the gospel, to free them and heal broken hearts. In our team of volunteers, we took only people dedicated to God with a changed character, because the children we serve have mental and physical disabilities and sometimes, in order to test us how much we believe, they can hit, call and even spit in our face. Yarik and Timothy, in order to attract our attention, sometimes showed aggression, but seeing our kind smile in response and calm speech, they stopped behaving like that and asked us to pray for them to change. The girl Sasha, who for 10 years did not want to communicate with anyone, was sad and closed from everyone. A few days later, a smile began to appear on her face and she expressed a desire to learn golden verses from the Bible. At the end of the camp, her eyes were shining, and she was completely different, joyful and peaceful. Sasha said that she felt safe and very much loved next to us. How wonderful it is to see how God’s love changes the lives of these children! Back in the camp, we held creative lessons, where we taught them drawing, modeling, and other useful skills for their development. Each craft was not only beautiful, but also useful – these are water bottles, paintings for the room, T-shirts, grocery bags and much more. I wanted them to learn how to do the right things with their own hands and at the same time, so that they did not have to spend a lot of money. All the guys tried very hard, and together we were happy that they had new skills and a useful hobby.  When we held games on the street, we taught them unity in the team and helping those who are weaker, taught them to say words of support and encouragement. Throughout the camp, we talked a lot and listened to everyone’s opinion, thereby showing their significance and importance.

Artem from the older guys said that God’s rules are completely opposite to what we see in this world. A humble David defeats a proud and strong Goliath, a good Samaritan helps a wounded man, a shepherd for the sake of one lost sheep, leaves 99 others who no longer need help.

The last day was especially blessed by the fact that all children from 10 to 18 years old decided to dedicate their lives to the Lord and prayed the prayer of repentance. We are very grateful to God for saving these children and for being able to be co-workers in His Kingdom! thank God!