LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Dear readers!

I want to tell you about our meetings with the children from the Belinichy orphanage in November. This month turned out to be quite eventful and interesting. At the meetings with older guys we discussed very serious and disturbing topics such as “pride”, “revenge”, “gossip” and we also talked about suicide with an emphasis on the value of life in the eyes of God.

There are several older kids at school who usually come up to greet the team and talk for a bit before the meeting starts, and then they leave, they think that this event is not for them because they consider themselves very mature and cool to play games and sing. Sometimes they try to peek into our classes and attract our attention because no matter what they say, they are still children, just older and they need attention, love and hugs like the others. This month these guys began to linger more and more at our meetings and even began to try to participate in our discussions. No wonder!

Each of them personally has faced pain, betrayal, rejection, and everyone knows how difficult it is sometimes to forgive someone, to stop living with the desire to take revenge on their offenders or how difficult it is sometimes to overcome your pride and show humility there, where it is needed. Some kids have faced an unwillingness to live when they encountered betrayal from their loved ones or bullying from their peers so it was important for absolutely everyone to hear how much God values the life of each of them and how many good things are ahead for them if they make the right choice, communicating with the right people and learning to cope with their negative emotions.

The topic of gossip is one of the most common problems among teenage children in all boarding schools! After all, gossip is sometimes used as a way to draw attention to one’s own person, while humiliating others by spreading negative and often false information about other people. During this topic, guys immediately begin to reproach each other for some moments, especially girls, because they perceive gossip about themselves as painfully as possible. Our task is not just to tell them that gossip is bad but to teach children not to say bad things about others, to value each other and also to think about how God looks at each of them. After all, God is the Father of orphans and the Bible says how much He loves orphans and pays special attention to them and also that He will personally intercede for them!

This month the younger children met Joseph. We divided the story of his life into several meetings, so we could tell the guys as simply as possible how important it is to forgive offenders, as well as how God lifts up those who walk with him and remain faithful to Him even in the most difficult life situations. Joseph was just a great example of all these moments. We have already talked about the fact that in this orphanage there are quite a large number of children who have mental and physical disabilities and also can not speak. You have to communicate with such children in completely different ways, for example, with gestures, sounds or images. In addition to pictures and other visual aids, we very actively used theatrical performances in which non-speaking children were involved. Yarik, for example, usually communicates with us using individual sounds, screams and gestures.

He is very impulsive and often hot-tempered but in our lessons about Joseph he had the main role. He tried so hard to convey how kind, humble and obedient Joseph was that even teachers came running to see how he did it and were very surprised that Yarik could be so calm and responsible. We were amazed by how God and His word can influence children at the simplest child level and delight them with the changes even in the adults who surround them! And for us, this is confirmation that our work is not in vain! We are grateful to everyone who reads us, as well as everyone who supports us prayerfully and financially!