LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Greetings, brothers and sisters! For me, every trip to the orphanage this month was filled with joy and gratitude to God in a special way for being able to serve, because it is a real blessing to see the desire with which the children sing songs with us and listen to the lessons. Returning back to Minsk after meeting with the guys, the team and I usually discuss the past trip and everyone noticed the deep understanding with which these little children glorify God in songs and movements. Thank God! This month we continued to tell the guys Bible stories such as “Noah and the Ark”, “The Tower of Babel”. It was interesting for the children to hear how the Lord commanded Noah to build an ark and gather his family there, so they were saved
during the flood, because they obeyed God. Thank God that we can discuss some kind of conclusion from every biblical story and apply it in our lives, and in this theme it was obedience, which is relevant for the guys now. The story about the Tower of Babel teaches us not to be prideful, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble! Also, on the Christmas eve, Dima told about the birth of Jesus into this world, about this precious gift from our Lord and why God sent Him to earth. I want to remind you that the guys who are in Smilovichi have never heard of God before. Therefore, in our lessons this month we try to make an actual application in our time. We especially highlighted the theme of the Savior’s Nativity. When we told how everything happened, we could see the reaction of the children. They were so excited that sometimes I had to stop to clarify one or another point even more. Angels, donkeys, a manger, a barn, all this caused their delight and questions. Well, since there was no place, I would have given up my room to Jesus, Alice said. Miroslav asked, how strong are the angels? Can angels protect us too? Now the stars will remind me of the star that led the wise men to Jesus, Yana said. For every child, the story of the birth of Christ has found its application. When we arrived on December 26, we prepared a special program for the guys. We played a couple of games, then sang Christmas carols and those songs that the guys like. Dima held a contest about different facts of the Christmas story. And this helped the children to remember even more about the birth of Christ. In the last slide there was a question, what would you like to give Jesus on His birthday? And it was so nice to hear: – I would give my love, Alice said, and I would give my heart, Darina said, Yana said that she would give all her sweets, and Miroslav would give his love to God. Then we went to another room, where Katya prepared a cake and treats. We sat down at the table, Katya lit candles and the guys blew out the candles together. Then we started saying congratulations to Jesus. And then Alice said, let’s sing a birthday song to Jesus. Then the guys ate the cake despite the fact that we didn’t have forks and spoons. But it was so nice to see happy children.

The evening went on and there were more gifts ahead. We thank everyone who helped to purchase these gifts for children. We sat down and the guys took turns opening their presents. Joy and anticipation were on the faces of the guys. Oh, I dreamed about it! Oh, I’m so glad! – the guys shouted. We understand that God has answered the desire of their heart. Lord, thank You for responding to the desire of the children’s hearts. We are grateful to God that despite the fact that the children recently came from home from where they were taken, they were able to find, even in a boarding school, a small family represented by the ministry team who cares for and covers the needs of children, and also talks about the most important gift – about Jesus Christ!