LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

A new school year has begun as well as a neweason of our ministry to orphans. In the last days of August we managed to meet with the new graduates of the Belynichyorphanage, that were spending their last days at the school. An adult and independent life awaits these children ahead, life that is very difficult to adapt to. That is why we decided to make a warm friendly meeting for them, where we tried to listen to each of them and just hug them. During this meeting we could remind them of God, to whom they can come at any time and in any circumstances.

We also prayed for them with a prayer of blessing. Then we started visiting younger children who are still in orphanage. At the beginning of the month for these children we made sport games. During such games characters and personalities of children are often revealed as well as their ability to work in a team, support each other and ability to accept both victories and defeats!

At such moments possible difficulties in dealing with this children are especially noticeable.  At the same day for younger kids we made chalk painting activity. This is also a good opportunity to see their feelings and fears of by their drawings, see their dreams and ideas about life. Meanwhile other people from our team were with children who could not participate in sport games and chalk painting due to their mental and physical disabilities. Instead of these activities children got hugs and attention.

During following meetings of the month Bible lessons were held. This month we talked with the guys about the personality of Jesus Christ, why He helps people, why He wants to take care of them and how much He loves people. Then we continued the series of Bible stories from the New Testament. Guys were especially impressed by the story of ” the Prodigal Son”. This year a teenage boy named Roma started coming to our meetings with his friend. Before  both of them avoided our meetings and instead were playing football, watching cartoons and sometimes were making fun of other guys who come to our meeting regularly. Roma is a leader among older children and therefore he was often the one who would takesome of the children away from our meetings, influencing them in a bad way.

But now we see how God answers our prayers and disposes children’s hearts to hear and perceive God’s word! Thank God! During one of our meetings I saw how one of Roma’s friend began to try in every possible way to take him out of our meeting, constantly saying all sorts of teasing words over and over again: “Are you seriously going to sit here and listen to this odd lecture?”. But Roma firmly stopped him with the words: “If you want go away then do it! Buy I’m staying!” As a result, both teenagers stayed at the meeting. Moreover Roma became the winner in answering the questions that Ilya asked at the end of the Bible lesson! Meanwhile I was touched by the situation and admired how God makes possible what sometimes seems unreal to us! 

The second special moment for me was meeting with Yarik. I’ve told you about him before. He has Down’s Syndrome and he mostly communicates using certain sounds or syllables. Previously he was quite aggressive and in a fit of rage he could clearly pronounce cuss words. But now we see how much God is changing him and we noticed that he became much calmer and began to pronounce a lot of clear words, especially the names of the guys from our team. It feels like not only our team is very glad about it, but Yarikhimsel. Sometimes he even manages to say someone’s name several times in a row. It’s funny and at the same time cute! Besides he tries to be the loudest singer  during our worship moments, which is also very cute to see and creates an atmosphere of gratitude to the Heavenly Father for His great love for these children!