LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

I am greeting all brothers and sisters! I would like to thank our friends who constantly pray with us for the development of the orphan ministry. Although February is the shortest month, it is however one of the sunniest and eventful one. We had an opportunity to visit the children at the Rudensk orphan school. In spite of the change of the authorities there, we can continue to visit the children and tell them about God’s love and teach them how to make right decisions.

We are happy to see how the children’s lives are transformed. We enjoy watching how younger children prepare pray. They ask God to give them good health and share their wish to have a family as soon as possible. We are touched not only by the sincerity of their prayers but even their preparation to it.

This month we spoke with the older ones about faith, which surprised even Christ (the Bible story of healing the servant of the Centurion). We also told them that God sees a person’s faith and helps while he or she doesn’t see anything.

We told them how Jesus calmed the storm and it explained that it meant that only God could lead us through dark periods of life. We often notice that orphans get broken and start to drink alcohol, steal things and get into trouble. They try ti get rid of inner emptiness with the help of sin but then they ask God: “why is it so bad, why am I so unlucky?”

The story of calming the storm shows that even when we walk with God we can have troubles but only God (neither friends nor alcohol and drugs) can help. We also had a relay race where everyone could participate and, despite the result, felt accepted. Such activities also help us to become closer to the children so they can see our sincere interest in them.

Moreover, this month we could meet with the graduates of this school. They graduated a few or even more years ago. This meeting helped us to see the consequences of their choice.

We could notice real changes in the lives of those who accepted Jesus Christ and were baptized. However, we had other stories. Fedya is one of the graduates. He is married and already has two children. However, just a few months ago his wife betrayed him and left him alone with two children who have health problems. He asked us to help him and pray for God’s leading for him. This is one more graduate Vika. She came there with her two-year-old son. She is pregnant again but her husband doesn’t pay much attention to her and she says that her marriage is hard for her. According to her words, she made a lot of mistakes so she can’t but gain strength and go further. She says that she prays for the changes from time to time. Other young people told us about their hard adaptation period at college or at work. They began to drink because it was hard for them to deal with bullying.

Our dear friends and all the visitors of our website! Let’s pray and ask God to help these graduates make right decisions in their lives and avoid mistakes. We also ask you to pray for the orphan ministry. We hope that God will expand our opportunities and help us become more productive in achieving the orphans. We also ask to pray for the administration and open doors despite the new principal! May God bless all of you!

In January, I talked more with older children. This month is very joyful for the them, as they received Christmas presents. We went with Christmas staging to several orphanages brought them presents. It was important that the children, as well as the orphanage workers, could learn more about the coming of Christ to the earth through their performances and, through communication with them.
In Rudensk I was fortunate enough to conduct two Bible lessons. The first theme is “Jesus chooses His disciples”. In this lesson, I was able to communicate with the children and recall what miracles Christ did and what people surrounded Him. They talked about the fact that Christ chose ordinary people to be disciples – fishermen, tax collector, and a pilot. The emphasis was placed on the fact that Christ looks at people in a completely different way, whose society does not always accept. I was surprised by how much the children know a lot of things, but they can not always express it in words due to their peculiarities.
The second theme is “Sermon on the mountain, look at the birds.” I wanted to tell the children that there are many worries in life that distract from the main thing, but God still fills them up, may not always, because we want it. And they talked about the need to strive for the main thing – to seek the kingdom of God.
Children remember stories from personal life as well. I told a story about how I was going to my dream and what difficulties I had encountered, and how it all was resolved. At the end of our communication, we usually pray. And one girl herself offered to pray, and she thanked God for the family that takes her, for the changes in her life, and for our team, each by name.
The younger children this month talked about respect, responsibility, and also honesty. Many sincerely admitted that sometimes it is very difficult for them to show respect for each other, to be responsible and even more so, to be honest. But then we come to these children to try to teach them these qualities, showing a biblical view of them.
I am very pleased that there is hope in the lives of these children, and their lives are changing for the better!

In December, I had the opportunity to talk with the older children, conduct Bible lessons with them and, as far as possible, answer their questions and pray for their needs. As for the topics of our meetings, we continued to acquaint the children with the life of Jesus Christ, telling them about His miracles. It’s amazing how God opens children’s hearts to accepting the truths they heard throughout the month! At the end of each meeting, the children approached me with different questions, both on the subject of the meeting, and with additional questions. For example, Artyom asked if we, living in the modern world, can see angels. Some of the children wondered if God could do such miracles in our lives too clearly. Another guy asked for advice on how to get rid of obscene language, and also shared how sincerely he wants to do the right thing, but he doesn’t always succeed.
The guys were especially impressed by two biblical stories: “The story of healing the paralyzed” and “The story of how Jesus fed more than five thousand people.” Children are particularly concerned with personal examples and testimonies from the life of someone who teaches them a Bible lesson. This month, Elijah told his testimony about how God met the needs of his family during the most difficult times. A simple personal example was remembered by the children as the brightest!
I am also very grateful to God that the children develop a prayer life. Many of them share the fact that they constantly pray and read the Bible. Some of them talk about how it is difficult for them to pray, because they are mocked and even humiliated by other guys who live with them. According to our good tradition, every week we pray for birthdays. Now the children are no longer waiting until we ask who has birthday this week, but they themselves begin to come up and ask for prayer for them. Perhaps I will give two more examples that inspired me! Girl Polina, twice asked us to pray for her healing, for God to restore her vision, which is rapidly falling. I felt how important it was for her and how her heart was just beginning to open up to God. We also have Martha, who in the last week of December bade us farewell, because she leaves school forever and goes to live in a disabled home. She finished school this summer, and all this time she waited for the room for her. She feels a lot of fears and feelings now, many tears. But just like Polina, she tries, as far as she can and understands, to look for a way out in God. We, of course, prayed for her. We hope now that the seed sown in her heart will give fruit at the right time!
Of course, the highlight of this month was the Nativity of Christ! In January, we plan to organize for all the guys from the Rudensky orphanage, a large Christmas production with the distribution of gifts. But before this event occurs, we first wanted to talk about the deepest sense of Christmas and the goal of the birth of the Savior to our world. That is why one of the meetings of this month we dedicated to Christmas. The children themselves, together with our team, sang songs about the birth of Jesus, participated in discussions and played various games dedicated to this topic.

Greetings to you brothers and sisters!
This month, we had the opportunity to attend weekly orphanage in Rudensk. Very little time is left before the preparation and celebration of the Nativity of Jesus. That is why we remembered the miracles of Jesus this month, as well as His meeting with Nicodemus. Despite the fact that graduates left school and, at the beginning of the year, there were few children at our meetings, now new children come to us who either do not know the stories about the miracles of Jesus and have only fragmentary ideas. We wanted to show the life of Jesus Christ. Why did he help people? – Children’s answers were different: “He felt sorry for them,” “He was a man and understood that people need an all-powerful God who can help.”
The fact is that in those times and now we do not need a super hero, we need a God who will not be busy when we need help. And what did you ask Jesus for, speaking of His miracles performed on earth? – “About health, about friends, about Jesus helping in school, helping parents to quit drinking, for grandmother to come to me, about leaving the orphanage and for everything in my life to work” …
Children at school can see couple of good examples in life. They copy all life modelsfrom films or from the behavior of adults who work there. We try to expand the understanding of children and give them a guide in life. The gap in spiritual education is seen in the behavior and sometimes extreme aggression of children. But it hurts them inside and their behavior says the following: “Help us fill the spiritual emptiness, teach us to forgive”! Forgiveness frees up the world!
We also talked about Nicodemus. Together with children we spoke about that every man at any age needs God. A faith that can change us is important, and in moments of despair and fear faith can help cope with stress and anxiety. And the culmination, following and affirmation is our baptism, which, as a spiritual and physical sign, shows its trust in God.
Each visit leaves its mark on the life of children. We can rejoice, seeing how the lives of children change, how they want to know God. “Oh, I haven’t been sick for 3 months, this is good”, “God helps me, I have a normal sleep, no nightmares – this is good, thank God!” Children thank God for the miracles that He does in their lives! After all, we are approaching Christmas and each of us already have something to thank God for!
Brothers and sisters, thank you for your prayers and for your participation! We believe that constancy will change the changeable world of adolescents and the fragile world of a small child. Pray for the team, for health, and for the ability of children to accept the words of God!

We continue visiting children from Rudensky school and every Wednesday we try to do our best to prepare for the topic of the lesson, relay races and crafts. This month we were telling the children about the importance of the church in our lives, why God created it and how they can find the church, a spiritual family that they can become a part of after they graduate from the school. In our countries many people go to church only on holidays several times a year and think that it’s enough. That’s why our goal was to deliver the truth to every child, the truth is that the church is a safe place where they can get to know God, learn how to build relationships with people, be changed, get freedom from bad habits, learn how to love and accept love from brothers and sisters.
On one of our visits people who organize a puppet show joined our team. This time they uncovered the topic of friendship and gave practical advice on how to be friends in the right way. We were pleased to see that the children responded well and participated in giving the answers to the questions. After the show, they shared their feelings and asked each other for forgiveness for offenses and bad things in friendship. Praise the Lord for He opens their hearts to the truth and healing. Since these children are heavily hurt in their lives and in their friendship relationships they also hurt others, but through accepting God’s Word they’re changed and they learn how to apply it in their lives. It’s very good!
We also shared about Jesus Christ’s childhood with the children, about His earthly family and how close He was with His Heavenly Father already in the childhood.
Beside the main visits of Rudensky school, this month some additional visits were also organized. On one of the meetings, the children had relay races that are liked both by younger kids and by older ones. Another exciting event of this month was the Nitrogen Show, which the children could watch for the first time in their lives. I can say with confidence that not only the children, but also the teachers were thrilled!
We were talking about obedience, mercy and jealousy with younger kids. All these topics are very relevant and important for them, because they can even punch and insult someone if he or she has a better toy or a more beautiful thing. When we were talking about mercy, we gave an example of the Good Samaritan and his merciful deed towards a stranger. One of the teachers told us that children started having a less aggressive attitude towards each other reminding themselves about mercy and compassion. It’s so joyous to see and hear how God is working in the hearts and lives of these children!