LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

The next school year began at schools in our country. And also the next season of our ministry to orphans. The first meeting with the children from Rudensk was filled with the most vivid and positive emotions. It was felt that the children really missed us and were very happy about the arrival of our team. Each of them wanted to share there impressions of trips to Italy or local summer camps, about meetings with relatives, about new friends, or simply to say that they had moved to the next grade of the school! And we were happy seeing the children’s smiles and the fact that, despite the summer break, the children came at full strength to our meeting and even brought new children with them!
Throughout the month, we introduced both older and younger children with the foundations of the Christian faith. Despite the fact that the younger children gathered separately from the elders, they had the same theme of biblical lessons. The theme of the first meeting is “God is here, God exists.” At this meeting we tried to show the children that God is alive today, that He is unique and has a great power, capable of changing the lives of people who let Him into their hearts. At subsequent meetings we talked about prayer and its power, and also about the Bible through which God Himself speaks to people and influences their lives. And at the very last meeting of this month we talked about “faith.” To the older children, Dima spoke about how important is human faith for God and how many miracles He can do in the hearts and lives of believing people. He also talked about how faith is born.
I was engaged this month with younger children. I want to say that each meeting with them was special. In the younger group there is a boy called Lesha. Usually he was not the most active child and sometimes very distracted during our meetings. But I was once again convinced that God is great! Today Lesha is one of the most active child. He remembers very well the Bible lessons and actively answeres the questions. Thank God! At one of the meetings, the teacher told me a story about how the children found a tattered Bible on the street, were very upset that someone tried to spoil the “God’s book” and brought it to their classroom. I was pleased that the teacher fully approved the children’s act and supported them in this! Now the Bible is kept in their group. But it’s amazing that this story coincided with my biblical lesson “About the book that changes lives.” I was just introducing the children to the Bible, telling them that this book can become the most important landmark in the lives of people who constantly read it. It is through the Bible that God communicates with people! Now I wholeheartedly hope that the children will not just protect the Bible they found on the street, but they will read it, getting acquainted with the Great Creator!

At the very beginning of the month, the older children have completed their acquaintance with the life story of Daniel and his friends. They also got acquainted with the story of Jonah, who spent 3 days in the womb of the whale. To illustrate the story about Ion we made origami. The children saw the paper Kita, Jonah, the ship and Nineveh. A new way, with which the story was told, was very popular with children. This means that the story itself will be better placed in their memory, and God will act through it in their hearts.
The children from Rudensk are very fond of sports. Many of them even participate in various competitions and take prizes! That’s why, we also try to participate in their sporting life, organizing various relay races. But this month there were unusual relay races – tasks were given not for speed, but for ingenuity and attentiveness. For example, you had to transfer the pills (M & Ms) with straws, or look for cards all over the room with the right colors. I’m glad that these children actively help those who are weaker or who will be more difficult to cope with the tasks! This is a very obvious and important feature of the children from the Rudensk orphanage.
The younger children completed their acquaintance with the biblical stories of the New Testament. It was “the story of the resurrection of Lazarus” and “ten lepers.” The story of Lazarus once again reminded about the miracles of Jesus, which He did during the life on earth, as well as His power and might. A story about ten lepers helped to show the children how important is to be grateful.
The last two meetings this month and this academic year were held in a free format. This is also a very good time, because at such meetings there is a little more opportunity to talk to the children, just listen to them or give a piece of advice, and also pray for their needs or experiences. In addition to personal communication, the boys were able to communicate with the men from our team during training on the horizontal bars. There were also organized joint games for all comers, regardless of age or abilities, which helped to form unity in the teams.
Now the children went on vacation abroad, on vacation to relatives and to the Governmental camps. We really hope that we will meet them again in September, and that God will continue to act in the hearts of these children!

School year is nearly over in our country, so is our ministry for the season. In a month we again will say goodbye to graduates from orphanages, who’ll go to study to different towns. We’ll see those who’ll stay in the orphanage only in September. Perhaps, this is the reason why older kids try to spend more time with our team and long for one to one conversations. It’s usually hard to gather kids in May, so there are less of them at our meetings, kids just get outside to enjoy the long-awaited warmth. This year, though, is different, children try to not miss our meetings and even bring friends with them! Older students got to know new biblical characters – Daniel and his friends. There was an end of month meeting and kids remembered Daniel’s story. Moreover this month we had visits to Rudensk – we had meetings for boys and girls separately, where they discussed how to become a happy wife from biblical point of view, and boys talked about their dreams and the ways to make them come true. Younger kids continued getting to know new stories from New Testament. They learned about a parable of the prodigal son, kind samarian, good Pastor and a lost sheep, about tax collector and pharisees’ prayer. They also had a meeting where I was delighted to see that kids not only remembered biblical stories they heard that month, but also many other stories they heard through out the year. We know, it’s God Who is doing His work in kinds hearts, and we are really grateful to Him for that!

I want to start my story about the children with the testimony of Vitalik from grade 4, he began improving with health and mental development. It began with the Bible lessons about the miracles of Jesus Christ, which we conducted earlier, when he heard that the Lord Jesus healed the sick, he asked the question: how can I pray so I can became healthy and did not be in the hospital every month? We showed him an example of prayer for ourselves and said that we will also pray for him. From that day we see how everything is becoming better, Thank God! He became not only better at feeling physically, but also mentally.
The month of April began with a beautiful Easter holiday and, our goal was to convey to every child of different ages, the real essence of this holiday. After we conducted this topic, we invited a Christian theater group, where professional actors showed the production about this grandiose event. Watching the children, we saw a good reaction and openness to that good and bright things that the Savior gave us! The end of the holiday was the distribution of gifts with everything necessary for every child.
At other meetings, we continued to talk with older children about the biblical heroes of faith, those who sought God and learned obedience, despite their status and experience (Naaman and Queen Esther). On the example of Queen Esther, who was also an orphan, the children learned that pious and righteous life always leads to success and blessings. And on the example of the story of Naaman, the guys learned that faith in God works miracles!
We also had separate meetings with girls and boys. Each of the girls could write one question on the topic of interest, and our task was to answer wisely and show the way out. When I answered, many cried from hidden deep inside the pain and resentment. Others decided to stop watching horror movies or to swear as they found out that this leads to those nightmares and fears that torment them. The most important was the prayer for the forgiveness of their sins and with a request to God to heal and completely change their lives!

This month I could communicate with both small and older children from the Rudensk orphanage. I am always very pleased with the hospitality of the children, as well as the teachers and the orphanage administration! Each meeting is filled with a warm atmosphere, good smiles and acceptance.
The older children have finished acquaintance with the stories about the life of David and his son Solomon. In addition, the older children had a “boy’s party” and a “girl’s party”. These are the favorite meetings of the children from Rudensk, when the girls gather separately from the boys. The girls talked about chastity, how important it is to value and respect yourself and keep clean. We had the opportunity to show the girls of how God sees a chastity. We have talked about the value of the family in the eyes of God. Each girl shared her ideas about a strong and healthy family. At the end of the meeting, We have prayed that God would help each of them keep themselves clean, and also that in the future they will have good families and their children will never learned what life in an orphanage is.
The Boys have talked about the fears that men can have. At the beginning of the meeting, the boys pretended that they are very brave and do not know what the fear is. But when the themes of parents began, about relationships, about nightmares, children began to recognize their own fears. We talked about how fear can influence our behavior. But, besides that we told about the fear, we gave to the children a tool, how to fight a fear. We told about a psalmist who says that he was looking for the Lord, and He delivered him from all fears. And it was a good encouragement for the boys, because they can do the same as this psalmist.
In addition to general meetings, we held relay races, which are very popular with high school students. And at the end of the month, a funny clown came to the orphanage, who not only entertained and amused the children, but also told them about God. After the meeting with the clown, all the children and teachers got sweet prizes and sports balls.