LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Another month of serving in Rudens boarding school has passed; it was saturated with various meetings. Each trip is like a small block, which would form a solid foundation for their future lives. That is why we responsibly choose topics for discussions. We like to explore topics that are most relevant for these guys at the moment.
We had several discussions on such topics this month, and then we had sports relays.
The first topic was about gossips. When we asked these guys if they had encountered rumors, a lot of them responded with a bitter smile. It appears, lots of guys are suffering from being gossiped and being talked behind their backs. Once we talked and showed how the Bible reacts to the ones that spread gossips, and we gave practical advices on how to deal with gossips at the end of class.
Other than topic discussions, we had sports relays. Everyone was given a set of interesting tasks, which helped us to determine their quick thinking, reaction and motor skills. We are interested in both physical and mental development of these guys. It was a useful and fun event.
We celebrated two holidays this month: Valentine’s Day and National Man’s day. That is why we spent remaining two meeting on talking with guys about love and what being a “real man” is. We also included God’s outlook on these topics. Since the majority of our audience are teenagers, the topic of love and personal relationships is their favorite. Since they don’t have parents, they have  no mentors who could teach them how to build and develop relationships. That is why we used examples on how God wants us to build such connections. Besides, any boy wants to become a real man, and any girls wants to finds such man. Unfortunately, Internet cannot express girls’ expressions when we said on the last meeting that today would be a topic about “real men”. Even though this topic was directed towards boys, girls have expressed a huge enthusiasm during discussions.
As a conclusion for this month, we can safely assume that their lives are changing for the better. Just like a big tree grows up from a small sprout, such meetings with God will completely change their fated for the better. Thank you everyone, who does not forget about our orphans and takes care of them!

Hello!
Visits to Rudensk in January started from a big theatrical performance about the Birth of Jesus Christ. The performance gathered all the children and teachers of the orphanage. Afterwards every child received a long-awaited Christmas present.
Besides that, we also held a guy’s party and a girl’s party this month. Together with boys we discussed how important it is to strive for something in life. We were thinking about the necessity of dreaming more, setting more goals in life and wanting to achieve them. We discussed that often we are wasting our time and that one should listen to the advice of the elders, and that it is also possible to achieve the best results only through hard work. Together with girls we were discussing abortion and its consequences. We read real life stories where women shared the experience they had to live through and how badly they regret doing the abortion.
During next meetings we discussed themes “lies” and “theft”. We showed to the children that after an easy benefit there comes a bitter forfeit. Temporary success gained from lies or theft returnes as a punishment not only form people but also from God. We tried to vary every meeting with singing, playing games, watching video clips. We also have a good tradition to congratulate the birthday person. Everyone says their wishes to the birthday person and after that we pray for him/her altogether.
More and more new children who had not appeared before come to visit our meetings. We try to create pleasant atmosphere during our discussions to make the meetings not only interesting but also useful. We see that the relationships between children become better. They quarrel less, respect and support each other more. We are very glad that God lets us continue going to the orphanages in spite of facing various difficulties both financial and spiritual. But the work continues, and we thank God and those who pray for us. Thank you for participating in this ministry!

The last month of the year is coming to the end. It is ending on a joyful note because together with children we are rejoicing to the coming Christmas and New Year! Each our meeting was dedicated to the different subjects but at the same time from the beginning of the month together with children we sang Christmas songs, played games with a motif of Christmas and continually reminded kids about Christmas.
At the beginning of the next month we are planning to organize Christmas play at the Rudensk orphanage after which children are going to receive their long awaited gifts. But now I would like to tell about our trips that we had in December.
We started December from “stag-parties” and “hen-parties” – the most favorite form of our meetings with the children of Rudensk orphanage. At the stag-party boys from our team talked with boys-teenagers on the very complex but at the same time very current for teenagers subject – “Pornography”. The team has been deciding for a long time if we should have a meeting on this subject but after long prayers God has blessed us: teenagers happened to be quite open to discussion and the meeting was quite serious. We were able to explain to boys how strongly the pornography clogs mind and heart of a man and to what consequences it leads. But most importantly we were able to show how abominable it is in the eyes of God!
At the same time the girls on their “hen-party” decided to do cookery! At the beginning of the meeting girls from our team explain about hygiene rules that they have to uphold during cooking. After that the girls were divided into several teams and each team was making a fruit salad. At the time of cooking we realize that some girls do not understand what it means to “cut banana in halves” or “divide orange into lobules”. In these cases we patiently showed and explained how to do it right because we understand that at some point these girls will go into adult life and this kind of knowledge would definitely be very useful to them! After the cooking the girls prayed and thank God for the abundance on the table. And after prayer they could eat fruit salads that they have prepared by themselves.
The next meetings were dedicated to the subjects “Anger” and “Greed”. To unwrap the subject of “Anger”, Zhenya pointed out three main moments: 1 – who is getting angry (a fool), 2 – to what it leads (quarrel) and 3 – what to do with anger (forgive, because God forgives us). The subject of “Greed” explained Dima. He tried to show to kids that God calls people not to be greedy but quite the opposite – to be generous, to care for the neighbours and to be satisfied with what we have.
During another our trip we conducted sport relays. It was a good opportunity to have fun and to strengthen children’ and our health, while at the same time to show children the importance of unity inside of a team and to learn to accept not just victories but losses too.

Coming of new children and teenagers to the Bible lessons has become the most joyful event at Rudensk school! Earlier they used to come to get presents, to watch a performance, to play games but they didn’t take any interest in the things we teach. This month they were with us each Wednesday. We are grateful to God for that!
According to the opinion of the youth, we understood that they enjoy gathering in groups, when girls are separated from boys. That’s why we try to arrange such meetings once a month. We continued to discuss the topic ‘Cohabitation’ with the girls, which was raised last month. This topic is very acute in our country. Nastya dispelled all the wrong views of this problem providing the examples from the Bible and statistical data. The atmosphere was warm during the lesson and everyone could open the heart and share their troubling thoughts. Generally, they are afraid of being alone, afraid of loneliness. That’s the main reason for them to look for a person to live with soon after they leave the orphanage. I believe that we managed to tell them about the love of God and remind them that He is always near and they aren’t alone.
Evgeny raised an actual topic, too, he spoke about laziness. Not being obtrusive, with the help of a slide-presentation and leading questions he was able to explain the children of different age groups what laziness is and how to get rid of it. Many chilpren admitted that they are often lazy and don’t want to work because of various reasons.
This month Dima took the topic ‘Humor’. Taking the biblical example he showed the children that it is normal to have fun and joke, but there shouldn’t be those who are offended and humiliated and surely there shouldn’t be the moments that upset God.
We watched the cartoon devoted to the topics ‘faithfulness to God’ and ‘faithfulness in friendship’ at two other meetings.
During this month we tried to find time and meet with graduates of Rudensk orphanage. We invited Nastya on a weekend. Her village is nearly one hundred kilometers from Minsk. She has strong faith and attends the church in Stolbcy. We try to help her to live outside school walls, be friends to her, and continue to tell her the truth. Nastya is an encouragement for us! We are pleased to see how her life has been changing in a better way!

This month we visited Rudensk orphanage each week again. Almost all the month we and the children enjoyed bright and sunny weather and unusually nice autumn that God gave our country this month! Usually, when it is so good and warm outside the children like to spend time there. This month the children even had to decide between football or walking in the fresh air and our meetings in the classrooms. The majority of the children chose our meetings. We were very surprised and pleased that there came more boys because it was pretty difficult for them not to play football outside! A couple of new-comers began to attend our meetings too. I think it was not accidental that God brought them to our meetings because the problems we raised all October touch each person in this or that moment of life. We discussed with the children such topics as ‘Despondency’, ‘Pride’, ‘Craving for Revenge’ and during the boys’ and girls’ time we touched upon the problem of cohabitation.
This month I had a good opportunity to build closer relationship with Alesya. She is already 16. At first sight she seems to be a very simple and always smiling girl. But, as it turned out, her heart is full of wounds and worries, thus, her smile is often just a mask or a defense reaction. She shared that she had no friends at orphanage, that she had problems with study, that despite her age she read quite slowly and, therefore, she became the subject of mockery and indignity. Alesya said that sometimes she felt so desperate that she hadn’t even wanted to live. That’s why the topic ‘Despondency’ was especially important for her. To be honest, it was sometimes very hard to give some advice to Alesya in her situation so each time I listened to her I just asked God to give me wisdom how to communicate with her in a right way and help her. Then, we decided to look for nice things in our lives and we came to the conclusion that there’s always some good thing even in the worst moments. Alesya and I learnt to do that the whole month and during our last private talk Alesya could name me many advantages she found in her life. There are some of them: ;I’ve got hands, feet, eyes and ears’, ‘although I’m an orphan but I’m not homeless, I have a place to live in, food and clothes’, even if I feel lonely among people there’s always God I can pray to and feel really better’. I think this is great progress for Alesya and God has already shown His care for her, despite the troubles she faces so often. Glory to God!
Pride and craving for revenge are the things the children face each day. With the help of the Bible we tried to show how Jesus acted in this or that situation. The bright example was the story about Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. We also tried to teach the children not to crave for revenge but give it to God who sees people’s hearts.
The majority of the children dream about having good, healthy families and there are love, peace and mutual understanding in them. But, unfortunately, the modern world teaches to live together before getting married with any obligations, that’s why cohabitation is so widespread today. We did our best to show them that God values a family very much and tell them why He made a marriage. We also said that Satan tries to destroy families and do all that in his power for infants to be born outside the marriage, so their parents don’t want to take responsibility for each other and for their children. The children actively gave such examples concerning their families, where cohabitation was quite widespread. Now we can just pray so the children will not follow their parents’ mistakes and they will have normal, healthy families! May God bless all our children in this!