LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Our lives made that way that we can’t go without socializing with one another. Of you course you can drag yourself thru life in your lonely pride, but it will be just existence.  All people need unselfish relationships, based on trust, the same sympathies, interests and passions. Friendship is always important topic to talk about, including age group of eleven thru seventeen years old. At this age friends can earn value when they stand up for each other in their changing and unprotected world. Teenagers are ready to give up anything to build a friendship, however it’s a big loss to them when it breaks. So now what, it’s better not have friends at all? Of course not! In order to have a good friendship you need to know right foundations. That’s why we spent two gatherings of the month to talk about friendships. On those gatherings we talked that friendship builds up on support of each other and how can we be the person that others can trust.  We tried to make kids think about characteristics of a good friend and what God thinks about friendships.
On third gathering we talked about that we need to show love to surrounding people and that God showed His love to all people by sending His only Son on earth.
Fourth gathering was different from all the others. We had long-awaited “girls’ and boys’ talk”. This is probably most favorite meeting for kids in this orphanage. For boys we had organized meeting with professional photographers. In the beginning of this meeting kids were taught how to act in front of the camera. Another thing that kids were taught, that in order to get beautiful picture it’s not necessary to have open body or have improper body position during the photo-shoot. After the meeting each kid had a chance to take a picture.  Boys and girls had it done separately so they all can feel comfortable while taking pictures. It seemed that all kids were satisfied! Soon we’re planning to print these pictures and give to each kid who attended the meeting.

This month, we organized not only games and sport events for children at Rudenskij orphanage, but also communication one on one. Besides that, we saw that children are ready to meet us and listen to Bible lessons. For this reason, we had first Bible topic this academic year.
Obviously, more boys participated in sports. Some of them played soccer, others volleyball and tennis. Girls were ready to have personal communication. They have missed us after 2 months summer break! We are glad that children have learned to communicate not only with us but with each other. Previously, we had to motivate them to talk. They are expressing their emotions freely, so they were willing to share about the past summer. Some children told us that they got to meet their parents, others were worried about argument with a friend, and others passed finals successfully and spend summer vacation abroad.
Both boys and girls participated in other games. We love those moments when we can observe children and see their characters. We see how they react to winning and losing, what is their attitude to each other.
During our first meeting we had topic: “Friendship.” As the Biblical example, we used friendship between Jesus Christ and Peter. We tried to explain how important is to trust each other, spend time with each other, and to forgive. We hope that it will be useful for their lives!
Next month, we plan to emphasize human relationships. We will try to show how important is to be faithful to a friend, and how to build proper relationships between boy and a girl according to the Bible. We hope to be able to visit this orphanage new month as well.

     At the beginning of June we visited the orphanage in Rudensk twice. Most of the kids are on their vacation outside of the country, and the rest are in different camps around Belarus. Graduates passed their final exams 3 weeks ago. Some of them started working right away because not all of them due to their physical conditions may continue their further education. The other graduates will spend all their time in summer camps, and in the beginning of September they will be gone to other cities to study.
These two meetings were dedicated to personal fellowship with the kids. Our team was divided into several small groups. Each group did something they wanted to do. Some did sports, some played games, some started a photo session, some were just sharing and talking. I was in the group where we decided to talk one on one with kids. I like this time because it’s a great opportunity to learn more about their personal experience, their prayer requests and pray with them. During this personal fellowship we can learn more about the goals these kids are setting, especially the graduates. It’s interesting to know what they are dreaming about.
     I think the other groups did great because through games and how the kids behave in front of the camers we  learn more about their behavior. It becomes visible how they treat each other, their attitude toward themselves, and in non stadart situations. Praise the Lord for a wonderful time! We hope it went not in vain. May God bless these kids for the summer and give us an opportunity to see them next school year!

This month has been really exciting for the orphanage in Rudensk. We had a theatre performance dedicated to Easter and they told us the story of this holiday. We also watched a film called “Believe in Him” that told us a life story of a street racer who became a Christian. We had a “girl time” and a “boy time”. That was a great chance to have a discussion with girls and then with boys separately and talk over some important topics. At the girls meeting we discussed the horoscope and astrology and also what God and the Bible tell about them and what is God’s attitude to this. At the boys meeting we discussed the topic related to being lazy and how it’s important to study hard to be successful in life. At the last meeting we had sport games.
Once we asked the kids what makes them joyful. We got a range of answers but the one that impressed us most was that a kid told us that he got joyful every time we came to visit them in the orphanage. We’re  still thinking about his words and they really encourage us. It’s great to spend time with them, pray together, study the Bible and just have fun. We appreciate this time when we can share in a private talk, support in a hard moment or encourage.
I’d like to tell about Nastia Koshel, a girl of 10th grade. She always participates a lot in discussions and answers the questions, takes part in sport games, likes playing football and doing crafts. She’s very shy though when somebody pays her a compliment or when we encourage her. Her face always tells us how the day was: was it great or she has some worries. She’s like a rose that hasn’t been in blossom yet. She’s got sharp sides like a rose but if you take care of this rose it will grow and be in blossom.
Thank you all who support our ministry. God appreciates your care for the orphans.

   April is over now. What can we say if we sum up all that we’ve had for this month. I frequently meet the kids with a low self-esteem, kids who don’t believe they can reach any success in life. Kids from orphanages often face insults that prevent their personalities from developing and improving. Living life like this they often have a distracted image of what real life is. I sometimes come to an idea that orphanages produce the generation of so-called “consumers” and everybody owes them. Kids have difficulties with time management and keep on living without making any effort just because they have no family and as if only the government is charged to take care of them.
This month we’ve read the book of Daniel. We’ve had 4 classes: “The lost childhood”, “Daniel’s trials”, “Daniel and lions”, “ The words on the wall”. We discussed that Daniel also was an orphan. Daniel had a lot of trials and troubles and God helped him out. Another problems between the kids is betrayal. The example of friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was very vivid for kids. The story of a miraculous salvation of Daniel from lions was a good one to remind that God can help to overcome all the difficulties. The discussions encouraged kids to think over their lives and show them the life full of victories and deeds with God. When the discussions are over and we start removing things to leave some kids sometimes come to me and share their impressions about the Bible studying. It’s great they get hope for a better future. They start at least setting goals for life and looking for the ways of achieving them. Let’s pray so that the Word they’ve heard could produce a great fruit in their lives.