LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

We keep visiting the orphanage and can surely say that we have become friends and mentors for the kids there. And they trust us! Their ability to trust was swiped away by their close ones. The people who promised to help and never did, who promised to take them home and didn’t. That’s why children who lived through all this trauma are shutting their hearts in order not to get hurt even more, becoming mistrustful. And only with the help of God’s love, present in our hearts, we managed to get through the bastions erected around these children’s hearts, and show love towards each and every one of them not only through words but show it in action!) On the first Monday of December we’ve held a bible lesson on Noah and his ark, where the importance of the relationship

with God and being obedient to Him was highlighted. After the lesson the kids were very curious about the flood and why God allowed all those people to sink except for the Noah’s family. We explained that God the Father was extremely merciful, patient and loving despite all of their sins, but there was nothing good left in them anymore that’s why He allowed the flood to take place, and left only a small group of people. Thanks to this the new generation of people followed Him and learned how to truly love each other, their families, and their children. Also w

e had a crafts class where we taught the kids how to make Christmas stockings and afterwards they had them hanging in their rooms. Everyone was happy. Also this month we had a lesson where we talked about the tower of Babel and when the people started to speak different languages. And we’ve talked about the story of Christmas also.Most of the children had no idea about the real meaning of Christmas. They only knew about Santa and that it was something to do with the presents. We are happy that through us and the people who pray about this ministry children have the ability to learn the truth and this truth unchains them.

Greetings brothers and sisters! I thank God for the opportunity to serve Him and spread His Kingdom on earth! In November we had the opportunity to serve in Smilovichy orphanage. It is so joyful to see God moving and doing his work! Yarik and Paulina – older children, often asked us such questions as: “Why are we in the orphanage? Why did God allow such a situation in their lives?” Indeed, as children they don’t deserve to live in the orphanage. Not childish questions encourage us to hold non-standard meetings. This month we have destroyed the delusion that have permeated every orphanage. Almost all of the children in the orphanages think that God is evil, He seeks out our mistakes and then punishes us. Once during our conversation with Yarik he said: “Maybe we did something wrong and God is punishing us and that’s why we are in the orphanage now.” I said:  ” Yarik and Pauline, God is a loving Father who doesn’t want His children to perish.” After we kept telling them that God is pure and His thoughts towards us are pure. He wants us to have a correct idea of Him. That evening we prayed to their mother could solve all the problems quiсkly and be able to take them from the shelter. Another deception was over! The devil slanders and deceives children and people, but God is not like the devil, He is loving and compassionate. We talked for a long time with the guys, and then I advised them to pray and told them that God hears prayers and answers them. God is omnipresent, and He will definitely help. When we arrived at the orphanage next time, we found out that Yarik and Paulina were taken by their mother . God allows different moments to happen, so  children can see God’s reality and believe in His love and power. Faith and prayer always lead to change. I’m glad for guys being homes! Let us pray that the sprouts of faith will bear fruit at the time! Also this month three more children were brought. They are brothers and sister. In the photo you can see children who have never heard of God in their lives. We are so glad that we can come and talk about God to them. And later, as a result we can see delight in children’s eyes when they realize that God is real! “Dima, tell me who God is? Is He strong? Can He protect me when I’m scared? And does God have angels? Are they beautiful?”- so many simple questions that children are interesting in. We told a story about Adam and Eve, and then we painted a picture with a biblical plot and it was interesting how the children were retelling the story during the painting.  Many words were swallowed, and some words were poorly pronounced.  But God was especially felt in that place.  Then we were discussing Cain and Avel.  How envy destroys not only friendship, but even brothers become enemies.  But the purpose of this lesson was to help them learn how to speak when they feel bad, sad or ask if they want something, but not to steal and fight.  We told them how parents teach children not to be upset, but to say everything that they feel so that anger or envy won’t reach and destroy them.  It seems that the children are waiting for us every Tuesday and expecting new biblical stories from us. Every child may be changed!  Look at the photos on our website, pray for the children that they will be found by a loving family!  God bless you!

During this month I had a great opportunity to visit children in Smilovichy orphanage. The first thing that’s especially pleasing is that the staff of the orphanage is very friendly and hospitable! They always provide us with classroomы for our meetings, also they collect themselves all the children and bring them to our meetings. For today, there are only four children in the orphanage. Each of them is unique, talented and communicative in his own way. Of course, at the very beginning it wasn’t easy to establish report with the guys, as they checked us out and didn’t want to let us get too close. And one of the girls tried with all her might show us that she wasn’t interested in and that she didn’t really want to hear about God and everything connected with Him. Sometimes she was insolent, she could interrupt us during Bible lessons, but at the same time this girl gave the best answers to the questions and memorized Bible lessons better than other children. For 2 months our communion these guys have become close to us. Today children become more and more open to us, they’re also ready to hear about God. They even try to think about what God does for them. Also I want to say a few words about two brothers – Artem and Arseny. They’re younger than other children, they are five and six years old. We feel that they have a great need of love, tenderness and parental embrace. Of coursе we are all want their birth family to recover, or if the boys will be

adopted, we hope that their adoptive family will be able to accept and love them sincerely! These boys are very kind, gentle and cheerful, despite all the situations that they’ve been through. When we play games, they don’t play each for himself, but they want to be both winner. If one starts to lose the other runs immediately to help him. And such a behavior doesn’t come naturally to orphans, especially when they are in the orphanage. There they go separate ways! I have been serving orphans for many years, but over the years I realise more and more that not only we teach them, introducing Heavenly Father to them, but God Himself works on our hearts through these kids. I want to encourage all partial christians to pray for all these kids go to families and also for Arseny and Artem remain loving, kind and thoughtful brothers who know God! All throughout October we told them about various God’s personality traits. The kids already know that God is The Creator, who created the earth and all that is in it. They also know that God is the bread of life and the light for everyone who walk in the darkness. At the last meeting of this month we told them that God is love and about Jesus Christ’s feat on Golgotha. We don’t know how long these kids will be in Smilovichy orphanage and how many meetings we will have with them, but we believe at the right time we or our brothers and sisters in Christ will reap the fruits from the word of God we have told the kids. Let this bring glory to God!

After summer holidays and camps our team has continued visiting the orphanage in Smilovochi. Now there are 4 children, 2 kids and 2 teenagers, who accepted us warmly and joined our meetings with pleasure. First we just had a talk with them, told about us and the way we knew God, He totally changed our lives and poured out His love in our hearts. The older guys were interested while listening our testimonies and became open-hearted telling about the difficulties they had to face with. These children grew up in a loving family in which their mother and father were occupied with their favorite activity – horse breeding and teaching children to ride these wonderful creatures. Yarik and Polina had had a plenty of joyful moments before their father left. Pain and disappointment were the only emotions they had and the mother became depressive and stopped caring about her children. Recently she had left them, moved to other country and now they are in the orphanage, forsaken and with broken hearts. Last week we had a topic “God exists” and to make it more interesting  we divided into 2 grou

ps according to their age. I was in charge of the older guys and obviously it was difficult for them to believe in God’s reality, they sat with their eyes watching down and later said that they didn’t believe in God ( If He existed their parents wouldn’t have left them and they wouldn’t be in the orphanage). While talking with them God provided me with His wisdom and reminded of the examples from my life, so I shared with them and saw some hope in their eyes. I’m glad to see the way God’s truth transforms children’s lives and makes them free from lies, and the Holy Spirit cures them from pain and hurt.

    We continue our weekly trips to the orphanage and enjoy the opportunity to openly share the Good News with the children and conduct Bible study classes.  Listening to the children, we realized that they live in fear: the fear of being in an orphanage, the fear of never seeing their parents again, fear of the dark, people and many others.

     In order to help them to overcome their fears, we have prepared answers to this topic and explained them how to pray to Heavenly Father – Our Protector, who is always with us and He has many angels for each of us.  Also, each of us ga

ve examples from his life about how the Lord guarded and gave courage in various situations.  In subsequent meetings, the children told us about their victories, that they no longer sleep with the light, because before going to bed they pray and ask for the protection of the Lord.

Even this month, we conducted creative activities and taught the children weaving, making toys, mosaic paintings and creating figures.  We believe that such activities are very important for their development and sensory perception of the external world.

Last week, we talked about friendship, and also what the real friendship is, which God has intended.  Olya said that she did not believe in true friendship, because when she was taken to an orphanage, all her friends turned away and stopped being friends with her.  She had frustration and unforgiveness.  Together with the team, we helped Olya to understand what the secret of friendship is and how to choose friends correctly.  We also helped her to forgive betrayal and ask the Lord for true friends!