LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Good afternoon!
This month we have begun to visit the Smilovichsky orphanage. Smilovichy is a small city near Minsk, and its population is about 5000 people. Among low buildings there is a big two-storied building which is the orphanage.
Since October our weekly trips to the children to the orphanage were restarted again. Nowadays, there aren’t enough children in the orphanage, but I am so glad that we could spend time with them, because at our meetings they can hear the Word of God. At every meeting we talk about God or read a story from the Bible. Also we sing Christian songs, play different outdoor games, do a colouring. Singing and playing games is a good way to prepare children for hearing the lesson, and the colouring helps to fix the material.
At the first meeting we talked about who God is. We were speaking with the children that we aren’t ideal people and we have answered the question “why has God come to our earth?”. In a week, we spoke about creation of this world. Children have very different opinions about how our world has been created and where this world is moving to. At the two other meetings we discussed a prayer and the Bible as the Word of God. At the latest meeting we said that God is pure and we told them a story about Jesus Christ and the woman taken in adultery.
Throughout the first four meetings there was a boy with us whose name is Yura. In spite of the fact that his elder sister sometimes goes to the church, his personal knowledge about God was very poor. When we asked him some questions about God, his words were often tangled. The information from the theory of evolution, from someone’s stories, from movies was added to his answers. For children at the lessons we use very simple examples about God and his creation – for example, we have written approximate quantity of stars in the sky, and we have told that the Sun is more than earth in 333000 times. And at the latest meeting after which that boy have had to go to the other city I have asked him what he has remembered. He gave several examples of God’s creation and he has remembered the lesson about a prayer.
We will continue to go to the Smilovichsky orphanage and communicate with the children about God. Thanks to all of you who remembers about us, and who supports us.

Summer has begun, and with summer began last visits to boarding schools this academic year. We continue talking with guys from Smilovichi orphanage, and speaking with them about different interesting and useful topics.
This month, we told the children the story of Gideon, Job, and showed the puppet show.
The story of Gideon showed the children that God can even through a few people show His glory and save His people. It is very important to rely not on ourselves, but on the strength of our Lord. Gideon was able to defeat the army of other nations that outnumbered at hundreds of times, and we will be able to cope with the problems of our lives, thanks to the fact that we trust in God.
It was very interesting to tell the children the story of Job. Each of them lost something important in this life – that’s why they ended up in a boarding school. Job lost everything – his wealth, his children, and even his health. But he remained faithful to God. Many in this life believe that health is the most important. But the history of Job shows that there is a God who not only holds every man in his hands, but also the entire universe. He thought out everything, and knows everything. He knows even that about what modern scientists are doing only theoretical assumptions. Therefore, Job, and every child is in God’s caring hands, and He worries about every person.
This is a story with a happy ending – God took care of Job and multiplied his wealth twice.
At the end of the season of our visits we had invited a puppet theater. Guys liked very much this great staged production. During the story that the dolls showed, children learned that neither wealth, nor proper behavior, nor that their parents believed in God – none of this would help them get to God. Only personal faith in Jesus Christ is the key that opens the door to the heavenly kingdom.
Now most of children start visiting different camps, so we have a break in the service before the beginning of the school year. We are very glad that we can influence children’s lives! May God bless all who are not indifferent to the orphans of Belarus! Thank you for your spiritual and financial support!

The happiest moment of this month was the adoption of Arseniy who was in the orphanage for a long time, waiting for the decision from services of guardianship. We are thankful to the Lord for open hearts of the families for adopting these children! These children are very kind, talented and open for the God’s word. When we came and told them amazing stories about Jonah and Esfir, all of the children have expressed their opinion, and they have remembered different life situations, which have led to some bad or good consequences.
Each of us communicate with them personally; at such moments children are especially open to share with their fears, needs or strong offenses. We take the responsibility to pray for them, to build the confidential relationship, and the most important thing to LOVE them. Because it is their main need!!!
One more pleasant moment for children is the creativity lesson where they develop in something new, as Alla tries not to repeat in the activities. In such moments all team helps children not to be disappointed if they do something wrong for the first time and to achieve their goals step by step, with patience. This month we made animals and birds from fluffy delays. Children were satisfied!
Thanks God for changes in lives of these beautiful children and an opportunity for us to be participants of this service!

We continue visiting kids in Smilovichi orphanage. They become dearer and closer to us. Kids constantly changing they, but new ones get used to us quickly. They are all opened and friendly to us. We are happy that we can communicate with them, even though it’s not always easy. But God knows everything. I’m so happy that they hug us and always say that they were waiting for us.
There is a boy called Misha who’s been living there for a month. We have recently met him, but nevertheless we became friends very quickly.
I noticed that he is very shy even though he’s a grown-up. On the first day when we met he didn’t play any games with us, didn’t sing, didn’t take part in anything, he was just listening to what we’ve been taking about.
I was surprised that when I said that our team is all Christians and that we are going to talk about God at our meetings, Misha was happy to hear that.
Next time we saw him he was playing games, singing, communicated with us and other kids. Now he’s one of the most active people there. He is always eager to answer the questions at the end of our talks. Moreover, he always asks more questions when talk to him face-to-face. We can see that he is very curious.
He is always one of the first ones who comes to our biblical lessons. Praise God that He opens children’s hearts! Only He can lead our hearts and change them!
I also noticed that children are really impressed when we share our personal experiences with them. But the major point this week was the story of Daniel and his friends. And the most significant celebration of the month was Easter. We had a great opportunity to share about what Jesus has done on the cross. And after that kids got nice presents.

Here comes an end to the first Spring month, But the truth is it hasn’t felt like spring yet because it’s still cold, It feels like autumn. But even during these cold days we can visit our beloved children. This month we had a lot of interesting things happening, we have had the following bible lessons “Wise king Solomon”, “Healing of Naaman”, “Daniel and his friends”. At the moment there are 12 kids at the children’s home of different ages. Despite the fact that it’s not so many of them there comparing to the  orphanages we visit, we have to work hard while preparing for each meeting because we want it to be interesting for the older kids and the younger ones! Most of all I am impressed when it comes to the one on one talks with the kids because each one of them has their own story. Of course we spend a lot of time playing with them, doing creative things, learning and singing together some happy songs. But it’s in the conversations that those kids open up more than anything. Because kids in the children’s home are constantly changing we don’t always have a possibility to give them as much time as we would like to. So because of that sometimes we just want to come and give them an opportunity to talk, tell us how they got to the children’s home, tell us about the way things are at school, how they meet new people and build relationships with fellow kids at school. Of course when we have a chance we try to introduce them to God who gives meaning to our lives and gives us strength to forgive. They expect some advice from us, support and even our opinion on when it comes to them doing the right or the wrong thing in different situations. It makes us happy that these kids don’t just listen to us but they are trying to do good, they are trying not to offend each other and listen to their teachers. Yes, it doesn’t always work to be obedient, they are not always in good relationships with each other. But their whole life is still ahead of them. Our dream is that their lives will be filled with meaning, that the pain that they experienced in their childhood will die down as soon as possible and that they will never make mistakes that their parents have made! We believe that God can do it!