LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

After short summer break we came back to visit orphan’s children from Smilovich’s orphanage. We received great news that most of the kids sent to the foster families decided to take care of kids. All kids except Arseniy, are new and many of them never heard about Jesus or anything relate to Bible and religion.
Our main goal is to be friends them and let them have a personal relationship with God. It is very important for us to create atmosphere of trust and acceptance. We want every child to feel loved because that’s what every one of them really needs.
During the time that we spent together, we tell them what Jesus has done on the earth, how He healed people and show signs and wonders to them. We teach them how to pray and believe that God will answer.
All lessons are build in form of games to make it fun and easy to remember. Before every class we ask them what they remember from the previous lesson. And its so amazing to see how kids remember almost everything and actively involved during the lesson. Also children just love it when Zhenia comes with guitar and we can sing songs together. It brings so much happiness and laughter. We even had a shy boy named Artem, and after two weeks he started to singing with us.
Its amazing to see how God transforms their lives. Day by day we can see how kids worries disappear and become happier. Their aggression goes away and they feel welcomed, loved and protected with us. Children started to ask God to fix their lives and take away everything that is wrong and bad for them. The fact that their parents have betrayed and left them obviously hurt and have brought a lot of damage to their lives but we strongly believe that God has a plan for them and has a new destiny for every one of them. Praise the Lord that He is working with these beautiful children and their hearts to bring them truth and new life.

This month ministry in Smilovichy was special. All the orphans were taken to the families for summer, some of them though were taken to the orphanage on the first week. That’s why we had only two boys at the orphanage in Smilovichy: Egor is about 3, Arseny is 6. First, we worried the kids are of different age groups and that there are only 2 of them. But then God reminded us of the fact that each person is worth of dedicating time to and is valuable in God’s eyes. And this is awesome. All the meetings resulted great and joyful, there was a lot of time to spend with those 2 boys. They were extremely happy to see us coming to visit them even though there were only 2 of them. They really appreciated it. We had Bible classes where boys could get to know some Bible stories: The prodigal son, Good Samaritan, Parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We also watched cartoons together and this is a very good way to demonstrate things and to convey the Biblical message to the kids. As we were blessed with a nice weather we were able to spend more time outside. Egor is a very active kid, we played sport games with him and Arseny enjoyed painting on the pavement with the chalk of different colors. This is how God blessed our ministry this month with these 2 boys.

Now Egor is sent to the foster family and the decision about Arseny has not been made yet. Our team is looking forward to returning to visit the orphanage in Smilovichy in September as the kids are at state camps for the summer.

Hello everybody! It is pleasant when we spend time with a benefit not just for ourselves but with the benefit for those around us! We live in a society that most often runs away from the problem instead of trying to solve it. Orphanhood – is the challenge for the whole country, for the each church and for every individual. But most choose to ignore this challenge or justify themselves by saying that the government will take care of orphans or somebody else, not me. But today we are calling you again – do not be indifferent to the orphans!
We spoke several times about Smilovichy children’s shelter – that it is a place for the children who waiting for the judgement of the court. After the verdict some children will return to their parents (if those are capable to raise their children), some will go to a new family, still other will have to move permanently to an orphanage. Each orphan child needs a helping hand at least in some small thing.
When we come to this children’s shelter first thing that we feel is the atmosphere of warmth and acceptance from the educators. We thank God for their open hearts! They gather together children to the room where we have our meetings. This month we continued to study different qualities of our God. The children have learned that our God is pure and righteous and that there is no sin in Him and that the sin is disgusting to Him. Also we explained to orphans that God is omnipresent. That He is even capable to see our hearts and thoughts. In the example of Jona we showed to the children that it is impossible to hide or run away from God. Also every meeting was filled with singing, games, and sometimes watching an educational video or crafts.
At the present moment there are five boys and one girl at the shelter. Some of them soon will go to the foster families. We ask you to pray that the seed that we have sawn will bring its fruit for the eternity in its own time!
Dear friends we would like to call you to do something for the help and support of the orphans in the orphanages.

One more spring month flew away! The weather didn’t give us many sunny days and much spring fragrance. But we were noticing God’s hand even in this, for usually spring is a period of time when children don’t want to stay indoors and try to run outside. It is the hardest part of the year if we are speaking about gathering children together. That’s why we want to thank God for any weather and the opportunities to bring all the children together and help them know God closer.
This month we were looking at our God’s features and were taking a many-colored block as an example. Each color meant one of the features of God. For instance, the red one told us that God was love and the green one that God was the Creator. Besides, we celebrated Easter in April! It was a wonderful opportunity to tell the children about God’s love towards people and about the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the children are mostly from the families where people just color eggs and bake sweet cakes, but they’ve never heard of the true meaning of this holiday. So, we had a good possibility to share with them the biblical understanding of Easter.
Last month we informed you that the children in Smilovichi orphanage are keen on crafts. So, we organized one more meeting devoted to crafts according to our new tradition. This meeting showed us again that all the children differ from each other but all of them are talented. Glory to for this month!

This month we had one visit more to the Smilovichi orphanage. At the moment, there have become more children again and there are still more boys. Many children went to new families or permanent orphanages. But some new children also came, who are are in abeyance. As these children are from different age groups and the make-up of children often changes, we made a decision to discuss with them the most significant and at the same time simple for their perception topics. In March we discussed such themes as: ‘Prayer is a talk with God’, ‘God accepts us just as we are’, ‘The Bible is the word of God’, ‘God’s features’. Some children heard about God for the first time and prayed with us.
The reason for our special joy is the attitude of governors to the children and to us. They gather the children and bring them to our meetings. We see their love and care for the children. Glory to God! It is revealed in the children’s behavior. They always try to take part in all our activities and don’t just listen to the stories during biblical lessons, but participate in dialogues and even learn the lessons. We have also noticed that the children in this orphanage are keen on crafts. So, we devoted the whole hour to the crafts during one of our visits. We printed the photos and the children made frames for them. It was a good time because each member of the team was able to devote his/her attention to 1-2 children and not just help them with crafts but communicate with them closer.
Next month the children and we are waiting for the Easter day. It is a good opportunity to tell the children about the feat of Jesus Christ. And it will enable the children to know more about God and develop their artistic abilities, because we are planning to make ornaments for the holiday together with them.