LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

Dear friends, welcome to our website. It is so good that every month throughout the year we can dive into the service of God together. Thank God it was a special month. Children have changed at the Smilovichi orphanage. Now there are three children there, Dima, Tim and Darina. Children from the same family, it was very stressful for them to come to the shelter. When we first met the guys, they were so closed that they were afraid to tell their names. For an hour, the team and I tried to communicate, to get them to talk. We brought M&M’s candies with us. All the candies are multicolored and each color meant something. Yellow tell me your dream, green what would you like to change in life, red what is your favorite pet, brown tell me about your friend, orange where would you like to go, blue what is your favorite dish? During this game, we got to know each other and just chatted. Gradually, the guys talked about their dog, about friends or cartoons, and gradually we became friends. When we arrived another time, we decided to teach the kids to sing children’s songs, but the songs were with movements. At first they just watched, and then they started showing movements with us. When I saw that the guys were repeating the movements, I thought thank God we got one step closer. After the movement songs, the guys started to smile, but they still looked at us warily. We prepared the game “edible inedible” and just talked about what they like to eat. As always, candy won, but Tim also said that he would like to try ice cream. What a simple wish I thought, and then they told me that they came from the village and the family is very poor, mom is in the hospital, and they don’t have a dad. On the way back the guys and I talked about bringing ice cream next time and treating the kids. We also held a lesson in which we talked about the “Lost Sheep”, about how the shepherd took care, and the sheep was so curious that it got lost. We tried to remake the story to suit their age, which is 3, 4, 5 years old. But the shepherd found his missing sheep and saved it. And then we told about Jesus Christ, how He came out to look for us, and when He found us, He simply offered his friendship and salvation.

There were no conditions, there was a simple call to be with Him. While we were painting, the guys told us that they liked the caring Jesus. And Darina also said that she wanted to pet a little sheep. When we arrived the next week, we found out that Dima was admitted to the hospital, he had bad tests and bad blood. We also ask you to join in the prayers so that all the treatment will be beneficial, and Dima can quickly recover and return to his loving brother and sister. This school year has flown by so quickly, and we are glad that we could be at the epicenter of God’s will. We saw how God answered prayers and children returned home from the orphanage and, most importantly, how children gained faith in Jesus Christ. Thank God and thanks to everyone who works with us to serve orphaned children.

Greetings, dear readers! April has come to an end and we thank God for our trips to the orphanage in Smilovichy. There were only a few trips this month because the children returned to their parents in mid-April. Thank God that the parents were able to correct their situation and all the children (Miroslav, Alisa, Yana, Darina) left the orphanage. Our team members were a little sad to say goodbye to the children, because they had been in the shelter for quite a long time (since autumn 2023), but we hope and believe that they will be better at home with their parents! We also hope that they will remember the good news about Jesus Christ that the children heard from us, and in due time it will bear fruit!

We are very pleased with how actively these children participated in the Bible lessons and how they answered questions with awareness and understanding throughout our meetings with them. We believe that all this was not done in vain! During the last meeting, we gave them a large Bible for children with pictures, we hope that Miroslav and his sisters will read it and tell their parents about it. All the trips in April were wonderful, we talked a lot, played, sang, and glorified God. The children were always very happy when we arrived.

Our Bible lessons with them were held in the form of communication. It seems to me that this way the children remember better what we talk about with them. We ask them questions during the conversation, so they are more interested and understand the Bible story/topic more clearly. This month we continued to look at the qualities of God: God is bread; God is light; God is love. In the first lesson, Nikita’s main idea was that we must seek God and read the Bible, since all the truths with which we can be satisfied are written there, and not just physical bread. In the lesson about light, Anya told the children that when there is darkness in our lives, we are scared, we don’t know how to act in different situations, we hit, stumble and fall, just like in a dark room, but when we believe in Jesus Christ, He becomes a light in our life and we are no longer so scared and we know what to do, also the Bible in our life is a flashlight, because with truths we can illuminate dark places. In the lesson about love, Sasha talked about how God loves them and He is always ready to accept us, no matter what we do (for example, the parable of the prodigal son) and that God took away our sins and gave us eternal life, which we did not deserved as a gift, and this is the most vivid proof of His love. Let’s pray for these children, so that the Lord will always be with them in due time, so that the parents will correct themselves and not return to their previous way of life. Blessings!

This month, our goal was to tell the children at the shelter about the qualities of God, about His versatility and how  relationship with Him can change their lives for the better. In the first week of March, we talked about the fact that our God is the Creator of life, the universe, all living things, and most importantly people. Miroslav asked why God cannot force people to live well, be obedient to Him and not sin. He is concerned about this issue because their parents try not to drink alcohol, get better, but at some point they break down and become addicted to alcohol again and the state, seeing their lifestyle, does not give them permission to take Miroslav and his sisters from the orphanage. We showed the answers to the children’s questions in the Bible and inspired them to continue to pray for their parents, as well as for God’s will for each of them. My team and I also pray for all the children we visit and serve, because prayer can change even the most difficult circumstances! The following topics were that our God is Pure and Righteous, which means that we also strive for His righteousness and even if we sin, we can be cleansed by asking God and people for forgiveness. Alice, who is 7 years old, admitted that she sometimes offends her sisters (Yana, she is 5 and Darinka, she is 3 years old) and that it is very unpleasant for her when she does this. She said she would ask God for more love for her sisters and forgiveness if she did wrong to them again. In the last week of March, we prepared a festive program and invited Diana, who changed into a big heart costume, and her image and performance told the children about God’s love and what we celebrate on Easter. When she said that we celebrate the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of all people and His resurrection, we saw surprise in the eyes of the guys. It turned out that this was the first time they had heard about what kind of holiday it was and how much the Lord loved each of us! Thank God for the opportunity to sow the seeds of truth, love and light into these children’s hearts. At the end of the holiday, we gave everyone a gift box and rejoiced with them when they opened their gifts and laughed with happiness. The children said that they had never been given such cool gifts in their lives and they were very grateful to God for everything that came in the box))) We thank everyone for participating in the lives of the children of Belarus! May the Lord bless you and your families abundantly!!!

Dear readers! Thank you for your prayers for serving orphans in Belarus! Thank God for the February trips to the orphanage in Smilovichi! At the moment, the same children are in the orphanage as before. For several weeks we were unable to visit them because the children were in quarantine due to chickenpox, which caused our trips to be suspended for a while. Thank God that the children recovered and our meetings with them resumed! I haven’t seen the children since the end of December and I was very pleased when some team members wrote to me that the children were asking about me, this made me very happy, because it meant that we were able to make friends with them and they were looking forward to meet us and are always very happy when we come to them! On my first trip in February, after a short break, the children were so happy to see that they literally knocked me off my feet and we sat on the floor together and hugged for a long time. It was a wonderful time.

The children are very happy to play games with us and also praise God by singing. I never cease to be amazed at the desire and involvement with which they do this, thank God for that! This month we talked with the guys about several topics, such as “Faith”, “Prayer is conversation with God”, “Bible”. I am happy with the fact how the children try to listen to what we tell and how they answer questions. Especially the boy Miroslav (the oldest brother), he answers very consciously and we are always pleasantly surprised by this.Obviously we do not know when these children will be taken back to their family, so while they are in the orphanage we wanted to talk to them about such important topics as I wrote above. That the Lord hears our prayers, sees our hearts, knows what we are worried about, what we want, what we are afraid of, so we can always and in any situation turn to Him in prayer and open our hearts to Him. Katya also explained exactly how we can pray to God – talk to Him like to our closest friend. In the lesson about faith, I told them the biblical story of how Jesus walked on water to the frightened disciples, the main idea of the lesson was the idea that it doesn’t matter where we are and what we do – the Lord sees us and our heart, whether there is fear there or something else, it is important to believe that the Lord can do everything and can help us in our matters. On another trip, Dima talked about the book that God left for us – the Bible. He told me that everything written in it is reliable, and also why it should be read and studied. Thank God for everything! Blessings, brothers and sisters!

Now there are six children in the orphanage: five from one family, and one from another. During the few months of our communication with them, they got used to us well. Darina, who is three years old and who at first shunned us and stayed close to her sister, now welcomes us with joy, hugs us and communicates with us. It is clear that each time they wait to meet with us, and besides, they say it themselves. A girl named Alice once said: I was waiting for Tuesday when you would come. When someone from the team can’t join the trip, the guys ask why this person did not come and whether he will be next time. Once we even received handmade gifts from the guys. At the moment in the orphanage there is one teenage boy named Vadim, who never came to our meetings, despite the fact that he was called many times. Despite this, one member of our team managed to talk to him alone and tell him the Gospel. This month we had three girls: Yana, Darina and Alice. Unfortunately, their brother was admitted to the hospital. The girls listen well to the Bible lessons. Before meeting us, they had a poor understanding of God and the Bible, for them it is mostly new information. But despite this, they absorb and remember it very well. They are involved in the lesson and actively, sometimes even vying, answer the questions that we ask them during or after the story. Through the Bible lesson, we try to introduce children to God. For example, in the last lessons we talked about gratitude and told them the parable of the prodigal son. Through this parable, we tried to explain to them that God is loving and that He is always ready to accept a person, no matter what happens in his life. We also applied this parable into their lives and explained to them that God is just as open to them as to the prodigal son and that God loves them in the same way. We also play different games with the children every time, which they also enthusiastically accept. Games help to get closer to them and create a fun and friendly atmosphere. Also, the guys love Christian songs with movements and even hum them in their free time. During the last trip, we managed to devote time directly to communicate with them. The girls shared what they like to do in their free time, who they would like to become in the future and how they communicate with each other. They talked about how they lived in a family. Their parents visit them from time to time. Like many who are in such institutions, they want to return back to their family. However, as far as we know, they will still be in the orphanage for some time.