LOVE 4 THE 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.

Greetings, brothers and sisters! For me, every trip to the orphanage this month was filled with joy and gratitude to God in a special way for being able to serve, because it is a real blessing to see the desire with which the children sing songs with us and listen to the lessons. Returning back to Minsk after meeting with the guys, the team and I usually discuss the past trip and everyone noticed the deep understanding with which these little children glorify God in songs and movements. Thank God! This month we continued to tell the guys Bible stories such as “Noah and the Ark”, “The Tower of Babel”. It was interesting for the children to hear how the Lord commanded Noah to build an ark and gather his family there, so they were saved
during the flood, because they obeyed God. Thank God that we can discuss some kind of conclusion from every biblical story and apply it in our lives, and in this theme it was obedience, which is relevant for the guys now. The story about the Tower of Babel teaches us not to be prideful, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble! Also, on the Christmas eve, Dima told about the birth of Jesus into this world, about this precious gift from our Lord and why God sent Him to earth. I want to remind you that the guys who are in Smilovichi have never heard of God before. Therefore, in our lessons this month we try to make an actual application in our time. We especially highlighted the theme of the Savior’s Nativity. When we told how everything happened, we could see the reaction of the children. They were so excited that sometimes I had to stop to clarify one or another point even more. Angels, donkeys, a manger, a barn, all this caused their delight and questions. Well, since there was no place, I would have given up my room to Jesus, Alice said. Miroslav asked, how strong are the angels? Can angels protect us too? Now the stars will remind me of the star that led the wise men to Jesus, Yana said. For every child, the story of the birth of Christ has found its application. When we arrived on December 26, we prepared a special program for the guys. We played a couple of games, then sang Christmas carols and those songs that the guys like. Dima held a contest about different facts of the Christmas story. And this helped the children to remember even more about the birth of Christ. In the last slide there was a question, what would you like to give Jesus on His birthday? And it was so nice to hear: – I would give my love, Alice said, and I would give my heart, Darina said, Yana said that she would give all her sweets, and Miroslav would give his love to God. Then we went to another room, where Katya prepared a cake and treats. We sat down at the table, Katya lit candles and the guys blew out the candles together. Then we started saying congratulations to Jesus. And then Alice said, let’s sing a birthday song to Jesus. Then the guys ate the cake despite the fact that we didn’t have forks and spoons. But it was so nice to see happy children.

The evening went on and there were more gifts ahead. We thank everyone who helped to purchase these gifts for children. We sat down and the guys took turns opening their presents. Joy and anticipation were on the faces of the guys. Oh, I dreamed about it! Oh, I’m so glad! – the guys shouted. We understand that God has answered the desire of their heart. Lord, thank You for responding to the desire of the children’s hearts. We are grateful to God that despite the fact that the children recently came from home from where they were taken, they were able to find, even in a boarding school, a small family represented by the ministry team who cares for and covers the needs of children, and also talks about the most important gift – about Jesus Christ!