LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN

The end of the year is always full of different things going.  Holiday hustle creates atmosphere of awaiting something kind and wonderful. Children from Vileyka boarding-school are not an exception. They are children.  Long-awaited holidays start at the end of December. It’s the time when many of children will see their Italian, Irish and some of them Belarusian parents.
Together with the team we tried to make a celebration for those who usually stay in school on new years’ time. We organized a trip to Minsk with a busy schedule.
So, let’s start from the beginning.
Children from Vileyka boarding-school came to Minsk on 28 December 2016. The first thing in our schedule was visiting oceanography museum, where children could see and hear about underwater world and its inhabitants. After visiting this museum we went to our hospitable church “Bethlehem”. There was a workshop on making New Year’s cards organized for them. Children managed to make a present for their friends and teachers. After that we had a nice dinner in church. The culmination of the trip was a nativity play. It was as if Christmas heroes rose from the pages and became alive: angels with big wings, cruel Herod, modest Joseph and Mary, even angry soldiers were so real like never before. An hour and a half of the play went by as a moment. And finally – presents, real presents, mutual photo and warm saying good-bye. You can’t compare this blessed feeling of giving to anything in the world.
After a break, we met together on 8 January, when young adults form church “Golgotha” showed a puppet performance for the kids.  It was an exciting time when we talked about the meaning of Christmas. Little blue tits are afraid of a man, but happily enjoy their food with other birds. And God came in a man disguise to become obvious and closer to every person. Our prayer is that Jesus would become obvious and close to children from Vileyka.
Our warm evening finished with presents from our overseas guests from Great Britain. Members of an International team “Teams4you” brought presents for kids in Europe and personally gave it to the children. Every kid in the assembly hall had a chance to practice his English as well.
20 January we started the second half-year of the current school year. Meeting, fellowship, games and eternal truths. Most of the teens were outside because the weather allowed to spend their time on the ice rink – it’s a big delight for children. Time went by for those who came to an assembly hall: we played together, communicated and found out about Samson. The second season of our meetings is officially opened!!!

For many people December is a month which is full of bright celebrations That’s why our team tried to make this time unusual for the orphans from
The first December Friday was devoted to sport. Older boys gathered a team of football players. It must be admitted that the teenagers play very well. They competed with Sergey Divokov’s team. Although students who were brought by Sergey are not professional players they are keen on football very much and attend trainings regularly.
The game finished up with friendly hugs and chocolate medals. The teenagers from Minsk got acquainted with the teenagers from Vileyka and talked to them. That was good time for making contacts. Unfortunately, not all of the football players from the orphan school could take part in the competition because of lack of time. But their new friends from Minsk promised to come again.
The game came out to be exciting because besides the sportsmen there were a lot of fans who actively took part in the process. They painted their faces and supported the teams from the stands.
We eventually watched the film ‘Coach Carter’ till the end. The children liked the film so we will surely discuss it next year.
December 16 became a great day for the children because Alla Smolyakova came and brought her wonderful crafts. This time the teenagers had to decoupage a Christmas cup. Each of them could choose a festive napkin for making a cup in an individual way. We tried to help everyone and thus become closer to them. The teenagers thoroughly followed Alla’s instructions and as a result everyone got a useful thing – a beautiful cup with a cover which can be used as a case for pencils or other small things.
During the crafts it is much easier to keep discipline and talk to the teenagers because they are so involved in the process. That’s why we also arranged a geographical quiz with sweet prizes.
At the same time smaller children got to know about the events which took place 2000 years ago. The real wise men came to them to share the Christmas story. As the real wise men they couldn’t come without gifts. The children were amazed by sweets, games and funny sketches.
However the main event is still coming. On December 28 the orphans who stay at school on holidays are going to visit oceanography museum, have dinner at church, do crafts and, of course, they watch a Christmas performance and get presents.
Let Christmas become a real holiday for the children from the orphan school too!!!

November is well known as a gloomy time of the year. And at such times family comfort and warm atmosphere becomes even more valuable. So trips to the orphanage every time are a bright event for children and our team. This Month has been full of interesting activities for children.

The first week of November is a traditional autumn school holidays. So there were less children in school. Only a few girls came to a meeting with teen-agers. And because of the small number of people girls could share their inner thoughts with us. Their life stories impress with the depth of tragedy in such a small age.

Lisa’s parents died from a drug overdose. And Diana’s mom loves to drink . And when she comes to visit her daughter in a boarding school, sometimes she brings empty bottles by mistake instead of chocolates. But waiting for the mom doesn’t become more painful, on the contrary, the girl is waiting for her mom on her birthday with a great thrill. It is the best gift for her.

Another girl said that her father killed her mother. He has already served his term and returned, but the girl continues to call him. In most cases the father overtaken in drink didn’t recognize his daughter, but she doesn’t give up.

On 11th November we held a real holiday for our teenagers. Alla Smoljakova and Sergey Divokov came with us to the orphanage. They organized a game with the kids and announced activities for December. Sergey forms a team to conduct a football match. And Alla is preparing master classes on making different creative hand-made things. During the evening we celebrated Diana’s birthday. We ended the day all watching a movie “Coach Carter”, we’ve been watching it for an entire month.

On November 19 we held a well-liked by pupils culinary club. Our profi Valera taught the guys how to make a salad. Guys love this time, because not only do they communicate, learn and see many new things, but they themselves are involved in the process. While they were doing this, Alex shared the Word with them. They receive it better during activities where they are all involved! It is an unforgettable time!

They say you love those who you keep in touch with. The more I come to this boarding-school the more I become attached to the kids and teenagers here. Our meeting on 07.10 was special. We enjoy gathering in the school hall. Kids are self-collected there and when there are chairs standing in a circle, the atmosphere is more trustful. They like active games. When we play you can see sparkles of enthusiasm and excitement. While sitting in a circle we shared about our qualities and favourite dishes. After dinner there was a talk on how they should choose friends. Relationships worries everybody, and teenagers are not an exception. That’s why during Dima’s preaching they were very attentive and after that they asked lots of questions. At the end of 1,5 hour meeting kids got a surprise – a 20 kg watermelon. Even though everybody wanted to get his piece they were very friendly: they didn’t push each other and were patiently waiting for their turn to get a long-awaited piece. We were also surprised when after finishing eating they organised a clean-up – they found a bucket for the water, a mop, a rubbish bin and they put the chairs back. Saying good-bye was very warm for me. Those kids who always kept distance now were hugging with the hope for the next meeting.

Just before coming the the school we were praying together about building relationships and becoming closer to kids. And this meeting was a powerful answer and testimony of God’s grace.
Next long-awaited meeting was also full of activities. We continued talking about friendship after the games. This time we talked about being a good friend yourself. There was a big interest for it as well. In the moments like this you understand that this ministry is not in vain, and God’s working.

There was another meeting on 21 September 2016. We played a game on team-building. While passing the ball to each other we had to be very attentive, we had to remember the person who was passing the ball to us and the person we were passing the ball to. Children had to think about strategies on how to pass the balls and keep them going as the quantity of them was rising. We talked about a true example of friendship – Jesus’ example.

I would like to say that the meeting on 22nd October was a special one for kids. Together with the cook from the church “Bethlehem” Valery Strigotski we had a culinary club for older kids. This was a special time, when children watched Valery who was masterfully using a knife…with closed eyes. The administration was so inspired that they asked to come and do this club more often. Kids learnt some basics of cooking, talked to those who was helping the cook and listened to biblical stories prepared by Roman. That’s a success given by God. We believe that this attention,care and interest to kids’ lives from our side won’t leave them indifferent.

We got another team member in October, it’s Valentin. Together with Alex Zhuikov they work with kids from the 3rd form. Valik has got a lot of love for kids and a desire to do this ministry, We believe he’ll be a big blessing for the team.

Summer is over and September is here. We looked forward to it so much, but we also had some fear about it. We had a great desire to continue visiting children and evangelising, but a question popped out “how to do it and what transport to use”? The team has prayed a lot and waited for the answer from God. And we got this answer very soon, and a new member to our team – Aleksei.

We discussed the format of our meeting with team beforehand: first 15-20 minutes we communicate with all kids and then we split into groups. We were worrying a little. We didn’t know what to expect and how the children will react to “the news” we had. Nevertheless, even here we saw God’s mercy. Children were running to us shouting “They’ve arrived” when they saw us coming through the school gates.
We all gathered in an assembly hall. There were lots of children, like never before. During the summer 20 new children came to this school. We could also see that the children have grown up. Everybody wanted to get some attention. Some children couldn’t wait to go to their mini groups to share what has happened to them during the summer. And after that, we all met again.
Children were soaking up every word and they were so excited. We sang, played games, learned and repeated the rules to keep discipline. Many kids asked about Pasha. We knew what to tell them even before our visit. We decided to tell them the story as it is. We talked about Pasha’s love for this school, to be exact – his love for the children , and that now he is in heaven with the Lord, Who loves every one of us, and if we accept Him into our hearts we will meet up in Heaven one day.
After 20 minutes we all split into groups. I’ll share about the meeting with the little ones. It was the time when everybody could share what he did in summer, and for us, it was the time when we could devote time and attention to every kid. We had sweet treats for kids in our group and we talked about friendship. We remembered once again Who is our true best friend and the examples of friendship from the Bible ( many of which we talked about last year). We were delighted to hear kids talking about last year stories interrupting each other. We could see that it wasn’t difficult for them, but important. They even corrected each other. One boy once said:
– My Italian mum said there is no God, and that everything written in the Bible is a fairy-tale.
– We were about to start talking about it, when Lyonia interrupted us and with strong assurance said:
– Your mum must have confused something or maybe she knows nothing because I know that everything, written in the Bible, is true! I know it!
That was such an encouragement for us. We see how God shows us His love through the kids. We see how He shows the changes in these little hearts. Some time ago when we came to this school we could only see in their hearts pain, fear and desire to win attention for themselves, now they are different. Sometimes we even don’t have to explain how we can use the examples from the Bible for our own life – children show us how to straight away. Praise God for His love and mercy to us that we get through this ministry as well.