It is a great blessing and inspiration to see the guys from the Rudensk boarding school open to God, as they carefully and intently listen to Bible stories, participate in worship and prayer. And looking at them,I thank God for His love and mercy, for His heart, which can accommodate children. 
I want to tell you about the Christmas party, which was held recently. There came the team from Germany with congratulations and gifts for the children, and friends from the church with a Christmas staging. As long as the installation of decorations lasted, children talked excitedly at the door of the assembly hall in anticipation of something wonderful. 
Of course, getting presents a very pleasant event, I admit, but the evening dedicated to the birthday of Jesus Christ was awesome. Kids and teens, all participated in the evening, glorified Christ by singing, playing, and after the performance answered the questions
that Dima asked. Looking at the children, I pray and thank the Lord that His Word consistently and effectively. It transforms lives of the guys and gives meaning, hope and joy!
Hello to everybody who is interested in the problem of orphancy in Belarus. This month we visited Smilovichi orphanage. Our lessons were very diverse: we told about Christmas, played different games, learnt interesting songs for children. Most of all I was impressed by the lesson about Job. The main aim of the lesson was to share with the children the truth about the necessity to be faithful to God.
It is significant that they began to compare Job’s attitude to God with relationship of people in friendship, understanding that it is impossible to preserve friendship without faithfulness.
I like very much to look in these kid’s eyes, to see how they try to take part in the lesson and do this very actively. However there are some children who just want to draw attention by their behavior. There was a boy, called Dima. He was eager to get all my attention. But I understood that children who were sitting there, also wanted to listen to me. I called Dima, embraced him, and after that he began to behave himself in a different way! It is evident that every child needs love and care. We are glad that we can give them this small part of love and care, which we get from God every day. Be in lives of these children people who will be able to accept them real personalities and present them their affection. 
God bless them with his Fatherly blessing!
If telling about the Christmas program, this year children heard about the Savior’s nativity through puppets. We organized the puppet play, because there are mostly small children. After that they could get gifts. It was funny and fascinating to look at the children when opened their Christmas boxes! But the most joyful thing was to see, when they got things they wanted!
This month I had an opportunity for meeting my dear friends! It is so pleasant that they wait for us. They are always happy when we come to them. We chatted, played a lot with them, talked about God. The children became more open and told us about feelings
, and they were happy very much when we prayed for them. I liked the fact that the children try to change their characters, they yield to each other, try not to speak foul language although they do not always have a success. Thanks God that they want to change!
We devoted two meetings to biblical heroes such as Job and 
Daniel, who are a good example of obedien
ce, patience and faithfulness to God. Furthermore the children with teenagers organized sports relay. In these moments it is always nice to see how guys can deal with each other, accept defeat and be a team. After the relay the participants were given prizes.
However the most memorable was Christmas meeting. It was a happy time for them, not only because of the gifts. The boys had the opportunity to change the atmosphere, to hear about the birth of the King, to play and learn new songs. Some children from Grozovsky orphanage, who did not go abroad during holidays, were able to celebrate Christmas in homelike atmosphere, and the main thing was to go on a celebratory service at the church. There are two families and a few nurses in our team who periodically take orphans on weekends and vacations. This is a great opportunity to become closer to these kids, to serve them and to introduce at church where they can hear about God!
Hello, everyone whose hearts are open to the Ministry for the Abandoned Children in Belarus, who prays for the orphans and supports our team! I would like to provide you with some feedback on January events at Grozovo orphanage. It was a very festive and busy month for us, and we were all greatly inspired by the help and support we received. We would like especially mention the congregation of Minsk Baptist Church ‘Bethlehem’ who participated in our action “X-mas Gift to an Orphan”.
The pastors told the church members about our action during the service and a lot of people got very excited and eager to stuff a gift box for an orphaned boy or girl. The church youth joined us during our Christmas trip to the orphanage. During the visit we handed over the gifts to the children (addressed and collected personally for each child), we also staged a Christmas performance for them, organised different games and music activities. Many friendships were created then, and now the youngsters communicate with each other via social networks.
Everybody enjoyed the time spent together. It was a gain not only in positive emotions but new friends as well. During our follow-up trips to the orphanage we organised the Bible study entitled “I would have believed in God if it were not for…” First we debated the resolve “I would have become a believer but for the injustice going on in the world”. The kids asked us heaps of questions and we tried to support our resolutions with texts from the Bible. We told the kids about Christ’s undeserved suffering, about the sin and its impact on the world. During our next meeting we debated the resolve “I would have become a believer if good people did not suffer. Does God Care At All?” That time we told the kids about Job, his sufferings and great blessings, we talked about God having created us with a free will to make our own choices about who to serve and follow. 
After those debates a lot of kids changed their attitude to God, at last many children received answers to the questions that had been troubling them for a long time and some of them became determined to change their lives. The last meeting that we had in January was dedicated to sports. We held a competition and everybody, even the little ones, were invited to participate. It was a great fun and all the teams, even those who lost, received presents. It was so interesting to watch the older kids doing best for their teams and supporting their younger mates. You could especially see their care during the sack race – when a small child finished his or her run, the older guys lifted him or her up from the sack and helped another one in. It was a very touching scene to witness. Our team is so very grateful to God for the fulfilling ministry we all had this January. Our relationship with the kids and orphanage administration developed in a most positive way. We are immensely thankful to the churches that supported us during the Christmas actions, and would also like to express our genuine gratitude and appreciation to each person who keeps praying for us and makes it possible for us to continue our ministry for the Belarusian children left with no home and family.
Christmas celebration at Belinichy orphanage became one of this month’s most memorable events for me. We staged a play about Christ’s birth so that the kids and teachers would learn how the Savior came to this earth. 
The actors played roles of people with different attitudes to Christmas and
I think they really succeeded in bringing forward the real message of this holiday. We also sang a lot of carols and two of them we learnt to sing together with the kids. At the end of the party the kids received Christmas presents.
During our short weekly visits we usually meet with the older children but such events as the above mentioned gather all the children. 
And I love it because more and more kids get an opportunity to hear about God. We were so happy to meet the little audience of the orphanage during Christmas celebrations.
During our last two meetings we talked about Abraham who is a great role-model for us in remaining obedient, faithful and trustful to God. We also held sports activities for the kids. Sports competition is a good way to learn the kids’ characters while their real attitude to each other is revealed. And the kids learn to win and to lose. Such events also provide the team with the necessary feedback for chosing the right discussion scope that will be most relevant in the given circumstances.
In conclusion we would like to say thank you to everybody who helped us collect clothes and shoes for the kids. We also thank the ones who participated in the Christmas action. We are immensely grateful to everybody who supported our ministry financially and we genuinely appreciate all your kind prayers for us.
LOVE 4 THE CHILDREN 