Tuesday, March 13, 2007

 

What a wonderful day God has given us today! Both the weather and the people we met today were just so beautiful and welcoming.

The first site we’ve visited today was a secondary school with 176 kids from 6 to 17 years of age from the 1st to the 11th grade.

The director, Galina, warmly welcomed the American group and shared a little about the school, its students and ex-students etc. The group was also shown a school museum with an interesting exposition of pretty old household items that were used by the kids’ grand grandparents and are a part of Belorussian history.

After that the American group split into three smaller ones and went to the classes where were welcomed and presented with souvenirs made by the kids in their craft classes. Children in each group were very active and excited just as all kids are. They participated gladly in every activity their American guests suggested to them, enjoyed looking through the pictures.

Older kids were racking their brains trying to find out how the tricks showed by the members of the team worked, and enjoyed working together over it.

Gifts were a special moment for the children as well. They all liked the teddy bears, dogs, cats and other stuffed animals they got, no matter how old they were.

At last the children and their teachers had a chance to hear a Gospel bead bracelet story and pray together with their American friends. That prayer was a top moment of the project in this school that brought hope to many who prayed that day.

The fellowship with the kids was followed by a concert where they performed and brought even more joy to the guests and ended up with the traditional tea party with the director and the staff of the school. 

Tom M. shared about international GAIN ministry and the reason why the American volunteers keep coming to the post soviet union countries. He also introduced the local pastor and mentioned that thanks to his recommendations the team had a chance to visit this particular school. So now Pastor Alexander will continue to work with the school and the director on a regular basis.

The teachers were moved by warm words of appreciation and encouragement expressed by the local pastor and the team members.   

Inspired by the results of the first visit American volunteers left for the second site which was organized by “Spasenie” (Salvation) church for the invalid society “Scream of the soul”. The situation in the families who have invalid kids is often very poor. In many cases fathers when they find out about the condition of their children leave their families and moms have to battle for surviving themselves. So such visits bring them hope and encourage them greatly. People were open to hearing the Gospel, many of them heard about Jesus for the first time ever and were touched by the care they were shown by the American team.

One of the ladies who were the speaker of this society heard the Gospel bead bracelet story from the leader of the American group Tom Miller and was so excited to get the bracelet and the explanation to it. In a little while three more ladies came up to Tom and wanted to get their bracelets as well having heard of them obviously from that first lady. So when they got their explanations they immediately started reading them with great desire to find out what was in there. 

So in general people were moved by the care of people who don’t really know them but because of God’s love they come with open hearts and bring them hope and at least a little bit of joy in their hard lives.