Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Wow! What a day we’ve had today! One can put it like this - an overwhelming hospitality and openheartedness. The group had a chance to minister to kids at two sites today: a kindergarten with children from 3 to 6 years of age in a town of Komarin and a secondary school plus a children’s social center with the kids up to 16 in a little village near Bragin. Both of them are in Chernobyl polluted area. But the disaster didn’t shut people’s hearts. They are ready to welcome guests and host them the best they can. Tamara, the director of the kindergarten willingly opened the doors of the facility to the American group, and we were able to spend some really great time with the kids sharing the Gospel with them. The little ones were very responsive and full of life no matter how hard the circumstances they live in are. They were happy and excited as well to get their gifts and children’s Bible stories.

Some of the team members also had a chance to pray for Tamara’s (the director) husband who’s really sick because of Chernobyl and she appreciated it very much. And in general people in those places were touched by the fact that there’re those who really care about them, who know about their problems and what is more - are willing to help.

It’s like the local pastor, Yuri, said, that many did come, they were saying a lot, but there were no kids. But this group of American volunteers really showed love in action. And that catches and melts people’s hearts more then any words.

Every person who came to this place was able to touch several lives in different ways, either just being there and listening to somebody’s life-story, like it was with an elderly lady Tatiana, whose dear ones either live too far from her or passed away and she’s living all alone and has nobody to even talk to. But elderly people like her need just simple care and understanding, and having got it today she was so happy and thankful. That visit made a difference for her just as it did for the teachers and other staff of the small village school our group had been to as well.

While watching the concert that was prepared by the children and their teachers you kept thinking how much effort they’ve put into this program, trying to decorate the gym where the concert was on, with little hand-made Belorussian national things. There was warmth and much love in it and one could feel it in a special way there. No matter how hard the life is to them it was amazing to see that light in their eyes, to hear all those warm words.

The highlight of the day was our visit to the abandoned town “Sunlike” in a 30 kilometers zone.

The scope of devastation is unbelievable. Empty flats with the toys and books on the floors, schools with broken windows, and more. You could almost hear the voices of the children, running around, playing…but no one was there. That was an experience one can never forget or get used to, no matter whether you’re local or a foreigner.