Rodnichok Children’s Home:
A little boy about 4 or 5 years old sitting in the second row caught my eye right away. He was cross-eyed and had cute little dimples in his cheeks. I was amazed when he ended up in my small group. My eyes kept going to him during our visit. The children were sitting in a circle on the floor playing. He got up and came over to me. I offered to hold him and he crawled up in my lap. I hugged him; then he got down and went back to playing. God is GREAT! God keeps bringing his face to my mind during my prayers. I think I will be praying for him for a long, long time!
1/31 — Sara: Today we went to an orphanage where my small group started speaking to a group of seven children who ranged in age from six to thirteen. While Nuper was giving the gospel bead presentation, two older boys joined our group and became very attentive while Nuper spoke. Nuper then asked the children if they would like to have a Bible of their own, which they all were very excited to receive. We handed out the care packs next and came up two short so I volunteered to get some extras. As I passed by one of the bedrooms, I saw one of the older boys, who had arrived in our group late, already reading the Bible that we gave him. The eagerness that this boy showed to read his Bible was very touching.
1/30 — Our bus driver “Andrei”: made a comment that he liked our group. He said that we don’t pray to icons or have to have cloth over our heads and we are full of joy. Let us pray that God might bring him into the kingdom!
1/30 — Ron: As we were leaving the second site and the bus was pulling out there were six or eight young teenage girls that were waving goodbye with tears streaming down their faces. I had had an opportunity to interact with several of these teenage girls. We may have touched their lives but their tears touched my heart in a way that I will never forget. Praise God!
1/30 — Brad: At the second site we visited, there was a little boy that reminded me of a kid in my class at church. I had a special attachment to him and he ended up being in my small group and he touched my heart. I was really touched by some of the stories of the orphans.
Barry: I was able to recruit Pam and Brad to come on this trip with me. This is the first international trip for both individuals. It has been such a joy for me to see the excitement that they now have when they interact with the Russian children and tell stories of their own visits. Pam and Brad both have personalities that are effective with the children and they interact well. I see them growing in confidence in their ability to interact with Russian children.
Pam: “My spiritual life is being stretched. I‘m growing in confidence in sharing the gospel.”
Brad: “I’m grateful that I am able to fulfill the great commission by going to the ‘uttermost’ and by showing the love of Christ to Russian children.”
1/30 — Nuper, Bill, Dave and Sara: Our interpreter, Vitaly, invited us to an alcohol rehab center where we met eight men. The “rehab center” was actually an old, small wooden house which was run by a man, Alexander, who we later found out had been in the Mafia and went to prison where he was told about Christ and became a Christian. These eight men were tough guys, several of them had been in prison and all were recovering alcoholics. But the awesome thing was that all of these men were Christians. The 14 of us sat in their very small kitchen/bedroom. These men did not have much but they offered us tea and about six different kinds of cookies that they had bought. Alexander played the guitar and we all sang worship songs together. It really touched our hearts to see these hard core men singing and praising God. The four of us each shared our testimony with the men and it was amazing how, even though we came from very different backgrounds and environments, we were all able to identify with the men and realized that we are not very different from them. The men shared that they all pray and read the Bible together and they have become a great support for each other. We gave the men some Bibles and encouraged them to give these Bibles to someone who they know needs it. We had come there to encourage and strengthen these men, but in the end, they wanted to bless us and pray for our ministry and our families. It was so amazing to see how much love and care these men had for each other. All of us had a hard time getting to sleep thinking about what God had done this night. It truly was a God-appointment.
1/28 — On Monday, when we met with our interpreters, I had a surprise. Six years ago, I had visited Kaluga with Operation Carelift/GAiN and had a Christian interpreter named Olga. She was greatly burdened for her English students and invited us to meet with them to practice English so they could meet Christians. We spent an evening together, and Olga asked me to explain the gospel bead bracelet to them. I was thrilled to share the gospel with her students, which included Olga’s 12-year-old son Eugene.
When Olga saw me this Monday, she had Eugene with her. She said that six years ago when I had shared the gospel, Eugene had prayed to ask receive the Lord as his Savior. Now 18 years old, he is one of our interpreters and gets to interpret the gospel for us every day! It’s wonderful to see how the impact of Global Aid Network is not only long-lasting but also eternal.
Krasnoyasrk Feb 1 2008 as reported by Stuart Y. (Stuart is 11 and this is his 3rd GAiN trip):
Yesterday we met a girl that we met last summer in Krasnoyarsk. She lived in a different orphanage at that time. When my small group leader Mark and I saw her, we were very happy and we wanted her to be in our small group during our presentation.
Mark did not want to trouble anyone about going to a specific small group room, but when we got to the room we saw the girl there that we wanted to see again. We played duck duck goose, sang songs and gave our gifts to the children. Mark and I were very happy! So we met a friend again in a different place at a different time.
As reported by Mark Q.:
Every day here has it’s own story. This day was special to me because I had the opportunity to spend time with some of the children that we had met when we were here this past summer.
We had been told that we would be visting some of the sites from the summer trip. So I brought along some pictures that I had taken from that trip. The first site that we visited was a new site, so I did not expect to see any familiar faces. But when the children came into the room, I immediately recognized one of the little girls from this past summer. Ann also recognized her. To my surprise and joy, I had a picture of her along.
We sangs songs and Gerald peformed his magic tricks for the kids. They loved it. Sheree said it was time to break into our small groups and meet with the kids. I know that God directed the split of the groups because our group went to the room where the little girl was that I had recognized. I had thought of requesting that our group be in her room, but God worked it out anyway. God is Good!
We had a wonderful time playing with the kids and I knew by the smiles on their faces that they did as well. We got lots of hugs and kisses, many without even asking. All of our kids were five years old, so they probably won’t remember our faces, but they will at least for a short time remember the fun that we had together.
What a joy, such a wonderful joy it is to see our Lord’s little ones smile. Thank you Lord.