The bittersweet project

 These beautiful children with childhood traumas, some had to sleep on the streets in the bushes, under the bridge or where they had to... Some escaped from the orphanage in cold and frosty winter days, without clothes due to humiliation and violence in the orphanage...

These sweet kids live in terrible poverty and are forced to earn a penny to support their families. Sometimes parents have many children in family and are not able to provide food and forced to send the children to the orphanages. Parents of some of the kids spent their childhood in the same orphanage. :( Sometimes the parents are very ill and unable to give the most necessary to their children. But most parents drink alcohol and they do not care where are their kiddos and what will happen to them tomorrow... Sometimes girls hate men because their fathers drink alcohol. Can you imagine what feel a girl, when her godmother sold her to a guy for 2 bottles of vodka ?... That`s terrible!!!

Graduates were afraid to leave the orphanage... Every day they face fear what there will be tomorrow, uncertainty, loneliness. They are looking for a comfort drinking alcohol or sniffing glue. Some were dying many times due to intoxication of the body... Recently, a 20-year-old girl from the same orphanage committed suicide leaving her small baby...😢We do not know the details. But this is awful news since we knew this girl... :((( Each story of child is heartbreaking...

Therefore, we decided to make a small camp for these precious souls, in the hope of helping them in emotional healing and surrounded with the love of Christ.

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When we started our travel, the big sum of money was not enough. But with all our hearts we believed that the Lord would send the necessary funds! The Lord gave peace and calm in the heart. We did not even care about this, because we worried about the children more. :)
The Lord knew that this would be enough! In many places we were given a huge discount or it was free of charge, when they found out that the children from the orphanage! We praised our Heavenly Father for such great blessings!How awesome!!!

At the first our day we stopped for a small picnic to eat on the way to... We spent only half of the day and children said that they got to Paradise!!!  What?!! We did nothing yet! 

My heart thrilled and was filled with such incredible joy and happiness! Honestly, I thought that I would die from happiness to see them so delighted!!! ♥♥♥ :))) I only imagine what an amazing next few days will be, I thought for a moment...

We arrived late at night when it was dark, so no one could see the mountains. But many woke up at 5.00 AM to see this beauty! Probably, they did not even close their eyes in anticipation of the sunrise. Ha ha!

Every morning before eating, we devote time to reading the Word of God and praying.

Also we had a Bible time every day, where we discussed different topics and talked about salvation. Everyone listened with great pleasure and interest!For the first time in the life these sweet kids saw waterfalls, fed animals, went to the mountains, climbed the highest mountain in Ukraine, Hoverla, saw the castle, went for a drive in zipline, played games, had fellowship and many more. What an awesome and incredible time! All the kids thrilled, delighted and said that they had the best days of their life!!! They had a blast! ♥♥♥ They are such sweet souls...

We thank God for the safe road, for the wonderful weather, even we had to survive the downpour. Little experience :) But most of all, our hearts are filled with gratitude for the wonderful time with these beautiful souls! We lived together as one big lovely family and it was amazing time!

It was a bittersweet project... A lot of heartbreaking situations. So many wounded and broken precious hearts... Many souls needs spiritual and emotional healing. :( 

But it was the BEST project we had!!! :) God is doing amazing things!!!

 Their hearts began to open for the Gospel. During the year when we came to the meeting of the graduates, they did not express much desire to sing, many felt shy. But these days, we could not stop them! They wanted and asked to sing again and again!!!

 We became better and good friends. And we keep fellowship daily :) Those who were afraid began to show courage, those who were silent became more talkative.Those who did not laugh began to laugh with all their heart. The children began to open their precious hearts telling about their lives, share their feelings and experiences. The graduates never went far and one of the girls started panicking... You know what? She began to show courage in many things!The teacher was very surprised and said, "I do not recognize them and can not believe my eyes! What's going on? For the first time in 9 years of work, I see them new!"  The love heals wounds! :) 

One of the girls said how good that I fell ill with pneumonia 9 years ago because of this I did not go to school. And I went to school for the coming year and got into this class. Just think, I had to graduate last year! After all, if I was not sick with pneumonia, I would never have got into this place in my life...

We are so grateful to all who took part in this awesome project!!! You are AMAZING!!! THANK YOU soooo very much to everyone, who made this possible and brought so much joy, delight and helped in emotional healing!!! Thank you very much for prayers! And thank you for giving opportunity to show the love of Christ to these precious souls. ♥♥♥

It was a little experience in holding the camp for orphans and it was a success! We plan to hold the same camp for graduates next year, God`s will but longer. ;)

Please, watch the video to see more pictures of God's beauty and mostly beauty in precious hearts! These kids are amazing and they took special place in our hearts ♥

Kids at camp

Usually the summer is a time to relax, travel, summer camps. Where can you find new friends, have an unforgettable and fun time.

But it is not for the orphans. It's boring and tedious time for them.No one spends any games, contests and fun with kids. They just roam the camp territory without knowing what to do. Behind teritory camps you can not go, you must be under the supervision of a leader or an orphanage teacher. There's absolutely no games, toys, no bikes, skateboards, etc. There is no hot water wash or take shower. All they have is their room and classmates. Often orphans are malnourished and complain about small portions. There you can meet violence as from the side of the older boys and from the teachers or leaders. Sometimes the older kids run off in search of adventures. Older girls often become pregnant... Children complain that they want to quickly summer is over and go back to the orphanage. :( Because the camp is terribly boring. Children suffer emotionally very much...

Of course each camp is a bit different and it is good if there are newcomers volunteers who conduct various contests, games with children. But in the main camp, it is as unpleasant memories for orphans.

Orphaned children have to wear such shoes every day, weeks, months and even years...It doesn't matter sunny or rainy days. Because they do not have parents, who can buy them new shoes. They have to wear what they have. The orphanage gives an one pair of shoes for 2 years.Since the kids are running, jumping and gambol, shoes wear out very quickly. Therefore, shoes in all orphanages are one of the main problems.

Seeing all this and hearing complaints from children. All this is very difficult to convey in words. This all overwhelmed and has broken our hearts...It's very hard emotionally. The heart is compressed in pain.

Very soon we are came back with a lot of boxes of clothes, shoes and hygiene products.

We are so grateful to a Bible Baptist Church in Texas, for clothing and hygiene products!

Thanks to everyone for all the donations you sent and still sending, financial and humanitarian. From all over the world!

Thanks your donations we were able to purchase more personal hygiene products that every child received a blessing.

We were able to bless orphaned children with lots of clothes.

  Oh my goodness! You should have seen those eyes and cries!

You should have seen the delight and joy when the children receive hygiene products and clothing! The children were so very excited!

A little Beauty in new dress. She loved it! :)

Huge thanks  for a big box of socks!

Small children and teens could receive clothes.

The boy, the second on the right, he was overjoyed, when he saw that he had sneakers to play soccer! Honestly, I did not understand this until the day,  he showed the difference. This is guys stuff. :))) You should have seen his eyes! "I dreamed of having such sneakers and now I can play football!!! This is awesome! Wow!!!" Sweet boy could not believe his dream came true. Thanks once again for sending shoes! You never know how one pair of shoes can bless someone`s heart and  become a reality of his dream :)

Happy to have many clothes.

Precious smile. Sweet girl was so happy to have a new dress!

Teen guy was so glad to get a shirt! He had a Birthday few days later. And he accepted it as a gift for his Birthday. 

I have new pair of shoes! :) He was so excited!

New sandlas, new dress. She was so proud :)

Later we brought lots of different games.  Can you imagine how kids were excited to get so many wonderful games, as they had only one very old ball for over 80 kids? Precious souls were amazed and delighted! They hugged and warmly thank. Children couldn't believe it was for them. It was such a blessing to see the delight and sparkly eyes!Awesome blessing for so many sweet souls! God is so good!!!

They started immediately to play with.

Children were so very excited they can play and to be busy with something.

Near the forest is a spring of where we are from time to time take water.

 The water that we have is not good for health, especially for drinking or cooking. It is not nice to smell, smell bleach sometimes, visible grains of debris, it is yellow color, white clothes eventually becomes gray and the water is harmful to health. Even if you brush your teeth, and monitor your health over time from this water formed cavities in teeth or problems with the gastrointestinal tract.

 We often can not go to fetch water, since it takes half a day and do not always have someone to help carry water, all the guys are working.

A brother Misha has a hernia from the fact that often lifts up a heavy load. He needs a surgery. So we go there, when there is a possibility. And so we buy water for cooking. But the water from a spring that is much tastier! We thank God for this! :)

Thank you for touching hearts of these precious children! Thank you for showing your love and care through donations! Thank you very much for compassion and the manifestation of God's love!Your big and small blessings, not only cover the needs of the children, but also bring joy, excitement and become a reality their dream. :)))

Visiting orphans in camp

I`m soooo sorry could not post earlier and made you wait to know what we did in camp with kids last Thursday. I could not do it because of circumstances here and i was sick. Now is little better, thanks God.

So, as i told before, God has blessed much and we had amazing day! The weather was beautiful!

When we just came to the camp and children saw us, they started to run. We even did not expect they will be so glad of our meeting again!What a blessing!Many of them huged members of team so much that it was painful. :))) When we told them about that, they just laughed.They are so funny.

 The program with children was very good too, only children made noise little.In this camp are 130 orphans. I think we had not smaller than 100 kids maybe more and it was little hard with them. But we are happy, even much happy that God has blessed our fellowship! The time was amazing and we rejoicing by this blessing!

You may ask what we did there with children?

We sang several songs what they know, what we learned with them last time and learned one more again. They just love to sing!Our director Misha plays on guitar very well and kids just LOVE it much!

For smallest ones we had puppet show.

Before Bible story Nadya and Lyuba showed object lesson about faith.

Here sisters told Bible story about Daniel. Several boys helped in it and played acts.They were exciting of that!

After that we have played games with kids.

As children LOVE balloons, we decided to play this game with them. Inside of each balloon were hidden words of Bible verse, which children needed to find out and learn.

When a child found out a word, he/she needed to read it aloud and Lyuba wrote words on blackboard.

And in the end we learned the Bible verse. "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee;..."  Isaiah 41:10 Children did it real good!

 

Also we have played a game "Pin the tail on the lion".
Children were soooo excited by games and many wanted to play! Sometimes it was hard to chose a child. :)
They pulled their hands up and asked to chose for game.We had a rule, who is sitting quiet will be play in game.

Director Misha gave last words of exhortation to children. Also it was a blessing about 7-9 adults could to hear the Gospel. After program some members of team could to witness to some adults more about God. We are glad God gave us opportunity of that! Praise the Lord!

In the end of our meeting we gave to each kiddoes 1 chocolate candy and 1 banana.They were glad very much to get it! This is not all. They were much surprised when we told that we brought sport games for them. Oh how they were glad, my goodness! It is amazing! WOW!!!We were so glad to see how their eyes seemed shined!

We gave these games to their caretakers and leaders. It was little bit sadly that was not enough games. But it was real blessing to see how children were happy by this joy! Several leaders were glad to let us know.That they are glad by that too, because often they did not know what to do with children, make them busy.We are happy God did it just in time!

When leaders got games, immediately children did run up to their leaders and asked these games!

Here some pictures of playing kids.The team could to play with children also.It was amazing and funny time with kids!

 

Also we could to pass out Gospel tracts to children.

We noticed as in every orphanage children here are thirsty of fellowship as in hot wilderness of water. Really they soooo much HAPPY when anyone come to them and spend time, showing the love and care. Many of them have very sad eyes which are upset and do not have a hope.Many of them have own bad family story.Many of them do not want to speak about their parents, some kids let us know, they dream some one will adopt them.They dream to be in family, in place where they will see and feel all love, protection, hope and future. Ah, it is heartbreaking to know and understand that we can not help in it...It is so sad...Please, pray for these children, God will protect them, give hope and future...

This is not all yet.By the way we decided to go an orphanage where we dyed playground to see and inquire do they need our help more. But really we did not know can we will help them to dye or no.As i said before, we already have schedule for other orphanages. In one of them we are going to come back soon and help again because there not enough workers who can do some work and especially for men.

When we came to the orphanage we were surprised! They finished almost all work! The playground was nice! All benches, floor in classes and in buildings, windows were dyed.We were glad by that! The administration of orphanage was glad to see us and thanked again for paint we bought. But we know it would not be happened without our Lord Jesus who cares about orphans and without all of you, who shows your love to these abandoned and poor kids!Thank you! Just BIG thank you for your help, love and kindness!God bless you!!!

 

Everything is nice!

 

For those who do not know.In Ukraine you can buy fruits or any vegetables in villages by the way on roads. Pensioners( grandmothers -babushka and grandfathers-dedushka)  have a low pension what government pays. So often they sell all they have in their garden, to make money. Also it can be milk, cottage-cheese, eggs, any berries,in autumn -mushrooms etc.Sometimes it is real good!