An orphan's life

 You will not lose your reward!

By the mercy of our Lord a miracle has taken place at our adaptation center.  For a long time we prayed for the opportunity for our guys to be able to work. It was our desire to have them work at home if at all possible.  With these earnings the center would be able to live it's own life and be more independent as well as giving our teens an opportunity to take part in meeting our needs as a family.  But what can we do here to help them learn how to work?  We can raise livestock, pigs and chickens, but we  haven't had the finances or facilities for that.  We weren't even in a position to purchase a large enough quantity of livestock to make it a worthwhile endeavor. 

 God, hearing our prayers and seeing our goal of raising livestock, laid it on the hearts of other believers to help make our dream come true.  They helped us financially as well as physically in building a shed for pigs and chickens and also helped us in purchasing pig and chicken feed.  More importantly, they held a seminar for us and our teens on how to feed and take care of pigs.  It’s amazing that people from a distant continent, a different nation, who are far removed from the problems of our country and our daily life here, left their homes and traveled deep into the countryside of  Ukraine.  They came to help these orphan teens learn how to support themselves.  They sacrificed their time, gave of their finances, and gave of themselves.  Is this not a miracle?  We thank God for them.  We are thankful to the Lord for our kids.  They worked hard alongside us -  because time was limited we tried to do everything quickly but with quality.  The entire center worked hard.  Each one did their part in the work project.  The guys helped with construction and the girls prepared food and cleaned.  They did this because there were many people.  No one was lazy and no one complained.  These days were a blessing to us all.  Praise the Lord for giving us this opportunity.  We pray that there will be great results from this work project.  We hope and pray that soon our teens will be able to earn their own bread by the sweat of their brow, as God has intended.

We are grateful that God gave our teens the opportunity to go to Malin for more than a week of youth conferences at the camp there.  It is very important to us that our teens be strengthened in their faith by hearing the Word of God.  We know that 'faith comes from hearing.'  It's also not at all insignificant that they spent 10 days surrounded by Christians that love God.  We sent them, praying that changes would take place in their lives during their time at this Christian camp.  Overall, our teens really liked being in the presence of so many Christians and listening to the Word of God. This was a great opportunity for them to grow spiritually, to become even closer in their walk with God.

Ruslan attended every service at camp, read the Bible a lot, and prayed.  Earlier in the winter he had expressed his desire to be baptised.  What is most interesting when observing Ruslan, is that he may forget many things, but he always knows when and what time the church services are.  An hour before we need to leave he's already sitting there, dressed, ready to go, with a Bible in his hands.  He never forgets his Bible.  It’s amazing. With some kids you always need to remind them to bring their Bible to church.  

Praise the Lord for everything!  We are very thankful to the entire team that visited us.  We would like to thank Nancy particularly. 

Thanks to the churches that took part financially, donating towards this project. We are thankful for everything that you do for these teens that are in need of your help. 

We strongly believe that you will not lose your reward for serving the Lord with what He has given you.  He promised, that “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones... they will certainly not lose their reward."  (Mat. 10:42). 

We love you, you are dear to us and we treasure you!