"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Corinthians 13:14
ORPHANAGES
Visiting the kids in Bogodukhov and Zmiev orphanages comes naturally as a follow-up to our friendship that has started at the Summer Bible Camp. So, throughout the school year we come to the orphanages on weekends and sometimes even during the working week. We come up with many things to make our time with the kids interesting and effective, but through these various activities we aim to develop and sustain friendship between volunteers and orphans. Our volunteers are the ones who have already achieved some good results in their lives and they reach out for more, so they set a good example for the kids. We believe it to be crucial for orphans because they are often surrounded by unsuccessful people living lives of failure and sin. Even the ones who have believed still struggle to imagine other lifestyle than the one of their relatives. Each of our team members is a living evidence of God’s love, grace and transforming power and it affects orphans more than anything else.
Zmiev orphanage
We started our ministry in this orphanage back in 2005 and have been doing it since then. Zmiev orphanage houses the children who have no parents at all as well as the ones whose parents are either addicted to drugs and alcohol or they are in prison or they weren't able to take a proper care of their child for some other reasons. The amazing staff of this orphanage favour our visits and projects in spite of the suspicious attitude of the town department of education towards any kind of non-orthodox religious activity. Many of the kids have already finished school and left the orphanage. We do our best to get them involved in our projects for students, such as Alpha course, student discussion groups, hiking trips, etc. In the year 2006 the Puppet Show Theatre directed by an amazing couple Gleb and Katya Kobzar was found in this orphanage and the kids who took part in it were able to go and perform in other cities of Ukraine.
Bogodukhov orphanage
Our ministry in Bogodukhov orphanage started back in 2009 (?) when we took 20 kids from this orphanage to our summer camp. That was the most difficult group we had ever dealt with. The orphanage in Bogodukhov is purposed for the children with nervous and mental disorders; some of the children get there for making poor progress at school or for massive misbehavior, though. At first an idea of taking such kids to our camp seemed to turn out a disaster – they seemed completely unable to focus even for a short period of time and would talk, laugh, jump, fight or cry whenever they felt like doing it. Their dorm monitors said some of them acted like demon-possessed. We didn’t know how to work with such kids and felt stretched. The only thing we could do was to pray. And it worked! The kids who came back to the orphanage after that summer camp were never the same. As they accepted Jesus, He started the transformation process in their lives. One of the boys got physically healed – his crooked chest streightened up as he was prayed for; the one who was considered to be demon-possessed was set free and became one of the kindest kids.
Today the orphanage in Bogodukhov has 120 teenagers and young adults, ages 14-22. Many are soon to leave the orphanage walls. Our team comes every other Sunday to spend time with them, do Bible lessons, share our testimonies. We’ve seen many young lives changed and know that God wants to do more.
Activities we do in orphanages
Bible study
English lessons
Sport games and contests
Cooking together
Christmas, New Year and Birthday parties
Master Classes in dancing and other things
Arts and crafts
Puppet shows
Picnics
and etc.
