Last week, an incident occurred in the children’s ark that
not only surprised us but made us see the greatness of God. After many warm
days, a light rain began. A few minutes later, the rain intensified and hail
with the size of a tennis balls began to fall from the sky.
While we were observing this natural phenomenon, one of our
employees shouted: “The basement is flooding with water! The Kurmaevs and the
Kireevs family possessions are getting wet.” Going down to the basement,
we saw that the floor was already covered with water. The sewage pumps couldn’t
handle that much water. All the employees and children of the “Children’s
Ark”, grabbed the containers that were at hand, began to collect the water
from the basement.
Other went outside to open the sewage system but this did
not help either, since the streets were also flooded. The whole process lasted
four hours, and we continued to clean until the next day.
Over the next few weeks, we expect rain again and pray that
our basement will remains dry. In addition, we will have to buy stronger sewage
pumps. We cannot afford them at the moment. Especially now that we are forced
to do it without government assistance due to the pandemic. Please help us
raise $2000 for our children at the orphanage and buy new pumps.
Minusinsk is one of
the oldest cities in Eastern Siberia. It is located in the center of Asia and
is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Many families with foster children
live in our area. We want to build a house in Minusinsk in which the foster
families, like orphans, can live.
Many events take place on the first floor of the “Children’s Ark”: workshops, youth clubs, and seminars. On the second floor, we have two large apartments to accommodate foster families who have taken in children. One of our families that we would like to introduce is the foster family of Olya and Denis Grushevski. They have seven children, four of whom are foster parents. They are all relatives, two brothers, and two sisters. The children have been living with the Grushevski family for almost a year now. Before that, they lived with their mother and stepfather. The children’s mother is mentally retarded so that she cannot take good care of them. The children often starved, and nobody cared for them, they were left to take care of themselves.
The oldest girl Vika
had to take care of everything at the age of 11. She cleaned up at home and
took care of her siblings. During the time that the children lived with their
mother, they were put in an orphanage several times, but then they returned to
the mother every time. The last time the government took them to an orphanage,
it was final, the stepfather was jailed, and the mother lost custody of them.
A team of volunteers constantly goes to the orphanages to spend time with the children, and Olya Grushevskaia sometimes went with them to give the children a haircut. Back then, Olya and Denis thought of fostering children and did everything possible. At that time neither of them thought that they would foster four children at once. When they came to the orphanage, Olya saw two of the brothers, Rusik (4) and Misha (5), who were four and five years old. She immediately fell in love with them, then met Vika (11) and Dasha (2). From the beginning, she knew that these were her children. Now they are a big and friendly family!
No home, in our time, works
without electricity, neither can we! Almost everything depends on it.
Currently, the electricity in the children’s ark comes from a nearby store with
which we have a temporary agreement. The electricity we get is being
interrupted again and again and we remain without electricity many times, which
makes the bill for the electricity very high. To have electricity without
interruptions and to be independent, we need a power station.
We would be very
grateful if you could support us with prayers and finances for this matter.
We need the support of
everyone who is not indifferent to it!
Unray Mary is responsible for our group that we call “Pearls” here at the Ark. In fall 2004 we received 2 little girls who are twins. They were 3.5 years old. They were walking around with sad eyes in our apartment, pointing at usual household items and asking what they are for.
They were getting used to everything and learning the new things. They didn’t have hair when they came to us, so they looked at my hair and asked: “What is this?” After explaining they asked if they will have hair too. Growing up with love and care of Mary they learned very quickly and became well prepared for school.
When Mary told them about a 95-year-old grandfather, one of them said: “I wish he could live 100 years.” From that day on, she prayed for that grandfather. After his 100thbirthday we were fortunate enough to visit him. While visiting him they sang for him. He lived for 101 years. The younger girl Svetlana received Jesus into her heart and now she serves Him by leading church in worship. Her older sister is not quite ready to take this step, but we are praying and waiting for this moment with all of our heart. We are grateful to those who pray for us and support us.
Children’s Ark Ministry in St Petersburg – Julia Podbuzkaya
At the End of 2017 there were many happy events in our Children’s Ark. And I want to share some of them with you. In December our graduate Vanya got married. We are especially happy for them because they got baptized and went through premarital training together.
In the same month two of our girls were baptized. Diana is 17 and Irina will turn 16 soon. Diana is the daughter of a tutor of the group and Irina lives in the same group with her brother Vitaliy. Irina came to us when she was only four years old and Vitaliy was three at that time. It’s a joy to see that children who grew up here choose to live with Lord. This shows us that we are on the right path.
We all watched how girls went to the baptism class and prepared for their most important day of their life’s. On the day of the baptism we went with a large group of people to the church “At the declining hill”.
We cried and rejoiced, seeing how our girls made a covenant with the Lord and then we had a celebration afterwards.
At the end of December, we celebrated Christmas here in the Children’s Ark. Traditionally is our biggest, most bright and joyful holiday. The preparation of the scene, rehearsals and pastry baking started long before the event. This led to a Christmas atmosphere for a whole month. And two girls, 2 and 8 years old, joined our family and became our Christmas gifts. With the Christmas atmosphere it was easier for them to get involved and welcomed in the first days.
We had a lot of guests and graduates attend and are glad that not gifts, which we had of course, were the center of the celebration but birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Children’s Ark in St Petersburg – Lyudmilla Vasilchenko
