At the beginning of March, my team and I drove to an
orphanage in the village of Muromtsevo. My eldest daughter Olga was with me and
there I was asked to speak with a nine-year-old girl. She sat down on my knees
and immediately began to ask: “Sasha, take us to your home, my younger brother
Ruslan and an older brother Alex. Your daughter is already grown up – she’s 18.
She will leave home, and you can take us in.
Everything inside me turned upside down because I was not
ready for such a conversation. I told her said that this is not so simple and
that I have three children, not only Olga, and that I will think about it and
pray. Two days later and suddenly it the director of the orphanage calls and
says that a family is coming from Krasnodar and wants to adopt these kids and
needs help finalizing documents and pass tests. This is a real miracle and the
fastest answer to a prayer in my life. God is great.
We were also contacted by a young family asking for help, they have two sons and the younger one Matthew needs special care. His heart is on the right hand and a hernia on the liver, due to which the liver is strongly elevated and does not give room for the lungs to develop. His parents love him and fight for his life, he is only two years old.
There is a doctor in Italy who is ready to operate on him, but the family does not have funds to buy tickets. We will need approximately $3000 for tickets and accommodation. Oksana – his mom prayed at our meeting and accepted Christ. She is very worn out spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Brothers and sisters, we found ourselves again as neighbors for this family in need, and I ask you for help. May God bless you.
Life keeps changing and we continue to serve God. We preach the Gospel, raise children, taking care of old people, and help people in need. We keep finding new opportunities to testify of the Savior. For a long time during the “first wave of Covid” our Church “Word of Truth” was forced to perform services online. After resuming meetings in August, inside the church, many elders continued to join worship through the Internet in order to avoid infections.
This winter will be remembered as unprecedented cold. On Christmas, it was cold as well, but we gathered more than 70 people. Most of the children and adults are our friends who very rarely attend a church service, and for some of them, it was the first time. We have become witnesses of God’s actions. And the resurrection of people to life, transformed destinies, restoration of destroyed families, and the return of children to the family. People turn to God for salvation and receive, in Christ Jesus, a new life.
The life story of Viktor Sklanda is about how a wounded
child’s soul became a beacon of hope for other children.
Victor could have a good life. His father bred thoroughbred horses. The family atmosphere was good and friendly. But then his fate changed drastically: his father was killed, his mother became addicted to alcohol and sold the family’s property. As a result, the family has torn apart. For Victor, as one of the youngest children in the family, this meant a new reality in life: an orphanage in the outback of Russia.
This was supposed to be a dark chapter in Victor’s story: “All against all.” Hatred and cruelty shaped his young soul. An environment in which mercy and love were considered weaknesses stifled hope. The picture of the future was predictable – going to nightclubs, drugs, alcohol, possibly crime, and jail. It seemed like it was the sad end of the story. But, Victor’s life took a decisive turn:
Foreign missionaries visited the orphanage. They showed love
to us, even if they were originally punished with meanness for it. Interacting
with these people fascinated Victor and caused the hatred and anger inside him
to diminish. And not only that, but also that he chose a relationship with God
himself. Of course, problems and difficulties did not go away from his life,
but God gave him a new direction in life.
Today, Victor’s heart seeks to show children from
disadvantaged families and children who had to grow up without parents, a view
of life with God and encourage them to let go of their fear of social
connections.
Unfortunately, there are still too many children in
orphanages or shelters in our region who also need our help. One of the bridges
to teens and young people is sports. And this is exactly what we are using now
and want to use even more in the future.
Already, the graduates of the Children’s Ark actively attend
sports events. We plan to start joint work in this direction with the youth and
teenagers of the “EXIT” club. The leader of this project is Viktor
Sklanda.
We rented a gym until June 2021. In addition, we are looking
into renting a place infinitely that will become a meeting place for children
and youth, where it will be possible not only to play football and volleyball,
but also to meet children and make friends.
Do you want to become a sponsor of the “EXIT” project? And for success stories like Victor’s to come true? Maybe someday it is your contribution that will transform the soul of a wounded child into a person who is passionate about helping others. If this affects you, feel free to participate with a one-time or monthly donation.
I am sure that all of us get great pleasure from the ministry to sick children and their families. We have a unique opportunity to do what Jesus did.
Today He does it through us! A month ago, Lera began to feel
bad so she and her mother were urgently sent to St. Petersburg, to the clinic where
she received a bone marrow transplant. It was a small medical procedure. Lera had
gathered fluid in the lungs, and her legs started to give up. Now they already
returned back to Omsk, and I met them at the airport and took them to oncology.
On the road, her mother told that on the flight to St. Petersburg a 17-year old
boy died on the same day, and two days later a 9-year old girl.
They both underwent a transplant on the same day. She says that felt our prayers every second, and for her, it is very important. Mary sincerely thanks everyone, she cannot understand how people, who are overseas can be so close! Now we have opened churches, and Mary wants to come and pray! They still long-term treatment is ahead, and we will fight with them, for Lera. Thank you for being with us in this fight!
On behalf of everybody, I express to you sincere thanks for your prayers and support in the distribution of Christmas gifts and evangelistic sets – for children and adults. Despite quarantine, we still managed to hold a Christmas performance and gave gifts. 35 children and 44 adults children and adults came from our village.
The participation of youth from Omsk affected the hearts of my eldest daughter, Polina (12), and son Semyon (9) and they expressed their desire to serve other people.
We drove through the villages and handed out gifts, and they
participated actively in the ministry. They changed with us in costumes shepherds
and did not hesitate to talk about their faith in Jesus and His wonderful
birth. We visited three villages and handed out 150 gifts and about 200 Gospels.
Thank you for your participation and assistance in expanding His Kingdom!
Christmas is always a reason to be joyful to those who experienced Jesus, and a reason to share the good news with people who live next to us. I’m in charge of the Mercy Ministry in our church. We as a team care about people, who are in need. We take care of widows, disabled people, and children at risk.
In December we had the opportunity to give out 500 gifts, and we also told them the Good News. We visited four orphanages, held Christmas concerts there and organized festival food table for A miracle happened to the children in the oncology department. Due to quarantine, we could not get into the department for 8 months, but on Christmas the department manager allowed us to do the covid test, and we able to get to the children for 3 hours. The children and their parents did not want to let us go. We gave gifts to the children and told them about Christ.
We were also in the hospice, there were a few children capable of talking and so we mostly talked with health workers. We were very happy for the opportunity to give to people, who do not know Christ, a real Christmas. For them, it was an unforgettable experience of meeting Him. Jesus says what you do to these little ones, that you have done to me.
