Camp in Belarus
July 5, 2011
From Olga Goncharenko:
We are back and after a few days of rest ready to sit down to write some about the camp.
The camp was great. It took place in the Northern part of Belarus on the lakes. There were 50 children, and 15 adults (team members). We had a team of 8 from Indiana, mostly young people and two girls from a Christian college in Arkansas. Together with Belarusian translators and helpers they did a great job.
As we travelled on the bus for about 4 hours to get to place, we have divided all the kids into 4 groups according to their ages. They kids that came to camp were from 5 up to 16 years old coming from different backgrounds, such as shelter, orphanage, foster families and poor, problematic families.
Originally we wanted to take kids from 7 years old and older, but we couldn’t resist the girl Vika, who was 5, as she had nowhere to be during this time as her mother went to prison because she had killed her cohabitant and Vika’s papers to go to an institution were not ready then. Sad story. As well as a few others, who were in similar situations with their parents taken them back from the shelter, because they were forced to pay for the tuition of kids while they were in the shelter. Only God knows if and when they’d get back there. Hopefully they can remain in their families, but very often we see how they come back to shelter every few months.
The first day of camp was hard, as we had to call the ambulance, that took two boys to the local hospital. Read more
Kate and Laura — Interns in Belarus
July 4, 2011
Our names are Kate and Laura and we are from Kansas and North Carolina.
We have just finished our sophomore year at John Brown University in Arkansas, majoring in Early Childhood Education with an endorsement in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). We just spent 12 days in Belarus helping with a camp and teaching English lessons there. We were excited to have this opportunity to come to Belarus to share God’s love with children and gain experience teaching English.
The camp was for needy children, many from foster homes or a children’s shelter. They heard the gospel everyday and participated in crafts, games, swimming, and English lessons. We had the opportunity to meet with a small discussion group, and we enjoyed seeing their growth in knowledge of the gospel. One of our favorite parts of camp was becoming friends with the children and just spending time with them.
Before and after camp we stayed in the Minsk Family Home. We got to know and love the girls that lived there and made new friendships. They were very hospitable to us the whole time we stayed there. We can see the fruit of this ministry and how God is working in these girls’ lives.
Before and after camp, we visited various attractions in and around Minsk, which broadened our understanding and appreciation of Belarusian culture.
We had a great experience in Belarus and were blessed to have this opportunity to meet wonderful co-laborers in the gospel of Christ and work with them to love children in need.
Prayer Requests from Belarus
July 4, 2011
Dear friends, please keep us and our ministry in your prayers as life here is very unstable, you can read it online in the news, but besides all the prices going up rapidly and being tripled in the last two month, it’s also becoming strange to us how many people get arrested downtown. So we need God’s protection.
Another need is to pray for orphanages and new ways for us in the ministry. It seems that the directors want so much more material help from us that we can give and they get very upset when we don’t give it to them. We want to help kids, not the system.
We are also working on selling our van and getting a newer one. Please pray for that. And we want to thank all of you who helped us in making this possible.
And pray for more helpers and volunteers to do more work with foster families.
Thank you again for all your help.
– Olga Goncharenko
Life-Giving Ministry in Belarus
July 4, 2011
From Olga Goncharenko:
Greetings dear friends,
May-June is a very busy time for us and God was good to us and blessed us in many different ways.
Orphanages
Stankovo
The end of the school year is the fair time at the orphanage. The children are looking forward to that special event. We got special requests to bring summer slippers, soap, shampoo, socks, and underwear. Together with sweets, toys, school supplies, the children had a great time and were prepared to meet the summer in their new summer shoes.
The first day of summer is Children’s Day in our country. We took 45 children from the orphanage to go to an amusement park “Dream Land” for a day. They really enjoyed the roller coasters and our time together. We had fun.
In June we had a team from TN who came to be in the orphanage for a day and we made it a special cooking day. We divided ourselves in three groups and did cooking with all the kids and then we ate with our groups. It was great! The kids enjoyed making crafts and fellowshipping with the team. The team also made it possible for one group to have a new bedroom that is being installed now.
Rudensk
We visited that orphanage last week, as we knew some children who were moved to that place. It has 160 kids, mostly with learning problems. They were glad to see us and would like to cooperate in future.
Shelter
Birthday party with home-made pies and pastries, fruit and sweets took place in May. In June we had a fair at the shelter. Kids got new underwear, toys to play outside in the sand, crayons, but most of all they love balloons. It’s amazing how a little thing like a balloon can make a child so happy. Since shelters have really young kids (3 and up) they usually do not go to camp and stay in the institution all summer long. So we plan to do summer visits there as well. Right now we are working on installing a dish satellite for them to have children’s Christian channel.
Foster families
We hosted 4 boys from Zhitkovichi foster family. They came for a youth conference that took place in our church. Read more
Timothy House — A New Home In Minsk
April 26, 2011
We are very excited to announce our next project in Belarus: a home for young men we hope to open this Fall.
In 2009 Spring of Revival and Stoneworks opened the Minsk Family Home, a home for young ladies who are leaving the orphanage system and need help making the transition to life on their own. Timothy House is a natural extension of this ministry to graduate orphans.
If you would like to donate to help establish this home, please send a check to Stoneworks or donate online.
You can see and download a brochure here: Timothy House Brochure.
Here is an open letter from board member Jill Tyson:
Dear friends,
From the first days when I met Olga Goncherenko in Belarus I understood immediately that hers was not a casual relationship with the orphans in her country. I knew from the way the children smiled and hugged her while we were there that what she and her team were building special relationships that would last through the years.
Indeed, the commitment of our dear Christian friends has yielded much fruit in the lives of 100s of orphans in Belarus. One result of their discipleship and devotion to the children was the beginning of the Minsk Family Home in the fall of 2009, a home for Christian women who have graduated from the orphanage system in Belarus and want to continue their studies in a safe place.
Spring of Revival and Stoneworks International now announce the next step, the founding of a home for men. We will call this home Timothy House, because we feel these young men will truly become Godly examples in Belarus.
Please see the attached brochure, and pray about your involvement in this endeavor. We are committed to raising 80% of one year’s support before we give the “go – ahead” to begin in fall of 2011. A Christian Belorussian couple is willing to parent the home, and we already have several young men in mind to live there. If you are able to help distribute the brochures or raise awareness for the need, we would sincerely appreciate it, and we would also be grateful for a one-time gift or commitment for monthly support in any amount.
We are excited to be a part of revival in Belarus, one life at a time. Belarus is under-served in World Missions from the USA, partly because no American missionaries are allowed to live there. The environment for ministry is hostile to Christians, and no private orphanages are allowed. The government watches everything, especially foreign help which makes legal cooperative efforts at times impossible without God’s working miracles (which He has done on a regular basis!) Praise God that He doesn’t depend on rulers or laws to accomplish His will!
With a thankful heart for your interest and concern,
Jill Tyson
Belarus — Hospital Ministry, Providing Food
April 6, 2011
more from Olga Goncharenko —
Hospital
We continue to help orphans, but not only the ones in the orphanages, but to those, whom we meet in hospitals.
This month one of our SOR members was in the hospital with her child and there happened to be 3 orphan boys, (one came for a surgery, two –for cure) but they didn’t even have a set of underwear for a change, so the boy after surgery had to be naked.
We found some clothes for them and some food as well. When orphans get to hospitals, unfortunately, there is no one to visit them and take basic care. We were blessed to minister in this way.
Fo
od packages for 60 families
Here in Belarus the beginning of the spring is accompanied with a nice holiday “ Women’s Day”. We made it special for 60 families, by giving out food packages to families with three and more children. We said nice words of encouragements to the moms and we hope to do such packages next year again.
Ministry in Stankovo, Belarus
April 6, 2011
Update from Olga Goncharenko — director of Spring of Revival
Please continue to keep us in your prayers and please pray for our new program of Family Home for boys that we would love to start in September.
Shelter at Stankovo
We continue to run weekly Bible lessons at the shelter. There are 17 kids there now. We use the program “Lamb” that we used last summer at camp. It has 10 lessons, we have done 7 by now. Alla from the Minsk Family Home is in running the program. She does a great job.
During the spring break we prepared a Fair for the kids from the shelter. We brought sweets, soft drinks, socks, toys, school supplies. The kids used their coupons to buy the goods. It was fun.
Orphanage at Stankovo
Cooking day out in Stankovo is always a great opportunity for learning and fellowshipping with kids. Together with other believers we cooked for all 5 groups of the orphanage. Lasagna was the main dish.
Over a few years that the kids have been learning to cook, I can tell that many have much better skills in cooking now.
We also gave chocolate bars to each boy for Men’s holiday (February,23d) and to each girl for Women’s day.
During the spring break 18 kids went to the children’s theater program and to McDonald’s as a reward for the end of the school term.
Also we have been helping them to sell birds houses that they made. We sold 21 of them.
Please pray for Stankovo orphans as we are taking them to the camp and we need a lot of prayers. Read more
Minsk Family Home — Trip to Poland
April 6, 2011
by Alesya Kuleshova, MFH Counselor —
In February, the girls made a wonderful trip to Poland. It was to happen last year, but due to some circumstances it only happened now.
This was a great life experience trip for them. For Katya it was a first time to go abroad.
We visited a nice old city of Lublin, then we visited Maidanak concentration camp (it is the second largest in Poland), and we also visited The Death Camp in Belchec. It was a great trip to get to know more about history and also to get to meet some new people.
Also in March we had two birthday girls Masha and Alona, they both turned 20, so we did celebrate their birthday in a nice cafe downtown Minsk. They got their birthday gifts and were happy to turn 20 years old.
Time goes so fast, it seems that we just met them. (we met at Slytsk orphanage 7 years ago).
Alesya Reports!
February 23, 2011
From our Minsk Family Home counselor — Alesya Kuleshova
Greetings to all of our friends. I would like to share with you some news about Minsk Family Home and what we did in January-February of 2011.
The first semester of school for the girls is over. They did well at school and passed all the exams. In January they had their vacations. Our friend Nastya who lives in another town came to stay with us during this time. She is originally from the Slytsk orphanage. We had a lot of good time all together. We went skating, participated in family day out at church, where we rode on winter slides and watched a good Christian movie.
We also went to a Christian concert with a few other post-orphan girls from Stankovo and Slytsk and attended a conference about love and relationships for Valentine’s day.
All the girls from MFH do volunteer work for SOR at the orphanages and shelter.
This months we visited Zhdanovichy orphanage for little kids with special needs, we brought them diapers and toys, spent some time with the children just holding and hugging them.
And we had a birthday party with clowns at Stankovo shelter. The children participated in games, had cake and cookies, and got their birthday gifts.
On the 12th of February we started a special program “The Lamb” at Stankovo shelter. A story of Jesus Christ told in 10 lessons, every week we will have one lesson with some questions and crafts for them. They like it.
On the 4th of February there was a great concert by a well known Christian musician Alexander Patlis in a village school in Borovlyani. We helped to make it possible to be a free concert for the kids. They liked it a lot and it’s very special to have it in the school.
We hope you are staying warm (here it’s about 10F) and blessed by the Lord.
Sincerely, Alesya
(click on thumbnails to view larger pictures)
Holy Days in Belarus — New Year’s
January 25, 2011
From Olga Goncharenko, the second of three reports:
From December 30 to January 7 we had a team of five people from Tennessee. They really enjoyed the snow and joined us for our programs.
December 31st
This day was full of events. We started at the shelter, where we had a Christmas fair for 10 orphans with gifts and singing, playing the piano and making crosses. We shared the story of Christmas and listen to the poems that the kids had learnt.
We also provided food for the new year party for them and laminated floor into the bedroom of 3-6 year old girls. The room looks great now.
After the shelter we headed to Stankovo orphanage to celebrate the New year. The kids took it very seriously and spent a long time dressing up and preparing for the party, that was actually a concert as well.
We provided food for the whole orphanage and every child got a gift. The party ended up with fireworks.
THEN we headed to another celebration at Minsk Family Home that lasted until 5 a.m. (it’s a tradition to stay up all night). The girls did a great job on cooking; it was delicious.
January 2
As it was Sunday, we headed to church, but it was not the usual church service. This Sunday we gathered in a foster home in a village near Minsk, where together with other believers and three local foster families we had food and fellowship.
There were about 40 people with kids, who actually led praise and worship time.
Everyone got gifts and there was lots of food, including the pork, from the pigs that we donated to them in the past.
The day ended with a special night out for MFH girls. Together with the team they went bowling and out for dinner.
click on thumbnails to view full-size images
