Dinner and Discussions
In September Tania and I visited with Katia and her new family inBaltimore. For six years we have prayed for Katia "The General" to have loving parents and in July the Lord took her away from our orphanage in Odessa. Now Katia has a wonderful family with 8 other brothers and sisters, and she is doing great! I asked Katia howAmerica was different from what she had imagined. She smiled and said,"The swings! I imagined many more swings for the children in America!"
It is funny how Katia's answer made me think of my first few moments in Heaven some day. How different Heaven will be from my present picture of it? These thoughts inspired Tania and I to have a week of Bible groups in our house for our 4th and 8th graders from the orphanage.
Every day 4-5 children (separately boys and girls) came to our house for Bible discussion and dinner. It was a great time for this idea since the children were on Fall break from school. Michelle, our newstaff member, helped us by bringing the children from and back to the orphanage-internot. The first night we had Lionia, Pavlik, Tolik, Alexand Vladik from the 4th grade and we discussed The Creation story. The confusion started when we got to the point of what God made our bodies from. Tolik gave a smart answer and said, "we are made of a lot ofwater". Pavlik remembered the word from the Bible "dust" but could not explain what material it was. Finally everybody got excited about being made out of dirt, especially because Pavlik never made more than a whole out of it. We all laughed, and then got markers and drew different creatures from Paradise. As a result of "The Fall" one of the creatures had to be eaten for dinner. It was a delicious chicken.
Everybody enjoyed the afternoon so much that nobody wanted to leave.When we were all standing at the bus stop Vladik decided to cheer everyone up. His idea was to get dressed in disguise as Vera Kazakutsa and come back the next day. All five boys had a good laugh imagining how they could come to our house instead of Vera, Vika, Vika Goltser,Olia and Vera.
Every night we had a different group of children and a different topic related to our life on Earth and in Heaven. The best part for the children was to be at home, have a loving atmosphere, drink soda and have an adult to talk to. Can Heaven be better than this for the children?
On Sunday we took Denis, Kostia and Ilya to get their hair cut after the Bible discussion, have pizza for lunch at the Greek Mall and then attend the church service. It was the first experience for Ilya to bein a protestant church. His grandmother was orthodox and he thought that it was the only right church to go to. Ilya has been with us for 3 months now and has proven to be a very good 14-year old boy. We thank God for bringing Ilya to us.
We all enjoyed the week of Bible classes so much that a picnic seemed to be a logical finale. The children loved to be in the woods, making a fire, fixing hot dogs and arranging the plates, playing games andlaughing with their supervisors and tutors. Somehow a poor street dog got attracted to our great crowd either by noise or a piece of a hotdog from little Vika's plate. The dog lives at the orphanage-internot now.
Maybe Katia has not seen enough swings in America so far, but our children at orphanage-internot #4 have definitely had enough time onthe best playground in Odessa since September,1. The Lord touched the hearts of one family in Baltimore and they donated money to build a super playground for the children at the orphanage. It was a 2-month project for us and 11 Ukrainian welders but we all enjoyed every step and minute of it.
We pray that God will provide enough "swings" in your life and that you will be drawn closer to Him this week in a very special way. Thankyou for your love and support of the children.
God bless you,
Paul and Tania Becker
It is funny how Katia's answer made me think of my first few moments in Heaven some day. How different Heaven will be from my present picture of it? These thoughts inspired Tania and I to have a week of Bible groups in our house for our 4th and 8th graders from the orphanage.
Every day 4-5 children (separately boys and girls) came to our house for Bible discussion and dinner. It was a great time for this idea since the children were on Fall break from school. Michelle, our newstaff member, helped us by bringing the children from and back to the orphanage-internot. The first night we had Lionia, Pavlik, Tolik, Alexand Vladik from the 4th grade and we discussed The Creation story. The confusion started when we got to the point of what God made our bodies from. Tolik gave a smart answer and said, "we are made of a lot ofwater". Pavlik remembered the word from the Bible "dust" but could not explain what material it was. Finally everybody got excited about being made out of dirt, especially because Pavlik never made more than a whole out of it. We all laughed, and then got markers and drew different creatures from Paradise. As a result of "The Fall" one of the creatures had to be eaten for dinner. It was a delicious chicken.
Everybody enjoyed the afternoon so much that nobody wanted to leave.When we were all standing at the bus stop Vladik decided to cheer everyone up. His idea was to get dressed in disguise as Vera Kazakutsa and come back the next day. All five boys had a good laugh imagining how they could come to our house instead of Vera, Vika, Vika Goltser,Olia and Vera.
Every night we had a different group of children and a different topic related to our life on Earth and in Heaven. The best part for the children was to be at home, have a loving atmosphere, drink soda and have an adult to talk to. Can Heaven be better than this for the children?
On Sunday we took Denis, Kostia and Ilya to get their hair cut after the Bible discussion, have pizza for lunch at the Greek Mall and then attend the church service. It was the first experience for Ilya to bein a protestant church. His grandmother was orthodox and he thought that it was the only right church to go to. Ilya has been with us for 3 months now and has proven to be a very good 14-year old boy. We thank God for bringing Ilya to us.
We all enjoyed the week of Bible classes so much that a picnic seemed to be a logical finale. The children loved to be in the woods, making a fire, fixing hot dogs and arranging the plates, playing games andlaughing with their supervisors and tutors. Somehow a poor street dog got attracted to our great crowd either by noise or a piece of a hotdog from little Vika's plate. The dog lives at the orphanage-internot now.
Maybe Katia has not seen enough swings in America so far, but our children at orphanage-internot #4 have definitely had enough time onthe best playground in Odessa since September,1. The Lord touched the hearts of one family in Baltimore and they donated money to build a super playground for the children at the orphanage. It was a 2-month project for us and 11 Ukrainian welders but we all enjoyed every step and minute of it.
We pray that God will provide enough "swings" in your life and that you will be drawn closer to Him this week in a very special way. Thankyou for your love and support of the children.
God bless you,
Paul and Tania Becker
posted by Paul and Tetyana Becker at 2:25 am
1 Comments:
What you're doing is so important! I'm so glad the children have you and your team.
Say hello to Michelle (she hooked me up with my penpal, Nastia!). I'll be praying for you all and the kids.
- Steph McWalters
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