Cherkassy, Ukraine
Today is Friday, 15-December, 2006. I just finished teaching my 3rd class. God has really been with me. I recruited my driver to teach the little ones today. Vladimir is a Christian from the church here in Cherkassy who is currently unemployed. He offered to drive me daily to and from this 1 orphanage as long as I paid for his gas. Good deal. But today was the 1st day we split up the group by ages. I wasn’t able to tell him I wanted him to teach the little ones until we were on our way there! He was fine with it. God bless him. He did coloring books and Nativity finger puppets with the 3 to 8 group. Losha (Alex) and I got to teach the older kids, up to 16 y/o. 
They are so open. Yesterday God gave me a skit to do about a bunny in a stroller! Actually he just gave me that much and I wrote a skit around it. The bunny always wanted to become part of a human family because he always saw families walking in the park. The skit teaches children how to become part of God’s family. Cheryl, I think you’d be proud of me! It went over awesome!!! The kids did their parts great the first time without rehearsing! And I really think they got the message! Praise God!!
OK today. These older kids are very open and many seem hungry for God. It is not, as I thought earlier, the first time they have ever heard about the Gospel of Christ. But there are orphanages in far away (not too far) villages that never get visited by churches or missionary groups. Guess where I’m going next week!! But the kids we taught today do get visits from Baptists, and other Christian groups, as well as Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I am so happy to have this opportunity to give them just the Bible straight! I have, of course, been preparing them to give their lives to Jesus. I am taking tomorrow off (day of rest, I think will be good). Maybe on Sunday or Monday I will give them an opportunity to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Please pray abundantly for me and these children. Pray that the Holy Spirit will draw in their precious hearts.
Meanwhile, my driver, Vladimir is teaching the small ones. I noticed one child in particular that I am asking you to pray for: Vitalie. He is 3 or 4 years old and always upset or crying about something. The staff said he is a problem child. I don’t know if I buy that at the moment. Maybe they just aren’t giving him what he needs. Vladimir is VERY GOOD with the little ones. I’ve asked him to pay special attention to Vitalie and tell me what’s up. And I am going to pay attention and hug this little boy and give him some unconditional love! Pray that God will reveal to us how to help this very sad kid. My last prayer request is about the Orthodox Church. I will not be allowed to teach in one orphanage here in the city. Reason? The Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Baptist missionaries come there and teach from time to time. The director does not want the children to be confused by different religious messages. They have also taught there. I, of course, explained my non-denominational, Biblical Christian background. But she said they were too busy preparing for the St. Nicholas holiday on 12-19, anyway. She has however, invited me to observe this celebration, but not to teach. This is a very common occurrence. The Orthodox Church teaches people to be afraid of God. To confess to the priest, and that salvation comes through works. Of course we know these things are not biblical. Please pray that God would break through this religious and political stronghold so that the true message of grace and salvation can reach all Ukrainians, children and adults alike.
16-December. More about my friend Alex (Losha) from Azerbaijan, like I said he's helping me translate. He talks about the horrible conditions and the way they treat people in his country. He is trying to become a Ukrainian citizen. It is interesting that I ran into him and he's helping me with the orphans, because he too was an orphan since the age of 13. He is 27 y/o now and has been a believer for I think more than 10 years, because his math teacher invited him to Greater Grace Chapel Church one day in Azerbaijan.There are other cool connections that are being made. The secular agency, who invited me here, was delayed in meeting me, but I finally met him yesterday. His name is Alex, too. He has a wealth of information about orphans, orphanages, aid programs, adoption services, etc here in Cherkassy and the surrounding regions. He did not know of this Church here in the city center, which has a ministry to orphans. So I am going to introduce them to each other. And I'm sure this will be a mutually beneficial meeting that will allow more networking and produce greater fruit for the orphan community. Interesting their offices are both located here in Cherkassy, Ukraine, but God sent me from Massachusetts to get them together!!And as I said briefly in yesterday's email, the orphanages in the outlying areas are the ones that need the most help (financially and spiritually). Alex will be taking me to some of these and I am very excited about this. These apparently don’t get attention from missionaries or other help organizations, like the ones in the city center do. And they don’t have the same kind of funding, so their facilities are lacking in some areas. I will tell you more about this in my next posting.
For the children in Jesus’ Name,
His Servant,
Al
They are so open. Yesterday God gave me a skit to do about a bunny in a stroller! Actually he just gave me that much and I wrote a skit around it. The bunny always wanted to become part of a human family because he always saw families walking in the park. The skit teaches children how to become part of God’s family. Cheryl, I think you’d be proud of me! It went over awesome!!! The kids did their parts great the first time without rehearsing! And I really think they got the message! Praise God!!OK today. These older kids are very open and many seem hungry for God. It is not, as I thought earlier, the first time they have ever heard about the Gospel of Christ. But there are orphanages in far away (not too far) villages that never get visited by churches or missionary groups. Guess where I’m going next week!! But the kids we taught today do get visits from Baptists, and other Christian groups, as well as Ukrainian Orthodox Church. I am so happy to have this opportunity to give them just the Bible straight! I have, of course, been preparing them to give their lives to Jesus. I am taking tomorrow off (day of rest, I think will be good). Maybe on Sunday or Monday I will give them an opportunity to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Please pray abundantly for me and these children. Pray that the Holy Spirit will draw in their precious hearts.
Meanwhile, my driver, Vladimir is teaching the small ones. I noticed one child in particular that I am asking you to pray for: Vitalie. He is 3 or 4 years old and always upset or crying about something. The staff said he is a problem child. I don’t know if I buy that at the moment. Maybe they just aren’t giving him what he needs. Vladimir is VERY GOOD with the little ones. I’ve asked him to pay special attention to Vitalie and tell me what’s up. And I am going to pay attention and hug this little boy and give him some unconditional love! Pray that God will reveal to us how to help this very sad kid. My last prayer request is about the Orthodox Church. I will not be allowed to teach in one orphanage here in the city. Reason? The Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Baptist missionaries come there and teach from time to time. The director does not want the children to be confused by different religious messages. They have also taught there. I, of course, explained my non-denominational, Biblical Christian background. But she said they were too busy preparing for the St. Nicholas holiday on 12-19, anyway. She has however, invited me to observe this celebration, but not to teach. This is a very common occurrence. The Orthodox Church teaches people to be afraid of God. To confess to the priest, and that salvation comes through works. Of course we know these things are not biblical. Please pray that God would break through this religious and political stronghold so that the true message of grace and salvation can reach all Ukrainians, children and adults alike.16-December. More about my friend Alex (Losha) from Azerbaijan, like I said he's helping me translate. He talks about the horrible conditions and the way they treat people in his country. He is trying to become a Ukrainian citizen. It is interesting that I ran into him and he's helping me with the orphans, because he too was an orphan since the age of 13. He is 27 y/o now and has been a believer for I think more than 10 years, because his math teacher invited him to Greater Grace Chapel Church one day in Azerbaijan.There are other cool connections that are being made. The secular agency, who invited me here, was delayed in meeting me, but I finally met him yesterday. His name is Alex, too. He has a wealth of information about orphans, orphanages, aid programs, adoption services, etc here in Cherkassy and the surrounding regions. He did not know of this Church here in the city center, which has a ministry to orphans. So I am going to introduce them to each other. And I'm sure this will be a mutually beneficial meeting that will allow more networking and produce greater fruit for the orphan community. Interesting their offices are both located here in Cherkassy, Ukraine, but God sent me from Massachusetts to get them together!!And as I said briefly in yesterday's email, the orphanages in the outlying areas are the ones that need the most help (financially and spiritually). Alex will be taking me to some of these and I am very excited about this. These apparently don’t get attention from missionaries or other help organizations, like the ones in the city center do. And they don’t have the same kind of funding, so their facilities are lacking in some areas. I will tell you more about this in my next posting.
For the children in Jesus’ Name,
His Servant,
Al
posted by Alfred from Plymouth | 3:37 AM
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