Monday morning we had the opportunity to visit a Children's Home (Detski Dom in Russian) that is in the final stages of being built. This is a project that came out of a ministry to street children. Two summers ago Dan was present for the "ground-breaking" as they started the building project. It's grand opening will be this fall. The home is designed to take in children of any age who either are homeless and living on the streets or whose parents are in crisis (drug addictions, etc.) and cannot take care of them. The ministry is already connected with programs for rehabilitating adult addicts and so would take the children for a length of time (up to a couple of years) while the adults are getting the help they need. This focus on helping families rather than just orphans makes them unique - virtually no such programs exist right now in this region of Russia and so the local government has show support for the ministry.
A husband and wife have almost single-handedly driven this project out of their own ministry and vision - it's quite inspiring to talk with them. Natasha gave us a tour of the near-finished home and talked about their plans for the future.
This is a corner of a small one-room apartment they have included for a Christian couple/family who will serve as "house parents":
The furniture and toys have been donated by various organizations, including a local hotel.
Here is a large family room space that divides the girls' and boys' sections upstairs:
Another room with a crib for babies. At the moment they are already caring for one baby whose mother, a 16-year-old, gave birth on the streets. The mother stayed with them as well for a few months, but has now left - they hope she'll choose to return.
Among other things, the ministry collects clothing from local churches to give to children living on the streets. Here you see a pile of clothes they've collected but haven't yet had time to sort through:
A sponsoring ministry prints educational Christian booklets that they will use as part of an education curriculum; Natasha showed us the library space:
This is the basement of the house - still largely unfinished as you can see. These rooms will become classrooms and a workshop for learning practical trades. They are building as they get money, and this is obviously less of a priority than having bedrooms, bathrooms and a working kitchen:
Here's a view of the back of the building. They plan to build a playground area here. There is also a guest apartment at the back of the building, separated from the rest of the home - so if you'd like to come visit, there's a place for you to stay!
Eventually the home will be able to house 20-30 kids at a time, though they plan to start with just 10 or so this fall. Some of the money that our Alleluia! kids collected during Vacation Church School will buy a refrigerator for the home. Natasha was delighted when we described how the kids earned quarters to give to children in need in Russia - thank you for letting us be your connection! It was such a privilege to represent Alleluia in this way.
We are now in Chelyabinsk, a city about 3 hours to the south of Yekaterinburg. We have a "break" of sorts for a few days - starting Saturday we'll be camping with Heaven's Open Church for their family camp. They are expecting about 60-70 over the weekend and then about 40 for the remainder of the week. Dan will preach for the morning gatherings - so his "break" is a chance to write 8 sermons! Many of the church's leaders are helping with a student evangelistic camp at the moment and we are staying in the apartment of Pr. Ilya & Anya while they are both away. These few days are our only "alone time" this summer, so we are enjoying them.
Please pray too for our friends in Yekaterinburg, Kostya and Luda. (Kostya is the owner of the Christian bookstore and church administrator.) Luda is in the final month of her pregnancy and the doctor's have been concerned that her health isn't as good as it could be. She had one stretch in the hospital earlier in the pregnancy and they wanted to readmit her this week, but the hospital is full so she was sent home and told to rest. Pray that she and their new son would stay healthy.
We love you and miss you! Thanks for praying & commenting - we love hearing from everybody!
This is a corner of a small one-room apartment they have included for a Christian couple/family who will serve as "house parents":
The furniture and toys have been donated by various organizations, including a local hotel.
Here is a large family room space that divides the girls' and boys' sections upstairs:
Another room with a crib for babies. At the moment they are already caring for one baby whose mother, a 16-year-old, gave birth on the streets. The mother stayed with them as well for a few months, but has now left - they hope she'll choose to return.
Among other things, the ministry collects clothing from local churches to give to children living on the streets. Here you see a pile of clothes they've collected but haven't yet had time to sort through:
A sponsoring ministry prints educational Christian booklets that they will use as part of an education curriculum; Natasha showed us the library space:
This is the basement of the house - still largely unfinished as you can see. These rooms will become classrooms and a workshop for learning practical trades. They are building as they get money, and this is obviously less of a priority than having bedrooms, bathrooms and a working kitchen:
Here's a view of the back of the building. They plan to build a playground area here. There is also a guest apartment at the back of the building, separated from the rest of the home - so if you'd like to come visit, there's a place for you to stay!
Eventually the home will be able to house 20-30 kids at a time, though they plan to start with just 10 or so this fall. Some of the money that our Alleluia! kids collected during Vacation Church School will buy a refrigerator for the home. Natasha was delighted when we described how the kids earned quarters to give to children in need in Russia - thank you for letting us be your connection! It was such a privilege to represent Alleluia in this way.
We are now in Chelyabinsk, a city about 3 hours to the south of Yekaterinburg. We have a "break" of sorts for a few days - starting Saturday we'll be camping with Heaven's Open Church for their family camp. They are expecting about 60-70 over the weekend and then about 40 for the remainder of the week. Dan will preach for the morning gatherings - so his "break" is a chance to write 8 sermons! Many of the church's leaders are helping with a student evangelistic camp at the moment and we are staying in the apartment of Pr. Ilya & Anya while they are both away. These few days are our only "alone time" this summer, so we are enjoying them.
Please pray too for our friends in Yekaterinburg, Kostya and Luda. (Kostya is the owner of the Christian bookstore and church administrator.) Luda is in the final month of her pregnancy and the doctor's have been concerned that her health isn't as good as it could be. She had one stretch in the hospital earlier in the pregnancy and they wanted to readmit her this week, but the hospital is full so she was sent home and told to rest. Pray that she and their new son would stay healthy.
We love you and miss you! Thanks for praying & commenting - we love hearing from everybody!
2 comments:
A very unique and comprehensive approaching to combating two of the greatest issues that face Russia at the moment: drug usage and abandoned children. Very cool to hear about. Blessings on Natasha and her husband as they grow this valuable ministry!
Lucy & Dan,
What a great ministry! May God bless Natasha and her husband and their efforts to minister to families and children in need. It's great that Alleuia kids will have your report to aid in seeing what their quarters are doing, or helping to do. I am reminded too how thankful I am that Alleuia supports Dan's work there.
God Bless.
Dad
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