$10 Challenge Complete!

Several months ago, we asked you to take the $10 Challenge and support an orphan to participate in a winter camp. You can read about the winter camps and see photos here on the blog as you scroll down. Here is a short video, too! We shared holiday cheer and hope with many! Praise God! Thank you for your partnership in ministry!

Winter Camp in Andreevo Ivanovko

Our team of 16 volunteers visited the orphanage in Andreevo-Ivanovko to put on the winter camp. The team was happy that there was several full days of time with the kids. They could play and sing with them, make crafts and play sports, but most importantly they had an opportunity to build relationships with these kids and simply be their friends. We hope this is a holiday season they remember because of the love that they were shown.

Winter Camp in Karolina Bugaz

We had a great time in the winter camp in the Karolina Bugaz orphanage.  We divided children in a few groups by age and were teaching them about sin and it's consequences, about Christ's birth, and how we can accept him as our personal Saviour.  We made beautiful crafts and sang songs. At the end, we gathered all of the children and showed them a skit, had a few competitions, performed some magic tricks, and summarized everything we learned during the several days we spent together. Children enjoyed our time together and wrote us letters asking us to return to them soon. We hope this holiday celebration is one they won't soon forget.  

Winter Camp in Balta

The team held a winter camp in the Balta orphanage during the holiday season. The theme we discussed with kids was the future. We had discussion groups, played sports, organized talent shows, performed different experiments, sang songs, and had skits. We praise God for giving  us strength to do all of that. The last day of the camp was the day when kids got the reward for participating in all the activities we have prepared for them. Like in other orphanages it was a great opportunity to share with the kids a warm holiday time. We hope it will be something they will remember and cherish throughout their life. We thank God for the camp and for your support. God Bless!

Winter Camp in Pishana

This January the volunteers organized the winter camp in Pishana orphanage. Our goal was to bring holiday fun to the children who don't have anyone to share the holidays with. During the camp, kids made Christmas crafts, baked a real cake, played different games, sang songs, had discussions about Christmas, and in the evening had quality time with the leaders. We were grateful for the opportunity to share His love with them during this time. At the end, the children said that they are looking forward towards the summer camps.

Holiday Concert and Fun Day

One thing is for sure kid's love to perform and it's always best if you have an audience. We invited children from many different orphanages to Odessa to perform their songs, dances, and recite poems. The children had a great time performing and the crowd of refugee children and families enjoyed the performance.

Afterwards, as a reward we visited the fun house that was full of activities for children, there was also lunch, and presents!

Happy New Year!

We continued the tradition of visiting the children's hospitals with our clowns on January 1st. We visited 4 hospitals and brought joy to many children that were not feeling well.

Concert for Elderly

On December 28th, hundreds of elderly people came to the hall where we held a special concert. Several children from the orphanages came and also shared their talents with the elderly. We had a short message and shared our thoughts to encourage these people and let them know that God sees them and loves them. At the end, we were able to hand to them a bag of groceries. Many of these people live on less than $50 a month and struggle to pay their bills and to buy food. Please pray that others in our community will desire to serve them and care for them. Pray for churches to be awakened to the needs of widows.



 

Gathering Gifts

This year we decided to gather groceries for the elderly. The fighting in our country has seriously affected the economy and those that are hurting the most are those that live on small pensions. God opens our hearts to the hurting of any age. We talked with shoppers in the mall and many shared of their resources to buy bags of groceries for us to pass onto these people. Praise God for the hearts of the local Ukrainian people.