Help with Food
Russia and the Olympics have become staple news items here in the USA: sports, police, tourists and terrorists. We of course hope all goes well and safe; Star of Hope has had a presence in Russia for over 10 years, here is an almost unedited report from Natalia from one of our projects in Russia. In Russia Star of Hope supports children who currently reside in institutions as well as youth and young adults who grew up in an institution's. We do not support the ideology of children living in institutional homes and always work towards placing children in a solid family; here is an unedited report from our Russian director Natasha Kirillova, St Petersburg, Russia.
Here are a few pictures from our lesson on care, with the children at the children at Jukki center. We talked about this important issue and told them, that God is the One who cares about us. Children had to think about a person who is dear to them and together we made cards and souvenirs for the person they thought of. Many made those cards to their relatives and friends. Those who do not have relatives were making the cards to their sponsors.
Here are pictures from New Year and Christmas celebrations in Luga. We celebrate Christmas on January 7 in Russia, so children actually received presents twice, first for New Year, then for Christmas. We brought children the Christmas drama and after that, together with the actors we played games with children, had tea and spent time in fellowship. It was a lot of fun; the biggest idea was to speak about God and His Son. Each child received a New Testament as a gift.
It was special meeting for children because they finally met again the Christian summer camp leaders, who were also the actors of the drama and the children missed them a lot. Thank you so much for making all that possible by your support!
Christmas celebration was held in place that belongs to the Scouts. They are our friends and volunteer for Star of Hope as well. Our volunteers slash actors were father Frost and a Snowman (Russian Santa Claus and his granddaughter, they always appear together). We had a party for the children and mother- graduates from the orphanages.
After the prayer we spoke about the real meaning of Christmas, gave a New Testament to each family. Father Frost gave the gifts, played with kids; children read the poems to father Frost: the poems were about winter and Christmas. At the end we had snacks and tea time, every family received gifts.
Natalia Kirillova
