June 18th, 2007

Welcome to Ministry Day #1

I woke up this morning for a prayer meeting at 7:30. Then it was on to breakfast at 8. Breakfast usually varied between yogurt, bread, Russian "pancakes", meat and cheeses, or Cereal. After receiving announcements about the agenda for the day, the group gathered around 9 and we packed in the vans. Our first ministry site would be the Souzdal Orphanage.



The orphanage was out in the country. It was a very large yellow building that dates back to the late 1800's. The building itself was extremely clean and the room we went into was well kept. The Souzdal Orphanage houses children with mental problems, though it was never described what these problems include. The children typically stay at this orphanage until they are 7 and 8 and are able to be put in a normal school. Today at the orphanage there were 21 children around 3 and 4 years of age. Many children were not there due to it being the summer and many were off at camp. We met with the director of the orphanage.



We were only allowed in one room of this orphanage. In this room there were 4 caregivers for 21 children.
The kids performed some songs for us.




The director wanted us to put on a "talent show." This was told to us last minute so no one had anything prepared. Two of our translators performed a skit talking about how God creates each of us to be special, just the way we are. Two members of our team danced. Then all the kids and most of our team, including myself, did the chicken dance! The kids were having so much fun. The boy pictured in the yellow, let me hold him the whole time we danced. I started spinning in circles and he wouldn't stop laughing. It made me so happy to make him laugh!

Here's Andrew with one of the boys at Souzdal. This boy loved all the attention he was getting.
Here's Sarah with a little girl who has Down's Syndrome. This little girl LOVED to dance! She was so sweet.






When we stopped dancing, we were hoping we could break into small groups and talk with the kids. Instead the caregivers had the kids change clothes and we took them outside to play. Our team waited outside for the kids. The kids came out in layers of clothes. You would have thought it was winter, but it was in the high 80's. We found out that the Russians always dress the children very warmly because they think that prevents them from getting sick. When we were outside, some of the kids played in the playhouse. Jaye made balloon animals and some of the kids did facepainting.




The majority of the time when we are outside, I sat with one boy who was hiding under a table. When I first say him under the table and played "peek-a-boo" with him, he just kept hiding. I sat on a bench above him and blew bubbles. He was laughing but never talked. After about 30 minutes, he finally got out from under the table and sat on the bench beside me!! He wouldn't stop smiling and wouldn't stop putting things in his mouth. Notice his heavy sweater. One of the caregivers noticed him put a rock in his mouth so she immediatley took him away. I went and played with a few other kids and then went back to this boy. He was standing beside his caregiver and I was able to get him to come sit beside me. I never did hear him speak. When it was time to leave, I wanted to rescue him so bad. I'll definitely miss this little boy.





After leaving the Souzdal orphanage we spent some of the afternoon touring around Souzdal.