 Spring
We thank God that there is always a spring time after cold and severe winter. Everything is changing: the sun shines brightly and comforts us with its warmth; birds inspire us with their beautiful singing! Thanks God, everything goes forward! We are happy when we see the changes in the nature but the most joy brings us our little children when we see them growing, when they are becoming adults, learn to be reasonable, to come to their own decisions…. Our children had an opportunity to greet their teachers and relatives with spring. They have made a decoration from the thread, a flower, and gave it to all the people who were invited to be part of this family event. When children were working on this project it was a great time to watch them at work and you could see their characters… Sasha K., 5years old – he has done his flower very fast, in order to make more than just one; Tanya S. and Tanya K., 6 years – they work slow but thoroughly; Rosa R., 5 years old - draws attention to herself in different ways; Vladik T., 5 years old – he is serious and converging… But all of the children were in a good mood, they worked with a great pleasure, because these flowers were made to bring joy and attention to those they love.
 Spring fest preparation
In February we have had children’s and teacher’s conference. The agenda was preparation for the Spring fest. Elder girls proposed their ideas and their program. Idea of the fest was to invite children’s relatives and offer our congratulations with the first days of spring. During the preparation time one of the girls was dissatisfied and very negative. We couldn’t understand - Why? In a while we found out that she has no one to invite, neither a mother, grandmother nor the closest relative… To prevent the conflict we asked her to take the leading part in this event. The girl agreed with pleasure. Lord, give us wisdom to sense and understand children, their emotional experience and reason of their behavior!
 Saying Bye to Alina P.
We are glad when a new child enters our home and it is so sad, when this child has to leave us… According to the Good Shepherd Shelter articles children can stay at the shelter only if one of the parent or someone who is responsible for the child will write an application. The mother of this girl was deprived her parental rights and we have no more right to have this girl in our home. She has to go to the state internat. The child was crying, she didn’t feel safe, we talked to the girl, but still, the saying Good Bye, was hard thing to do and it left an alarm in child’s heart.
Spring fest
Children invited all the staff of the Good Shepherd Shelter, but the difference of this fest from the other ones was that this time we decided to invite relatives of the children. We have had several meetings with elder and middle groups kids, the topic of these meetings was ‘’ Forgive your parents”. Children prayed about their parents.
At the day of arriving guests we divided responsibility. Some children were meeting guests and helping them with their coats, some were taking them to the hall. The program was prepared. The children recited rhymes - they thanked God for spring, flowers. We also had a video presentation; children sang songs, showed some episodes about the good. The heartwarming episode was acted by our little ones (5-6 years old), it was about difficult work of being a mother. All the teachers received spring awards and relatives received flowers that children made. The Fund gave relatives cleaning supplies. After the program children showed their rooms to the relatives, than we had tea with pan cakes (“bleny” in Ukrainian). We had a great time all together; we could pray and thank God for this Home.
 Katya O.
Katya is a grown girl, she is doing not very well in studying, a lot of time was wasted for her and now it is impossible to keep up with other children. Katya’s mood changes very fast. For the spring fest we had, Katya invited her aunt. Katya didn’t want to take part at the event, at first, because she doesn’t feel comfortable when everyone is looking at her. But she did it, she agreed to read psalm 100 for this event. It took us 10 days to practice but Katya was glad to do it and we believe her aunt was glad also.
Speech therapist
Twice a week some of our little ones work with a therapist and thanks God, we can already hear the difference. Both our Tanya improved their speech abilities, one of the girls will go to the first grade next year.
 What is new with us
- Kristina B. is 16 years old, she received her passport.
- The administration of the Good Shepherd Shelter finished gathering of the documents for the reconstruction of the second part of the building. Thanks Lord, He gave us wisdom and patience.
- we are working on the cloakroom, our workers are putting together metallic shelves.
What we have learned and what we thank Lord for:
We thank Lord that most of the mothers came to the spring fest that children prepared for them. The mother of one of our girls came drunk and we couldn’t let her to take a child home for the weekends. It was a stress for a child.
for the kids that they were willing to forgive their parents
that Lord kept us in a good health during winter month
Our prayer needs:
for wisdom to the staff and for the unity of the collective
for blessing at school and their relationships with God
There are 19 little ones in our Shelter, we pray for strength and inspiration for the teachers that work with this group of kids
Our material needs:
food for the children
salaries for staff
utilities
medications
fuel
repair and preparations the bikes to the summer season
children’s chairs for the play room
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