News

Understand me

Our gymnasium. Big and comfortable. Little children run and play with a ball. They are happy about the big space in which to run and shout, where no one forbids them. In the middle of the gym stands the youngest boy at our home, Sasha, age three. In his hands he holds a giant balloon and he twirls around with it. I think to myself, “Interesting, what is he thinking right now?”

That is the constant aspiration and wish of a child—understand me. It is written in his eyes. Understand me in my actions, words, tears, and happiness. Understand me not only when I try to do what you say, not only when I get good grades at school. But understand me when no one understands or believes me, when I don’t understand myself. When I don’t want to go to school, when I have dirty hands and I once again misplaced my shoes. Try to understand me…

Understand me, accept me as I am with my good points, but also with my mistakes and weaknesses. Understand me and become my best friend--a friend to whom I one day will come for help.

Help arrived

In September, Sean and Diana Ricardelli, together with their children Liza and Ellena, came to visit us. They live in the United States, but came for three months to help the Good Shepherd staff in their work with children. Sean was a huge blessing to us with maintenance work. Diana and the girls helped with the youngest children and also helped with housekeeping. But the most important thing they did here was to interact with the children. The children could see yet another testimony of what a Christian family is and how Christians can serve one another and take part in each others needs.

Our celebrations

In October we celebrated Thanksgiving. It was a day on which we wanted to give thanks to the Lord for his care for us and to say thank you to our friends for being in our lives. The children decorated the home and our guests Jim Parlou and Sean Ricardelli prepared dinner for us. We gathered together, played games, prayed and thanked the Lord. We thank the Lord that we had another evening to be together as family.

Christmas and the New Year

These are our children’s most beloved holidays. This year the Lord gave us an amazing Christmas gift—we had snow for the holidays and the whole winter break! There has not been such a snowy winter in Ukraine for a long time. We joined the children in their delight, played in the snow, and went sledding. Thank you Lord for every snowflake and the joy it gave each of us!

On December 30th we had a morning Christmas party for our children. The program was prepared by the oldest group of children. The children played games, solved riddles, and took part in competitions. The celebration ended with some sweet tasting gifts. If you ask our children why they love the Christmas holidays, they answer, “Because of all the sweets!!!”

We passed the New Year’s night with the children. We prayed before the beginning of the new year, we had a family supper, and then all the children waited for a surprise—the mission “Come and Help” (Holland) provided a giant trampoline for our children. Many children had never seen such a thing before, so the joy was without limit! The children say “It would be neat if we could fly!” The Good Shepherd staff and children thank the Lord and all our friends for your attention, gifts, time, and care for our children.

Our Sasha

Since the end of November a new girl has been living with us—Sasha Larskaya. She is ten years old. Sasha is smart and sociable, but she has serious problems with her health and appearance. Sasha was born with a cleft palate, she has a spinal hernia and problems with her heart. Her mother didn’t look after the girl’s well-being, and Sasha didn’t receive the operation usually performed on children with this problem at an early age. Sasha understands her appearance problems and is self conscience about her face. We are consulting with doctors in order to get help for the girl.

Sasha never had a father and her mother didn’t have steady work, she had problems with alcoholism. At the end of December we received news that Sasha’s mother was hit by a car and killed. Of course this was a blow to all of us, and a particular sorrow to Sasha. Now only her older brother remains. He sometimes comes to visit her and she loves him a lot. But her brother leads an immoral life and cannot, nor does he want to, fully care for the girl. Please, pray for Sasha, her health, upcoming operations, and also her spiritual well-being.

Our blessings- despite the cold weather, our home is warm, the children haven’t been sick much, haven’t caught cold; the Lord is sending new young staff.

Our difficulties- we have need of a person who can help the middle and older children with completing their homework assignments.

Our prayer needs:

Our material needs: