Testamonials
As I said in our team meeting the first evening, words cannot express how touched I was by the loving, caring, well minded children I encountered at orphanage number eight! I was impressed how the director and counselors fostered a “family” environment. These children could very well have been simply from an extremely large family of brothers and sisters, maybe with a couple of cousins living with them. As expressed in our team meeting, these workers deserve a huge pat on the back for their efforts to bring a sense of normalcy to these special children´s lives. This impression carried through my entire stay in St. Pete. I do not wish to impress upon anyone that we are not needed in Russia. Our work there touched the lives of many children and we made friends for life. These children know that Christians in America love and care about them and they will carry their love for us the rest of their lives. We show them through our commitment to them that they need to care for others like themselves and continue what we have started. This is proven in the lives of Catya and Oxana, these two girls have stepped up and begun visiting orphanages and loving on the children there, and I am proud to say that we are partially responsible for that in the witness that we have shown them.
Visiting St. Pete and the orphanages there is a special one or two times a year opportunity, however, we should never forget that how we live our lives on a daily basis encourages or discourages so many people, beginning with our own families. I feel I need to relate a couple of opportunities, which happened on my trip home. The first came as soon as I left the company of Garry in the Frankfurt airport; my eyes met the eyes of a young woman from Indonesia and I knew immediately that she was scared and in need of some form of help. Fannie was a very young looking 28 years old and it was her first trip away from home; she was going to Miami, Florida to work on a cruise ship and had been walking around the airport for two hours without finding her gate of departure! Fannie showed me her boarding pass and it just so happened that she left from the gate directly across from mine. It was a good thing that she had her boarding pass because her flight left in 35 minutes! I showed her the ropes of finding her way through an airport and encouraged her to not be afraid to ask official airport workers there for help next time! On the walk to our gates I was able to share with her what work we were doing in St. Petersburg. Fannie was excited to hear what Christians believe and how we serve the Lord with our actions. I would not be at all surprised if she visited a Christian church in the future.
The second opportunity to touch a life came as soon as I left Fannie at her gate and sat down at my gate. Soon after setting down, a young woman from Germany named Wiebke (pronounced Veepkee) sat down beside me and before you knew it we were engaged in a conversation which began with wives, children and education and ended with orphans and Christianity. Weibkie was extremely interested in our work and it would not surprise me at all if she were to join us in the future. She found me a few hours later on the plane and handed me her Facebook address so we could stay in contact.
I use these examples to illustrate how the Lord works in our lives, we just have to put ourselves out there and open our eyes to the opportunities he places in front of us every day of our lives!
In humble service of the great I AM,
– Steve Cotton, Jacksonville, Texas – Member of the Winter 2008 team.
I had been looking forward to visiting the adult facility in Peterhoff ever since Karen told me about it. I have a soft spot for older people and the disabled and it sounded like they could use a visitor. Even though I live in Russia, my Russian is not so great and I am always concerned about whether I can communicate well enough with the people. Well God had me covered as I found myself exchanging smiles with a woman who was deaf. We communicated with gestures and looks and soon we were stringing beads to make a necklace. She was very intent with the activity and would occasionally look up at me and smile, clearly very happy to be doing something with someone just focused on her. The next lady I approached was Zhenya who I noticed earlier. She was lying in her bed, one arm outstretched and she appeared to be somewhat uncomfortable. I walked over and said hello and introduced myself. She surprised me by sitting straight up in bed and with a big smile on her face, started talking. And talking. I could not make out most of it, but it did not matter, someone was there to listen and she had a story to tell. It was a story she clearly had repeated many times, as it was more of an accounting of her life. As we held hands, Zhenya spoke of the times God had saved her life and when she spoke of Him, her whole face lit up and she could not stop praising God for all he is. Here was a woman who had lost her husband and only son, was blind and spent most of her day lying on a cot, with limited opportunities to interact with anyone, praising God with all her heart. God had met her where she was and was truly living inside her.A humbling and very touching visit for me. It was wonderful meeting those ladies and others and I do pray that I will be able to soon return.
– Laura Phillips, California – Lives and works in St. Petersburg and has ministered with us on several trips.
I think one of the best things we were able to accomplish was giving encouragement to those workers who continue to give of themselves even when they feel so alone. When we voiced our appreciation for them and their work, it was obvious that they felt encouraged. This was true in the case of Tatiyana at #32 and with Vera and Volodya at the transitional home. While our contact with the children has its benefits to them, I came away realizing that we need to express our most sincere thank yous to the counselors and transitional home ‘parents’.
I was also very grateful for the good work of Lucia, our faithful interpreter. She has a beautiful spirit and is a great testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit.
– David Schwedt, Gowanda, N.Y. – Veteran of many mission trips to Orphanages and camps.
In Pavlovsk, I fell in love with one boy who is 13 years old named Vladimir. He had the most beautiful brown eyes I´ve ever seen. I was so proud that I was able to tell him this in Russian. As a reward, he smiled at me and continually blinked his eyes. J How sweet. It was one of the best experiences I have had on my trip. He was simply adorable.
In Peterhof there were a few rooms that the director took us that had bedridden children much like those at Pavlovsk. One such girl was like the boy, Vladimir. She had gorgeous brown eyes. As I rubbed her hands, she then smiled and rubbed my hands. As I removed my hands, she continued to make the same motions, and without knowing it, she was making the English sign language word for “angel,” so I nicknamed her Angelica which is Russian for angel.
It was just an awesome time to be ministered to by such beautiful children. It was not what we gave, but what we received that was amazing. This is why orphan ministry is so great and sometimes I consider myself slightly selfish. I get to see miracles and such love first-hand.
– Annette Himmelreich, East Texas – Joined us for several days during Winter 2008 trip.
Relationships are a very important aspect to our work with the children in the former Soviet Union. I have participated in trips annually since 2000 and developed many friendships with children, orphanage directors and counselors. These relationships grow deeper each year and with each contact. I have watched the children grow from age 12 to 21 and have continued my relationship with some of them outside the orphanage setting. Maybe it´s only an evening where we have tea or as we did this year take a group of children from the Family Homes to the Aquarium and Mc Donald´s for ice cream. These small contacts make a huge effect on their lives and I see a close bond between myself and these children.
One young man Valera calls Melissa and me his parents because since he was 4 years old we are the only adults that have taken a personal interest in his life. He was taken to the hospital at age 4 for a heart operation and once the surgery was completed and his mother knew he was ok she walked away never to return. During the summer of 2000 Valera latched onto Melissa and she has been his mother ever since. During the summer he will visit the camps and during the winter he will come to either our hotel or orphanage that we are visiting. Valera emails us and he values the contact, our words of encouragement and gift from time to time. He now has a deep faith in God and attends a church with one of our former interpreters and sings in the choir. He is currently enrolled in a Bible program where he attends class daily. Because of relationships Valera is a part of the Kingdom of God. Because of relationships we are all a part of God´s Kingdom. Relationships are the building block for all of us being a part of the body of Christ.
– Garry M. Clark, San Antonio, Texas – Has made several trips to St. Petersburg. Has many friends there.
This winter our team of 10 Americans and 7 Russian interpreters has returned to 2 orphanages we have been working with for about 5 years. It was amazing to see how much the kids have grown and matured. This time, in addition to making crafts and memorizing Bible verses with the younger children, we brought something new for the teenagers – a Christian-based abstinence program “Sex, God and Me”. Although speaking of sex and God at the same time was a foreign concept to the kids, it was very well received. We were amazed at how supportive the directors and the caretakers were. Many of them have told us, “We have been trying to tell the kids the same thing, but they don´t listen to us. But we are positive that they will listen to you.” And sure enough, the kids did listen, asked a lot of good questions and participated in the small group discussions. We knew we accomplished our goal when, after asking 13-year-old Anya about what she learned, we heard, “I learned that God loves me and that He has a plan for my life. He doesn´t want me to have sex until I´m married.” Now, after the seeds have been planted, we pray that the Lord will continue to work on these hearts and reveal more of His truth to them. We realize that we were there only for a little while, but we know that God is always with these kids.
In the mornings, our group had a privilege of visiting a baby orphanage for HIV-positive children. You wouldn´t be able to tell that they had something wrong with them, but we knew most of them had a deadly virus in their bodies. We have played together in the snow and they were the happiest group of kids! We held the little ones, trying to show them at least a little bit of love that God has for them.
Finally, we were amazed at how God put our group together. He has given us different personalities, gifts and abilities and He also provided us with the opportunity to use them for His glory. None of us remained unchanged after this wonderful experience.
– Leanna Krasavtseva, Houston, TX –
I made my first mission trip with Mission Global Outreach in January 2001 and I immediately fell in love with the children. I was a member of the team that visited disabled children. They were very precious and offered lots of warm smiles. Several of them asked if I would come again and not wanting to disappoint them, I simply told them that I would try. All along knowing that I had been hooked and would definitely return.
I was blessed to be able to return that summer with my 12 year old granddaughter. By this time, I knew I needed to make this more than just a casual trip now and then. In 2002 I visited Russia three times and in 2003 four times. I plan to continue making about four trips a year as the Lord allows to develop the friendships I have made with these children, the directors and staff at the orphanages. It is exciting to see the growth and trust they are developing in the Lord.
– Karen Jones, Lordstown, Ohio –
One of our express purposes for this trip to Russia was to encourage the families of children with disabilities who are caring for their kids at home rather than institutionalizing them. Our friend Marina runs the “My Family” center for the benefit of helping these families and Beth Shanklin, a neurodevelopmentalist who evaluates and designs educational/developmental programs for the children, and I got to host a parent training seminar at Marina’s center.
Marina had recently met a woman named Galina and her daughter, Sveta, on the bus and we were able to visit them in their home. Galina, Sveta, and Galina’s other daughter and her baby live in a tiny one-room upstairs flat in a hostel at a resort where the older daughter works as a maid. Sveta, who is 15, became disabled at age 4 when she was hit by a car while out playing- 2 other children died in the same accident. Sveta has cerebral palsy and has little ability to move. She cannot stand , but she has some use of her hands. Galina cares for her at home, carrying her up and down the narrow flight of stairs and goes to the local school to get her assignments which she then teaches Sveta at home. Galina has had breast cancer and two weeks prior to our visit had a double mastectomy and has gone through chemotherapy. She’s lost her hair and wore a scarf over her head, she still has to go through radiation therapy. Galina has the clearest blue eyes that absolutely shine from within- when you look in her eyes you see something really beautiful. Even though she just had major surgery she lifts Sveta without complaint and smiles easily- she has a sweet unaffected humility. She welcomed us into her home and held her grandson while Beth visited with Sveta and showed her some exercises for her hands to help her gain more use of them. This family’s living situation could not have been more humble- one tiny room, kitchen in one end and living room with a sofa and a bed in the other, 2 women, a disabled teenager and a baby. Yet Galina is sweetness itself and I felt blessed just to be with her. I hope I will remember her the next time I am tempted to feel sorry for myself or complain about some little hardship in my life.
She said she needs adult diapers for Sveta, which we were able to provide along with money for other things as well. Marina is seeing what it will take to get this family into a larger house on the ground floor. This is the kind of thing you get to do when seeking to minister to the needs of children with disabilities in Russia- they receive so little help from the state and the needs are huge. We have the privilege of extending both hands of the Gospel to these people- the truth of God’s love expressed in Jesus Christ and practical help to meet specific needs.
– Linda Fry, Austin, TX –