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What a treat! We took the director, Alex, and his wife, Tatyana, and the kitchen director to Moscow. They shopped for their dream kitchen. This was the first trip to Moscow, first night in a hotel, and first meal in a restaurant for most of our friends. Alex said,
"If I had not seen the onion domes, I would not know this was Russia."
We found a restaurant supply store where we purchased a new commercial refrigerator, 10 huge stainless steel pots, chef quality knifes, forks, spoons, plates, cups, glasses...and the list goes on and on.
"Why has your 'loving' God
forgotten His children?" the Russian lady asked.
The children tried to bundle
up, but with what? Like a sub-zero knife, the heartless wind cut to
the little bones, as it poured through the broken, or missing,
windowpanes. The sagging, cracked doors offered no more resistance.
Rain flowed effortlessly through the ceilings. It was the toilets
that had no flowing water. Floors creaked, as they moved under your
feet. Such were the bedrooms, where the children had to sleep
double, in single beds.
In the old
church they called the kitchen, the broken slab was sinking into the
ground. The elements were burning out on the stove, as the meat
grinder ground itself into oblivion. The refrigerator quit working,
but it didn't really matter. There was little food, if any. The
cooking utensils weren't fit for feeding the animals, much less
preparing a decent meal for the children.
Everywhere
you looked, there was squalor, at best. Sometimes, it wasn't that
good. And to think, this is normal, daily life for these children.
They didn't know they were poor. They didn't know that there was a
different way of life. To the casual observer, there was no hope.
There was just no way. But, as we all know, God has prepared a Way,
where there was no way.
In less
than three years, the bedrooms are warm and dry. Every child is
sleeping in their own, new, warm, comfortable bed. The toilets
flush, the basins have running water. The
kitchen has a level floor, all new equipment, from forks and spoons,
to commercial stove, refrigerator, meat grinder, pots, pans, you
name it, they have it. Their gardens, from American seeds, are
feeding three orphanages. Believe it or not, local parents are now
trying to enroll their children in the school at Barskoe Gorodische
Orphanage!
Director Alex
Vasilivich asked if there was some way we could have Barskoe
Gorodische proclaimed the 51st State. He smiles happily, as he says
Barskoe is now more American than Russian.
While there will
be some small ongoing physical work, the real work begins now, as we
continue to build relationships in Christ, with our family at
Barskoe.
And it's
all in a little remote village, out in Nowhere, Russia, where the
children, who are learning to believe in Him, found out God has not
forgotten, nor forsaken, His orphans....
| ...and the
celebration began! They dressed in their best clothes for
the dinner. Fruit is a treat for the kids. We always
take enough for them to eat to their hearts content. |
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