OK, God, now what?

We now had a load of musical instruments, baby dolls, backpacks, salvation beads, toys, and yo-yos out the ears. Where do they go now? Yuriy, one of our Russian friends, Lena's husband, in fact, has been wanting us to visit an orphanage in Murom, the fartherest point of the Vladimir region, about 2 hours from the city of Vladimir. We called the director and learned the kids had just left for summer camp, but he would wait for us to arrive. Oh, can you guess? They have an award winning music program using 12 year old instruments purchased from flea markets and such.

The director called and one of the buses had broken down on the way to camp. He asked if we could give him a couple of hours. Yes, it gave us a chance to stop at the internaat (school for orphans) in Murom and have a short time to minister to the kids. Tanya spoke about their potential and Angela lead them in a time of worship. Back on the bus!!

When we arrived at the orphanage and showed the director all the professional grade instruments, and special teaching instruments Angela Pickering, our TOTH musical consultant, had helped us select, he was speechless. He was particularly excited to see the violins and guitar, as they had no stringed instruments. Being of Armenian descent, he immediately grabbed the tambourine, placed it between his knees, and started playing. He was thrilled. Holding it up and pointing to the skin, he said he had never seen such quality.

While he may have been impressed by the quality and number of instruments, we are impressed by God's guidance of our footsteps to the right places.

Music Orphanage...musical instrument update:

We are very excited to report on how wonderful the kids are doing with all the instruments Treasures' team delivered summer 2009. Director Martin loves the new tambourine we bought him. He immediately started to teach one of the boys how to play. They are able to teach our ......orphans how to play all of the instruments except the violin. However they hope to send one of the girls to music school where they will teach her how to play the violin. They love their new guitar class too… Because of the instruments’ you gave them, Music orphanage recently won 1st place in a musical competition, and receive a grant from president and diplomas!

The broken boiler:

We are grateful for the opportunity to provide a new boiler for the Murom Orphanage, in Russia. It is still snowing and the old boiler was working at 10% capacity.  This has been an extremely cold winter.  When our Russian friends stay home because it is too cold, we know it is not Southeast Texas cold, for sure!

Lena emailed one night, saying the director would try to find additional donors, and we prayed during the night. We knew we wanted to help, but were not sure how much.  When we emailed the next morning to say we would cover the entire cost, praise be to God, the director had raised $450.  We drew interest on our gift!

It is thrilling to watch God provide the funds just as the need is revealed.  Our life is made easier knowing who is really in charge.