I do not have a Father. Could you be mine for now?
Today there are many different projects and events organized for orphans. But we are convinced that children need ongoing and effective development of their skills, abilities and talents.
Our working camps take place three times a year during school breaks. Children get themselves prepared in advance for these difficult but joyful workdays. In the camps, they are able to develop patience, focus, and the ability to manage their time and energy.
The teenagers understand that a difficult life awaits them, and we want to help them prepare for it. They know that we are there for them and that they are dear to us.
Some of them, even those who are over 20 now, unintentionally, would call me “Dad”, and in my heart I feel both warm and bitter at the same time. After all, I cannot be their Dad, and they deserve to have one. And I pray for them and their dream!
We call our working camps as “working challenges”, because for the campers it is really challenging to face their fears, overcome complexes, and laziness. At the spring camp, which ended a couple of weeks ago, there were 35 orphans and 16 adults. The children felt at home there, because at this campsite many things were done with their hands, through our common efforts.
Here in the photo (with the spirit level) is Dasha, 17. She is trained to be a plasterer-painter. We worked with her for several days, during which she learned how to lay tiles and paint walls. I have known Dasha for 7 years, and I know that she can be very lazy. But I must say that she is making great progress. She was very upset that she could not finish her work, but we supported and encouraged her. It was her eighth camp and she is already looking forward to the summer trip, which will take place in a month and a half.
We do not only work together, but we jog, play, watch movies and even dance together. On the last day of our trip, we had a cooking battle. All children, all six teams took part in it.
The teams came up with a story about their dishes and came up with unusual solutions for serving them. Our children are capable of achieving so much when we believe in them!
One of our goals is to teach the children to finish what they have started. After all, one sees the result of their work, they get a surge of new strength and motivation for further victories. But, unfortunately, we do not always manage to finish what we started in short days of the camp.
Therefore, this time, I returned back to the campsite along with my adopted son Misha and his friend Vlad. In three days, we finished the project, working day and night. It turned out that Vlad also grew up in an orphanage.
To be more precise, he lived in five orphanages. From the age of two he and his brothers and sisters ended up in the orphanage. Then they were separated, and Vlad wandered from one plaсe to the other, being all alone.
He is now 24, but he fondly remembers the Bible lessons taught by our brothers and sisters in his orphanage, and he has special memories about the Warrior camp, where we first met with him. Vlad is a very open boy, and we communicate sometimes, during this trip we became closer and talked more about the Lord. Vlad asked questions about God and we did not even notice how time flew on our way back.
Everything will be fine?!
For each trip we prepare a specific theme, which we study for five days. This time it was formulated into a question, “Everything will be okay?!” It’s not accidental that it ended with both a question and an exclamation mark. We asked the campers why they were definite that everything would be fine in their lives.
All children 13 to 18 years of age answered were positive that they will definitely be fine because they have friends. The children’s answer was obvious. Everyone, especially teenagers, need a loved one. If these were children from families, with a 90% probability their answer would be the family, but orphans do not have a family, so they truly value their friends.
It’s so good that in this difficult period of their lives, when they need a friend, we can become their friends and build strong relationships that may last a lifetime.
The next day we were thinking that not everything that seems good is actually good. As a proverb has it, “Not all that glitters is gold”! The guys were able to look at things that surround them from a different angle. They saw that oftentimes this world sells black for white and white for black. The children said that this happens because they do not want to go against others and that sometimes, they also go with a crowd, repeating the pattern of us, adults!
On the fourth day we moved on to the main thing – hope! Is it right to believe that everything will always be fine, or does something need to be done for that? Empty hope is a very common problem and a painful topic for many. I shared a story that happened in my life when I was still a teenager. All my classmates remember this story even after 20 years. Our school would go for a hike, and we reached a rock, which was over 30 meters high.
I decided that it was my finest hour and without permission or thinking over my actions, I rushed to the top of the rock.
I climbed the slope that no one had climbed. And just one thought was going across my mind – “Everything will be fine”!
I almost climbed, but there was one big “but”. It immediately became clear to me that I would not be able to go down.
My hope was empty, it was not even a hope, but silliness. Everyone down there froze, watching me descend. I stood on a huge rock, but it was so steep and slippery that I was being dragged down. I fell to my knees and began to slide down. My legs were already practically hanging from the cliff, the rescuers were already going my way, but they would not be able to catch me. I was rolling down, frantically grabbing the grass, moss, and bushes, but it did not help.
And then something happened! I felt like I reached a place which they call a “pocket”. I pressed myself against the rock, and then through pain and fear I realized that now “Everything is going to be fine”!
Through my story, the children were able to understand that one should not hope or rely on things in this life, especially on alcohol, drugs, stealing, and also spending time lazily with a smartphone and thinking that everything in your life will be great.
Jesus Christ is a strong rock, that you need to grab onto as best as you can, and then it will become completely unimportant what was before, and only one thing will be clear – Now as you are with Him, everything will really be fine!
Reported by Mikhail Vladimirov
