Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the orphans of Russia!

Children from Luga orphanage with Lena and Natasha at last year's Christmas celebration...

     The orphans of Russia wish you a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!    

     Our children in Russia are greatly encouraged to know they have friends and family around the world who love them and care for them.

     They have asked us to send their love and a big “THANK YOU” for your prayers and donations.   You are taking the Light and Love of Jesus into their orphanage!

     Big Family Mission does not publish a regular newsletter for December.  If you would like to send a year-end gift to bless orphans in the year ahead, please click on the DONATE NOW button below to go to our donation page.

     We pray that God’s Love and Peace will abound in your life throughout the year ahead!

Ken and Dianne Dockery, Big Family Mission

Russian orphans learn about kindness from the "KIND CAT"!

Children at Jukki orphanage with "kind cat"!

(Editor’s Note:  Everyone can share the Love and Light of Jesus… even a cat!  Natasha Kirillova, leader of Help for Children in St. Petersburg, Russia, invited a “kind cat” to speak to the orphan children at Luga and Jukki about the importance of being kind.  The children loved hearing from their new “cat friend”, and so we share Natasha’s report and a few photos of the event.)

Natasha’s report:

In all projects the main theme for October was kindness. At the Grace Center graduates' and mothers’ meetings, we spoke about kindness, prayed with the children, and decided that everyone will take efforts to work on his own behavior. 

We committed, with God's help, to be kind towards one another and with our own children.

At Jukki and Luga, we invited the actor-volunteer who was a Cat, and he talked to the kids about the importance of being kind and not rude to the animals.

Children loved the idea of helping their neighbor!  We talked about two main commandments:  to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor.  To love in this way, it is impossible without being kind.  

Please consider "adopting an orphanage" to support Natasha and Help for Children in the year ahead.  Your monthly gift of any size will be a wonderful blessing and encouragement for Natasha and the children!  Just click on the GIVE button for more information.

When we started to talk to mothers at Grace Center, all of them shared that they didn't experience much kindness towards them in their life. We discussed what will be the right answer in that case, and prayed that God will give us all possibility to forgive.

Alisa, the graduate, now lives at the shelter that belongs to the Lutheran Church. It is very small, like our Grace center, and we are very happy for her! She had hard time living at the hostel and wanted to live at Grace, but it was not possible because we have 2 mothers and 2 kids and 2 graduates already.  Now God has provided a nice place for her to live, and she is excited to visit us for the activities! Praise the Lord!

Please pray for Olesya and Nastya, two graduates who live at Grace. They are having huge behavior problems, and we are working to help them not to make mistakes.

In Jukki, we had volunteers from Kadets School in St. Petersburg.  They had fellowship with the children from Jukki and had tea together. It was a lot of fun and helps the both sides:  It is great for the deaf children at Jukki to get socialized by fellowshipping with children who hear, and it's good for the students from regular school to open their heart towards the problems of disabled children.

Thank you to everyone who partners with Big Family for making all this possible! God bless you!

Natasha

Children at Luga orphanage with "kind cat"!

Amazing Grace flows from the Grace Center in St. Petersburg, Russia

     

Adelia is a Christian mother with four children.  She is educated as an engineer but now works as a housekeeper.  Her husband left her and the children. When she broke her leg, she had to be off work for two months. Big Family helped Grace Center provide food for Adelia and her children.

          Big Family Mission has been partnering with the Grace Center in St. Petersburg for over three years now.

     For me (Ken) it has been a big blessing and a humbling experience as we watch God’s work through Grace Center unfold.  Ask Dianne: She will tell you that I want to explain everything in a logical manner.  Yes, I want to say the Grace Center does “this, and this, and this”.  It has these goals: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  But, praise God!  There is nothing logical about the Amazing Grace that God provides to each of us.  And, in similar fashion, we have found that the work and love extended by the Grace Center cannot be reduced to a simple formula.

     In the time we have partnered with the Grace Center, Big Family has:

• helped a young woman decide to keep her baby and provided clothes and furnishings as well as a temporary home for mom and baby;
• provided food for a single mom with 4 children who couldn’t work because she broke her leg;
• helped hold a Christmas celebration for single mothers and orphanage graduates;
• helped an orphanage dropout decide to keep her baby and join the Center’s young mother’s program;
• helped treat an orphan with cerebral palsy to her first-ever excursion to a supermarket; and
• and assisted with the many other acts of grace that flow from the aptly named Grace Center.

     We thank all of you who pray and contribute to help with the work of the Grace Center.

     Please consider joining with us to share in the Amazing Grace work of the Grace Center in the year ahead!

   

 On our online donation page, you will find options for giving online (or through regular mail) using credit card, direct debit from your checking account, or personal check.  If you would like your gift to be used for ministry at the Grace Center, just note that when you give.  Thank you!

The young lady in this photo (Uliana) is near and dear to our hearts.  We first met Uliana when she was nine years old and an orphan at the Kommunar Internat School.  At age 16, Uliana became pregnant and had to drop out of the orphanage school at Jukki.  Uliana has had a faithful Big Family sponsor who has prayed much for her over the years.  The Grace Center worked with Uliana to help her decide not to have an abortion.  Now she has her baby girl Alina, and Alina’s father has married Uliana. She participates in the program for young mothers at the Grace Center.

Lena from Grace Center helps Lisa shop for baby clothing.  God’s grace flowed to Lisa through a generous gift by one of our Big Family friends.