Were you ever in a hospital for an extended period of time? One of our key mercy ministries is a monthly outreach to a local children’s hospital. Our team of volunteers visits the cancer ward of this children’s hospital once a month with a special program called “Around the World.” Usually, the team prepares a little presentation about a country that includes some fun facts about it and some activities that are associated with this place. It is a great way for the little patients to feel like they get to travel around the world even if just for a little while. In the meantime, this visit provides a much-needed respite for the parents who usually stay at the hospital with their kids as they go through various treatments.
Our team includes people from the church as well as their friends and colleagues. Thus, this mercy ministry gives us a chance to also share the Gospel with those who join us in this very important work.
Once every 3 or 4 months we do something even more special – a Big Celebration for the entire hospital. When we put it together, we usually haven an overarching theme and various stations that are connected to this theme. For example, one of our recent celebrations was called “Journey through Time,” and it included both futuristic stations and stations from medieval Europe. It requires a lot more volunteers, but then again it is geared for hundreds of kids and their parents who are going through various treatments at this hospital. We had a team of over 50 volunteers the last time we did this event about a month and a half ago.
But there was also something else that made this time special. Sasha continues to oversee this mercy ministry at the church, and she brought her colleague who works with her at the “Detsky Mir” (Kid’s World) corporate charitable foundation to this event. I have shared before that Sasha is now in charge of this premiere foundation and one of our hopes is that our work at the children’s hospital will provide the structure and the “know how” to involve folks from the corporate office of “Detsky Mir” in charitable activities. Thus, bringing a colleague was the first step in this direction.
Another step was a recent hire that Sasha made in this foundation. She was looking for a liaison with large donors and found one among our volunteers that regularly work at the hospital. This girl is not a believer yet, but she has been really actively involved in everything that we do at the hospital. Joining the charitable foundation was somewhat of a step down for her in terms of salary. She was making more money in the market place, but she wanted to dedicate her life to something greater than just chasing profits. Let’s pray this is yet another step for her on her journey to God. Let’s also hope that the visit to this program at the children’s hospital will also be the first step for Sasha’s colleague on her way to Christ.
Yours in praying and hastening the day of revival in Moscow and Russia,
Constantin and Alexandra
P.S. A while back I shared with you about a new course that we launched at our Sunday School for adults. It is called “The Starting Point” and it examines the basic tenets of the Christian faith. We maxed out our capacity with the first group of people that took the course. Most of them were believers when they took it, but one of them was recently saved and baptized. I will share her story in my next newsletter.
THREE PRAYER REQUESTS:
Please take a moment right now, after you fnished reading this e-mail, to join us in praying for God:
- To bless Sasha in her role and to grant her opportunities to continue sharing the Gospel in the meaningful way with both her collegues and recipients of help from Dentsky Mir Charitable Foundation.
- To raise necessery funds for us to purchase our own building. I shared in one of my previous newsletter about our capital campaign that we just launched. Check it out if you have not yet and if you can please share about it with as many people as possible especially with the missions board of your church.
- To bring peace to Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, ask God to use this conflict by bringing reconciliation and revival to these countries.
