Peace to you, dear brothers and sisters, and Lana!
May the mercy of our father be on us all, and may His hand keep you. We always remember you in our prayers. You are our blessing! Lana, I am truly happy that you are praying for us. You know, sometimes there are moments when we have no more strength left—and hardly any faith—and then I remember that you are praying for us and my shoulders lift up and I’m ready to join the battle again. I’m especially grateful to our Father for your help in our finances. This is truly His mercy. It is a miracle in the lives of children and teenagers who can now be fed and clothed, and who have received the joy of knowing that there are people who care for them. May the Lord bless the hands and hearts of those who are giving, and may He replenish you a hundred-fold for the mercy which you are showing to these children. Our dear friends, praise be to the Father for you!
Now we have hail, and sometimes snow. The temperature at night can reach below zero, and I cannot sleep. You may wonder, “What’s the connection?” Well, it’s a very close one. My homeless kids have already changed into their summer clothes and gotten rid of their winter clothes. They usually do this—or sometimes they hid them and someone else finds their warm clothes. Then they sleep on the streets at night and freeze, and in the morning they come to us to warm up and eat something …
Take, for example, Andrey—he has a mother and a father, but they don’t want him. They love his younger brother, while Andrey has been periodically living on the streets since he was eight years old. He pays his parents back when he comes home by stealing, money, books, computer, and when they get mad at him he tells them that they deserve it … They know that sometimes he sleeps at my house, and that I sometimes buy him clothes and feed him, yet they refuse to take part in his life. A year ago, when they once again refused to let him come home, I told him that this was a criminal action, not to raise their own child. But they still did not take him back. They created such a situation that he ended up taking a very strong psychotic medication—which, in fact, his mother had been forcing him to take, since it is easier for her to tell everyone that her son is psychotic. So he took the medicine and fell into a coma. This took place just as we were leaving Bashkiriya and going to Ukraine. His mother called hysterically and said, “He’s crazy! He took drugs and now I have to take care of this handicapped guy!” We prayed and he came out of the coma without any further complications. He was still very hurt by his parents and, not without good reason, tried to commit suicide at home. Also, we were away for a month and he began to take drugs. In order to get money for drugs he began to sell them; and then he stole a shipment of drugs and money, and so last night he came home beaten up. They found him and tried to beat the money out of him. We therefore had to take him to the emergency room and then to the hospital—thank God it was only a few houses down from us! In the morning our son Mark was leaving the house and said, “Mom, he is sitting at the door!” I got scared because he could have died. I fed him; he took a shower and slept for a couple of hours. I then had to leave and so I sent him out. This is how we live—I work all day; come home late; and I wake up early because the kids are freezing. This is why I pray for a shelter for them, because I cannot put everyone up at my house. And they do understand that they shouldn’t come too often—only in critical situations. Yet there are a lot of them, and just us to help. How wonderful it would have been to have a shelter to which they could have come when necessary!
We are fully immersed in camp preparations. First of all, there is no road to get there by. There was one in the fall, but not anymore, because this spring in Bashkiriya there was a lot of rain and the road was washed away!!! We come with a substantial load and the brothers carry it on their backs through the cleft, since we plan on opening the camp on July 2nd. But we cannot carry the homes on our backs—this requires six trucks, and therefore we are trying to restore the road. The trucks may be able to pass through, but our car will not. This is another concern—that if it starts to rain the camp will be left without a supply of bread and water. And so we really need a good truck.
You know, we have the BEST helpers—the children from the risk group and our street children. We come to the base camp in the morning, and so they sleep not far from the church in order not to miss us. You should see how in the morning they run to all the homes waking up everyone else and telling them that it’s time to work! And they do work! Like little ants! They spread around the camp and collect everything. We are cutting down the trees and the bushes; they carry everything and burn, dig, and, on Saturday, even restored the sauna (banya). We heated it up and washed them. I thought that the banya would not work, but they did everything to make it work! They cut the grass too—it’s a great blessing! You know, during these years that we’ve been working with the street kids I’ve seen so many miracles!!!
Take, for example, Sergei. His father died and his mother lost her parental rights and was even imprisoned. Today she has been released and lives in a small room in a communal apartment. He lives on the street and I decided to help him try to get back together with his mom. We came to his mother and there was such a stench! She was both drunk and dirty. We sat, talked for a little bit, and then left. We cam back some time after and she was a little cleaner, though she had no cups for tea. Next time we brought her a pair of cups and she did not sell them for a drink, and so the next time we can she used them for tea. Her place became quite pretty after that: she cleaned, put up curtains and, this woman who never worked, found a job! Isn’t this a miracle? Now, every time we meet with her it’s always neat and she even makes fried potatoes. She even receives a salary, and she’s around forty. This is what the Lord does. And this is not the only case. Our God is a God of miracles, and this is a fact. The only problem is that Sergei is in prison right now, ad on the line next to “relative” he put my name, not his mother’s, and so all of the paperwork from the prison comes to me. Such are our children.
At this time Victor is in Moscow for a last session before graduation, and so I’m working for the both of us. I’m amazed at how the Lord gives me strength. This is another miracle!
I would like to ask you to pray that we would have enough time to complete everything before July 2nd. We still have a lot of work: to repair the road, dig out drainage for the water that filled half the area of the camp, erect the portable houses, bring in the electricity, to fill out all the paperwork for the offices, such as the water supply, fire department, hospital, electric, forest service, etc. Please pray, since if this all gets done on time it will be a real miracle. In the nearby village of Bogdanovka everyone is laughing at us, saying that we are crazy and that we’ll never finish it all; yet we have a Lord who makes miracles.
Isn’t it wonderful that everything is under God’s control? He is always on time and never late, and He’s never rushed. It’s wonderful that we are all believers. One of my guys says, “I would love to believe in God but I can’t. I can’t sincerely repent.” And he’s really suffering because of this. He grew up with hardly any trust in anything. From birth he learned not to trust his parents or the world, and now he can’t even trust God. He says, “Why should I repent? Will God give me money?” I tell him, “He may not give you money, but he will give you wisdom to make money and live a proper life.” Many have come to know the Lord at our camp, though when they went back into the world they did not stay firm and gave in, and this makes them feel even worse. They say themselves, “We are like dogs returning to our vomit.” They need a shelter—if so, everything would be so much better. But now, in order to survive, they need to lie and steal, and in order to forget their sins they drink.
With the orphanages everything is wonderful, except that we are not allowed to go to #9; yet #10 has opened their doors! Our youth are working there, helping the children with homework and tutoring. They play with the kids and the kids are very happy. All they need is some attention, and the counselors by this time are tired, and so they gladly allow us to take over. This ministry is also supported by the “Blagodats” Church in the city of Ufa.
Everything is wonderful in Davlenkanovo. For Easter pastor Farid cooked a couple dozen chickens that he raised specially for the orphanage, and he brought them to the children. It was a real holiday for the kids—they had enough to eat and the teachers were crying from joy. I’m so happy for brother Farid. They don’t have children and his wife is almost blind, and hi gives his whole heart to the children. His church doesn’t have a youth group and so the Lord moved his heart to this ministry.
In May Kayler and I visited Pavlovka. And on June 1st brother Na’il brought a whole bus of children to Ufa for a tour. They went to McDonalds, where our brother Valodya works, and he arranged for the children to eat for free. They went to the park and to the House of Prayer, where they had Bible lessons. That was a lot of work, and when we asked them, “What nationality was Jesus?” The children answered, “Russian! Bashkir! Tartar!” There is a lot we have to teach the children in this orphanage. Praise the Lord!
In the orphanage in Kuganak our brothers and sisters continue to work. A family that is ministering there is praying about adopting a couple of children. Please pray that this decision will be from the Lord. I am happy for the Sterlitamatskaya church. This is a very important ministry for them.
It is wonderful that every orphanage has a team now from a local church. We don’t have to leave Ufa as often, which is a big burden off our shoulders and a great blessing for churches!! When, several years ago, we discussed this Eric, we thought that this would never be achievable; yet the Lord makes miracles, and now there are churches that are working with the orphanages. At that time he asked me how often I went to the orphanages, and at that time I couldn’t even feel my legs due to being so tired—and now we have teams! They are the Blagodats church in Ufa, the church Davlenkanovo, the church in Sterlitamatskaya, and the Blagvyeshinkaya church. Now all I do is collect their reports. I’m sorry, but they are still learning how to write them and sometimes they forget to take pictures. But they are learning, and so we are sending you pictures from the orphanage in Kuganak. The woman with the album in her hands is the main mother of the orphanage—the director. We gave her a present—a family album. She is a wonderful woman. Please pray for this orphanage and the children.
Praise the Lord for your prayers and participation; for your open hearts as well! May the Lord bless and replenish you with His blessings. We are praying for you; may the Lord keep you!
Yours in Christ,
Victor, Natalya, Mark and Liya
Northern California Antioch Initiative 