April 23, 2008 by Sheree.

We took animals to the baby orphanage for a petting zoo today. We had a cute fluffy bunny, mice going round in their wheel, a guinea pig, a turtle, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and baby chicks. My little Max said “guff guff guff” when he saw the bunny and mice (Russian dogs say guff guff). I showed Aleona a little chick to pet and instead she just about ripped his poor little head off. I had to pry her little fingers off from the poor thing. Everyone had a good time and we left behind bags of pajamas and blankets for them.

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April 4, 2008 by Sheree.

I am a terrible blogger I am starting to realize. Sorry about that. Spring has come to Perm and the snow is finally melting away. Kids Club is going well and we are averaging about 14 kids each week. Most of them come from very needy families. I am going to the baby orphanage 3 times a week now. I just came from there now. I brought with me several tubes of diaper rash cream tonight and they were so happy. So I wanted to write that if you ever have the urge to send something for the babies, diaper rash cream is like gold there. The stuff they buy here is not very good so they like it when I bring it for them.

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February 24, 2008 by Sheree.

I found out this last week that one of my babies at the orphanage died. His name was Gosha and he was with me in my group since I started there almost a year and a half ago. He was born very deformed and with heart problems. While his mother was pregnant with him she tried to kill him by taking some kind of strong pills. He did not die but instead was born with many problems. He was almost 3 and just starting to sit up by himself. He was a sweet boy and a favorite of many of the ladies that work there. I cried when they told me he died. He will be missed by all but those of us that know Jesus know that Gosha is with Him now, he’s not sick anymore, and he can run and play like a normal kid now. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” Rev. 21:4

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February 2, 2008 by Sheree.

We were able to turn in our documents on January 24th to apply for residency. Now we wait for their response which could take up to 6 months. We are committed to the work here to orphans and other needy children and families so we think getting residency status will help us in that. Today we had 19 wild and crazy kids at our Kids Club. Yesterday I went again to the baby orphanage to feed and change their diapers. Many of our babies at the orphanage are severely handicapped or sick with some life threatening illness. Last year we wanted to see God heal 10 babies and we saw even more than that healed mentally and physically. Praise God! This year we are believing in faith for 20 healed babies.

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January 21, 2008 by Sheree.

We had a small Christmas program at the baby orphanage. Each child got a gift and each worker got a gift. Nathan came and was the first man the kids had ever seen. They were scared and cried when he came in the room. Eventually they warmed up to him and came up to him. What a privilege to be the first man in their lives and portray a godly, loving, good man to them.

Kids Club put on a program for Christmas and invited hundreds of people from the neighborhood. About 60 kids and 15 adults came. We showed a drama and then had cakes and drinks afterwards.

A testimony from Kids Club-
Often we encounter interesting things when we visit the kids during the week. We never know what to expect. Lena and Sheree visit the homes of our kids and give them a flier with games and a review of the lesson. We went to the home of one of the families recently. The mom came out and told us that her son Vanya had been taken away to a children’s Psychiatric hospital. He had already been there before for stealing. This time she didn’t know why they took him. He had actually gotten better since the last time. His studies were going better and he wasn’t running away from home. She cried and said that if they let him out it would only be in January. He would have to spend Christmas and New Year in the hospital. The last time she saw him, he was like a zombie from the sedatives. She quietly told him to hide the drugs and not to swallow them.
We just held her and tried to console her but she just cried and cried. We told her that we would pray that Vanya would be let out before Christmas and New Year. We also told her to pray and she said she would try to. The next week we received good news! Vanya would return before the holidays and the teacher who took him to the hospital would pay a fine. Praise God!!! That woman saw how God is faithful, that He is alive, and that He answers prayers.

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January 1, 2008 by Sheree.

It’s a new year and we are looking forward to all the great things God has planned for us and the ministry. We were up late last night with all the noise from fireworks and the parties in all the apartments surrounding ours. As Americans we are used to celebrating up until midnight, then telling everyone “Happy New Year,” and then all going to bed. Here in Russia the party doesn’t begin until midnight and then goes on all night. Russians also do Christmas differently as their’s is on January 7th. So these next couple days we will be planning Christmas programs for the baby orphanage and Kids Club. We hope to give all the ladies at the orphanage a Christmas gift and to all the kids as well. We continue to do crafts every week with the 3 and 4-year olds at the baby orphanage. We are seeing them improve in their motor skills and recognizing where pieces fit together before we even tell them. A while ago we did a petting zoo with them and so I’ll post a picture from that.

In October we learned of the new Russian visa laws that we can no longer stay here on one-year multiple entry visas like we have been. According to the new law, with a one-year visa you are only allowed 90 days in then you must leave for 90 days before you can come back. This would make it nearly impossible to live here. Nathan and I love Russia and the Russian people so we began investigating other options. We found out what it takes to receive temporary residency. This would allow us to stay for 3 years without being required to leave the country, and it is the first step towards permanent residency which is like a green card in the states. We have been getting all kinds of documents and medical tests in the last couple months. The earliest we can apply is January 11th after offices open up again after the holidays. We are still lacking a major requirement so please keep praying with us. We need someone that owns a house to register us there but Russians tend to be scared to do this. It would be a whole lot easier if Nathan and I owned a place (which we really want) but for now we need to just find someone who would be willing to do this for us.

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October 14, 2007 by Sheree.

We have started to do crafts with 3 and 4 year-olds at the baby orphanage. Our first day together we glued googly eyes on circles, drew smiles, and cut hair on the top. Some of the kids just scribbled all over the paper and some just cut their paper into tons of tiny pieces but we had lots of fun together. We spent time with the kids so they will know they are loved and we care. They also got to work on their motor skills by coloring and cutting, and worked on learning colors.

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September 22, 2007 by Sheree.

Today was our first day back in Kids Club. We had 11 kids which I think was pretty good for the first day. Most of them were our regulars but one kid was new. His mom read an announcement that was posted somewhere about our club and she came with her son. The boy was shy so he just watched most of the time but his mom participated in everything and seemed to be having a good time.

This evening we attended a party for one of our friends at the YWAM base. Before it started many of us were just standing around talking in the front entryway. My friend Tamara who visits the baby orphanage with me came with a smile on her face to talk to me about my babies. She talked with one of the workers at the orphanage and got lots of good news. The first thing she told me was that Aleona is healed. I started crying like I’ve never cried before. People were wondering what was wrong with me and Nathan came over to see if I was okay. I could barely stop crying to let everyone know I was happy and that they were good tears. Nastia, another baby girl, was in my group before she was placed in another group when the new babies came several weeks ago. She is almost 3 years old and I’ve known her now for almost 1 year. Never have I seen her move around besides waving her arms and moving her head. She is now crawling. Praise God for these good reports. I hope to hear many more like these.

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September 17, 2007 by Sheree.

We have had a break from Kids Club for the summer. Kids keep asking when it will start again. Even kids that we don’t know are coming to our building to ask when it will start back up again. We plan to open our doors for another school-year of Kids Club this Saturday. Kids can come and have a safe place to come off the streets, have fun, get something to eat, and get to know God more.

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September 1, 2007 by Sheree.

I went to the baby orphanage the last couple days. On Thursday I walked in to the room that my group is normally in and thought for a moment that I was in the wrong room. It was full of new babies. A baby orphanage in another city was closed down and the babies were sent to other places. Instead of putting a couple new babies in each group, they took all my babies and split them up into different groups and gave us all new babies. It’s hard just learning about one new disabled baby but even harder with a whole group of them. It was difficult to get them fed each night plus we had ladies from the other groups coming in to ask how to get a kid that was in our group to eat. Many times the ladies would give up and hand stuff over to me and ask me to try and feed a kid. The kids were pretty bad. One kid had a huge head, others just laid there like vegetables, one girl was standing on her head and doing other wierd things, they were all not normal at all. When we were changing them we had to totally strip them down and inspect every square inch of their bodies. In Russia they use something that is green and is litterally called “green stuff”. Most people see our pictures of kids with green dots on them and think the kid played with a marker but in fact it’s kind of like iodine that they put on any soar or bug bite to keep it from getting infected. Any little dot on a baby was covered with green stuff and I went home that night with green hands that will be green for a while. Even though it may not seem like it, most of these kids have a lot going on inside their brains. Many of them are smart and know what’s going on around them. Some of them must be feeling scared now in a new home with new people caring for them. I was glad that I could be one of the first faces they saw and could comfort them and welcome them to their new home. I know that Jesus is there in the room with them.

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