Blog
By Masha
Here is more about the amazing motorcycle ride I mentioned before. It was a valuable new experience, a stronger bond with the Love Russia volunteers, the church that is hosting a camp in Johvi and orphanages we went to visit.
One quote that stands out: “It’s not about the bikes, it’s about the children.”
MIR helped coordinate the St. Petersburg and Estonian sections of this ride. It’s been our pleasure to work more closely with LoveRussia, UK. And we look forward to future projects together.
Day One: Start
Day Nine: St. Petersburg
Finale:
Filed in: Humanitarian Aid, Orphans
By Masha
I will always remember this June as a motorbike riding adventure. On the 1st June 2011 an intrepid band of bikers, and trikers, embarked on a 2000 mile trip to Moscow, Saint Petersburg and back to raise funds for the Genesis project. I had a privellege of joining them on the ride to Estonia and Latvia.
The band arrived to the Palace Square on June, 9
I couldn’t miss my chance to look at all the bikes.
The British Consulate of Saint Petersburg showed their support and hosted an outdoor lunch for the bikers. Alex gave a speech as well.
And a follow-up nterview on the local channel.
This day was a great starting point of my journey and a great encouragement to see the people willing to participate and support such activity.
Filed in: News
By Masha
It was a great visit at Peter and Leah’s family home last week. We specified our camp plans and checked the beautiful church building that’s in progress of being built. See the pictures below.
Filed in: Camp, News
By Katya
This time when Alex and Jaqui were visiting Krasnie Zori orphanage we were able to meet the director of the orphanage personally.
We found this orphanage through a connection with Leningrad Oblast Education Commitee and are looking forward to the continued partnership.
One of the biggest things many kids from Krasnie Zori are involved in is sports competitions. They really take pride in their achievements.
On the day we were visiting, the team of boys from elementary school won against the team from Gatchina. The sports program is in need of good soccer balls, uniforms and other sports equipment.
Among other important requests is a mini-van to transpord smaller groups of disabled kids into the city.
The orphanage is using an old Gazel mini van that’s running on it’s last leggs.
During the summer many of home kids will go back to their families and orphans will go to a summer camp and we are looking forward to visiting Krasnie Zori once the new school year starts
Filed in: Humanitarian Aid, News, Orphans
By Katya
Dear Friends!
O, happy day! I am the legal guardian of Nastya and Danya and we are living together in our new apartment.
I am so thankful to all who were praying for me and helping me while I was collecting papers. I should admit this was quite a difficult period of my life, but in spite of all the hardships the Lord was with me by many miracles He has performed.
Danya has finally decided he would like to get trained as an interpreter. He is really gifted in foreign languages. He speaks English fluently. My friend tutors him and he comments on him being one of the brightest students she has ever had. The main thing is he enjoys it a lot. He’d like to learn French, German and Italian. He’d like to enter a prestige university with Italian as a major. He is now passing entrance exams to enroll into a very good secondary school. His last exam is going to be in August. Please pray he passes the exams. Along with the language studies Danya would like to either do dance classes or sports.
Nastya is not doing so well at school but in spite of that she is very talented and creative. She’d like to continue her piano classes and I’m going to hire a professional piano teacher. She also does well in drawing and would like to become a cartoon multipticator (like me). This is why I do think she would benefit from going to an art school. She was one of the best students at choreography class she attended in the orphanage. Now she has an opportunity to do more of the type of dance classes that she likes and do it more professionally.
I would love for Danya and Nastya’s dreams to come true, but we need a budget for that. If not for the expensive rent of the apartment, we could have afforded the afterschool classes without any additional support. We spend 25 000 rub monthly on the rent. We have sponsorship support from the American family that was hosting the kids in USA, but this is quite a bit of money and not always they can help us. We ask to continue praying for this situation to see if God leads you to support us. We are blessed beyond what we can imagine.
Filed in: Hosting, Humanitarian Aid, News, Orphans
By Masha
Hurrey, school is out! Peter’s house is full. While the kids and cats are wondering around the house in search for adventures, the adults are working out a camp in Estonia for them.
Alex and Jaqui, Tanya, Masha, Peter and Leah as well as Nadezhda are thinking through the check list: passports, visas, medical insurance, health records, tooth brushes, soccer balls, sun cream… It’s good they can still be friends in the midst of it all ; )
The British team is going to be in Estonia at camp Gideon in early August. You can see a map of camp with the pictures of sites here.
Filed in: News
By Masha
The best way to know spring is here is to watch the nature wake up. A beautiful opportunity like that was provided by Simon and Sue Young in the course of the Eco Camp visits to Tolmachevo orphanage. Together with the children we went out to check the the trees and the nearby stream to find out the condition of environment.
Sergey Tovstopyat, our camp Elama administrator is taking a lead on this project in Saint Petersburg and the area. Love Russia UK has provided a connection with the Youngs, who contribute all their knowlege, resources and love for kids to bring them closer to God’s creation and by that — to God Himself. Some great specialists from Mendeleev Institute participated in development of the Russian visual aids and professional British publisher printed those aids out.
Simon and Sue brought simple tools and colourful charts that equiped boys and girls as they serched and categorized the likons and the animals in the water based on how sensitive they are to pollution. The girls found out that some most sensitive lichens live on the trees around the orphanage which means that the air is very clean. Both teams realised when it comes to the water in the nearby stream — only the least sensitive bugs and warms survived, so this is a bad sign. Children immediatly remembered there is a factory that runs it’s condensation waters into this stream.This simple experement shows it doesn’t take much to be attentive to the world around you. It is especially important to the kids who survive in the tough orphnagae world, so their God-given skills and reactions are very often damaged and perverted. We were glad that for the 2 hours they spent with us nobody left for a smoke. It is a great way to connect with the children and share God’s love with them.
We’d like to see growth of this project and do follow-up visits to orphanages and shelters. We’d like to make and leave some simple equipment with the children in the orphanages as well as design and publish results of the researches children do.
If you would like to support this project, send a check to our US partner;
make payable to:
Stoneworks International
PO Box 464839
Lawrenceville, GA 30042
write ‘MIR’ and the purpose of the gift on the memo line
Filed in: News
By Tanya
We have information about 5 children who have Cerebral Palsy are in big need of surgery and aftercare treatment. Andrew, Dmitry, Vitaly, Anastasia and Eugeniy need surgeries, then — aftercare time with some individual assistance and finally — for many months these kids would have to wear special equipment to let the body heal properly.
The director made a very careful pricing of the equipment, found the most affordable, so more children can have a chance to get it.
The surgeries are provided by the government funding, but unless there are funds for an aftercare program, the director is not starting this long and painful process. Each part is equally important to reach the final goal — a different life quality for these little ones who only start their life journey.
Each of the 5 children needs 59 116 rubles per person or $2112 (at 28 rub per dollar exchange rate) for the special equipment to be built.
We already have donations from “Love Russia” Charity for two children: Andrew and Dmitry – they both have Cerebral Palsy.
At this moment we are still looking for funds for other children who need surgery and aftercare equipment soon.
They need help get on their feet!
If you would like to support these children, we have two ways:
1) By check to our US partner; make payable to:
Stoneworks International
PO Box 464839
Lawrenceville, GA 30042
write ‘MIR’ and the purpose of the gift on the memo line
2) Visit the Stoneworks website to make a donation using PayPal.
Filed in: News
