The spring project in Borisov, Minsk region:
April 24, Thursday
The spring project we had been looking for began! For the first year students it was just one of the projects, but for second year students it was the last one. We will not be in the same group in the same place again.
We came to the place of destination, in the town of Borisov, at 10 in the morning and immediately began to work. We had to make invitations for the Easter service in our church. Then we had a rehearsal with a girl who was going to sing on Sunday morning. A little bit later we helped to carry new chairs to the church. In the evening we had a church service. We talked about the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. After the communion it was joyful to see happy faces of Christians who realized that it didnÒt stop on the death of Jesus Christ. He is raised! HeÒs won and now lives in their hearts.
After the service we spoke with young people about the plans for the next day. Then we went home to have some rest.
April 25, Friday
A day started with a blessing prayer.
At 9 we came to the elderly woman to help her about the house. We had enough work to do! In three hours we finished our work. Then we talked with her for about an hour about God and His love to people. In the beginning she interrupted us, we realized that she needed someone to listen to her. She told us about her family, her husband and children. She had 8 brothers and sisters. Four of them died when children. Her son is working in Israel and is not going to come back home. He has divorced his wife. They have a son, who studies in the 8th form. Sometimes he visits his grandmother. Her husband died and she lives all by herself. We told her about Jesus Christ. It turned out that she read the Bible occasionally. We were a little bit astounded by her question: «How will Jesus come?» We remembered the course on Eschatology and answered her question. We also sang songs and Mariya Phyodorovna said that our songs were different from those that usually young people sang. She liked our singing.
We encouraged her to have personal relationships with Christ and explained to her what it meant.
At the end we offered her to pray. We all prayed and she also said a short prayer. We explained to her that prayer was our conversation with God. We can pray not only in the church but also at any place. We also advised her to read the Bible. Before leaving we asked her whether she would like Christians to visit her. She eagerly said yes.
After that we had lunch. Then we had music rehearsal in the church. We practiced for long time. After that we prepared a sketch for Easter service.
Tired after a long busy day we came home, prayed and went to bed. We had joy since God was with us.
April 26, Saturday
That day before holiday we spent in the church. In the beginning we had music rehearsal and then we went to the forest to cut tree branches for church decoration. When the church building was decorated we set the musical equipment and had another rehearsal. Then we went home.
April 27, Sunday
In the morning we had music practice. Then the service began. It was held for the first time in a new church building. There were about 350 adults and 100 children at the service.
We had a group singing and solo. Everybody liked it.
We noticed one man sitting alone. We engaged him into conversation and found out that he liked the service in general, but he didnÒt like pastorÒs sermon about resurrection of Jesus Christ and personal relationships with Him. ItÒs true that human nature doesnÒt like to be rebuked. Only those people who had personal relationships with God liked the sermon. Yet the man said that he liked the church but needed to think about everything.
After the service we had Easter Seder for the church youth. We also had some non-Christians. There were about 40 people in general. It took us about an hour to lay the tables. Then we had the ceremony. Young people could see how messianic Jews celebrated Easter. The goal of this Seder was to unite young people even more, show them how Jews celebrated Easter and remind them that they needed to value their relationships with God. God first chose Jews and then Gentiles and it is honour for us to be His children.
In the end every person passed a candle and said a short prayer. It was joyful to see young hearts united by one main goal of worshiping God.
April 28, Monday
In the morning we had breakfast and went to the music practice. We prepared songs for different church programmes and also for the morning service.
In the afternoon we went to one student domertory. Two girls from the orphanage that Dina had visited studied there. It turned out that they hadn’t studied there for one month for some Their former roommate Marina told us about it. While we were standing at the door talking the music of one Christian group played. We asked if Marina liked that music. She was surprised by the fact that we knew the group. We said that we were Christians and she immediately let us in the room and continued our converstion. We learned that her parents had passed away and she only had a brother. We invited her to the evening church service, saying we would be looking forward to see her.
April 29, Tuesday
The day started with a blessing prayer. We decided to visit a sister who had been not attending church for three years. We had made an appointment beforehand.
An elderly woman met us at the front door. We introduced ourselves and our converstion began. We learned that she was in the fashist’s concentration camp and escaped from it by miracle. She had a difficult and sad life. Three years ago her husband was murdered, when he returned home with his pension. Her son rejected her and lived in sin. She had very poor eyesight. She was telling us her life story with tears.
We opened Psalm 23 and read it to her, explaining that our Lord is our Sperperd. He takes care of His sheep — Christians. He feeds, washes and loves them. Then in the last chapters of the book of Revelation we read about New Jerusalem. We encouraged our sister in Christ to be faithful to our Lord to the end. We sang songs and prayed. This fellowship brought joy both to the sister and us.
After that meeting we had lunch and then went to the music rehearsal in the church. There were 350 people at the evening service.
April 30, Wednesday
It was the last day of our project. Before lunch we made invitations for the church service. In the evening we participated in the service.
Our project came to the end. The main project is ahead of us. It is our life.
Praise to our Great God for His blessings!
Weekly ministry & Missionary projects:
