Greetings from Kristina Brendel on Karl Marx Street in Minsk, Belarus...

An update from Doug Brendel on behalf of Kristina Brendel — to all who have supported or expressed an interest in our New Thing teaching ministry in the former Soviet Union, or in our local Scottsdale Compass house church, which has adopted a children’s shelter in Zhodino, Belarus...

 

Less than Ten Below, and...???

Hi! Doug here. I am solo-parenting (pray for me!) while Kristina is in Belarus for 10 days. She sent me her first photos and graciously approved of the following captions :-)

 

Kristina flew about 24 hours door-to-door and had just a brief overnight in our flat on Karl Marx Street in downtown Minsk before being whisked away to an orphanage about 120 km outside of Minsk to celebrate Christmas! (Christmas comes on January 7 in the former Soviet Union.) It’s a tiny village, but a big orphanage (100+ kids), reflecting the tragedy of this country — once the richest in the Soviet Union, now the last dictatorship in Europe and the only eastern European nation still under some version of the old Stalinist system.

 

This is a photo from inside the school building. The orphanage is so cold that frost forms on the inside of the windows, because of the facility's ancient heating system. The government (which owns and operates the orphanage) won't pay to fix it. How to solve this problem? Our American friends always respond with, “Can’t they just...?” The answer is always no. Space heaters are unavailable. To ship in supplies or equipment is impossible; this is a closed country. Their best hope is an Irish organization that supports this orphanage the way our Compass church supports the children's shelter at Zhodino. Meanwhile, all we can do is provide the primitive basics — blankets, clothing — and pray.

 

And yet, children find happiness. Here, visitors from a church in Slutsk present a “cross of candles” and whole Christmas pageant for the orphanage's residents, staff, and visitors, including Kristina. The pageant was the complete Christmas story, centering on the story of the kings and their interaction with Herod (an "interesting choice, don't you think?", Kristina says, given the nature of Belarus's government. A poem was read and the kids did a candle lighting thing and then made shapes ... a heart and a cross (left). Then. Kristina says, “Three angels.... Cute, huh?” Then, “A song about a star — full cast singing a lovely song about the star.” The pastor of the church gave a

sermonette afterward.

 

Kristina brought greetings and gave out 100 copies of our Shock Talk book from New Thing and The Compass to all the staff and the kids who were old enough to read ... but they were most fascinated by her book For Love, a book of black-and-white photographs lovingly presented from the Dead Zone around Chernobyl, the nuclear disaster of 1986, which Kristina has been shooting (in the radioactive areas) and compiling for the past 15+ years. (One boy insisted on telling Kristina, whose Russian is pretty good by U.S. standards, “Your book is very interesting!”

 

Our "small Belarusian joke" is “Don't you remember the gymnasts at the manger?” — because every Christmas pageant in Belarus seems to include a gymnast or two — but they’re always fantastic! Remember Olga Korbut, the Olympic gymnast? She was from Belarus, and today resides in Scottsdale, AZ!)

 

The children at this orphanage have been deluged with stuffed animals from Christian/humanitarian organizations in other countries. So when visitors come, as Kristina did, they offer Christmas gifts! This one is now featured in our flat in Karl Marx Street, keeping Kristina company during her 10 days alone in our flat. She calls him her "roommate."

 

More pix to come. Thanks for making the journey with us!

 

Much love,

Doug & Kristina Brendel

 

To support Doug’s New Thing teaching ministry in the former Soviet Union online — http://www.NewThing.net - click on the donate button (the first $750 given each month goes directly to Belarus)

To support The Compass and its compassionate Belarus outreach online — http://www.CompassDVDs.com — click on the donate button (half of everything given up to $750 a month goes directly to Belarus)

To send a check by snail mail — make it out either to Compass or New Thing, and snail mail it to Kristina Brendel’s attention at 15261 North 92nd Place, Scottsdale, AZ 85260

To be deleted from the New Thing distribution list, http://www.NewThing.net and choose "Contact" and type “unsubscribe”

To be deleted from the local Scottsdale Compass distribution list, choose "reply" and type “unsubscribe"

 

Thanks again!