is your love in action, inside the former Soviet Union

Curious about where NewThing.net came from?

A report from Doug Brendel to all who support or follow our New Thing ministry in Belarus...

How to Say “Love” in

A Very Special Language

These children are speech-impaired ... all 118 of them.

So they come here, to a special boarding school in Novogrudok (nah-vah-GROO-dock).

A staff of 90 teachers, medical personnel, cooks, maintenance workers, and others devote themselves to the children’s around-the-clock care.

We brought candies and toys (thanks to a generous friend in Ohio).

In each classroom, I called for a vote to decide whether the teacher should also receive a toy.

All the teachers won, most by landslides.

(Well, perhaps our “Response of the Heart” team leader, “The Great Kozovaya,” and her colleague Lydia Danielevna, helped swing one election.)

The budget in this boarding school is extremely tight.

Director Maya (at left, with two students) and her staff work hard to make the aging facilities pleasant for the children.

They’ve created remarkable works of art on some of the walls.

They do whatever they can to keep disintegrating classroom desks and chairs from literally falling apart.

In the children’s bedrooms, sheets and pillowcases are clean — but stained beyond fixing.

It was disturbing to see what passes for bath towels: Each child has a thin, old rectangle of cloth not much bigger than a hand towel.

I really want to provide at least one big, brand-new, ultra-fluffy bath towel for every child at Novogrudok.

I told my friend Ben in Minnesota about the situation, and he offered us a great Matching Challenge:

For every bath towel we provide, he and his friends will provide another one, up to a total of $708.

As soon as friends of New Thing give a total of $708, Ben will release another $708.

(He set up the Matching Challenge to celebrate his birthday — great idea!)

Each bath towel will cost $10.23. But any gift given to New Thing today will basically be DOUBLED — to provide twice as many bath towels — because of the Matching Challenge.

The total need is 118 bath towels — or just $1,207.14.

So if we surpass the Matching Challenge goal, we’ll also be able to provide some new sheets, maybe pillowcases, and possibly even blankets for the children’s beds as well.

Maybe you’ve never given to New Thing before. Now would be a great time to start — because your gift will effectively be doubled through Ben’s Matching Challenge.

Thanks for considering it, for the sake of the children at Novogrudok!

More adventures to come!

Thanks for journeying with us!

Much love,

Doug Brendel

To give online — click here

To auto-give each month — click here

To send a check by snail mail — New Thing, 403 Linebrook Road, Ipswich MA 01938

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Thanks again!