During the month of February the church in Voronezh
became
socially involved.
From the 18th February until the 4 th March Trey Mc
Alistair, a
Texan who dearly loves children, came to see what opportunities
there were
in Voronezh to help various orphanages. He created an organization whose
primarily goal is to meet the spiritual, physical, and educational
needs of
the orphaned and abandoned children of Russia.
Besides the fact that Trey is a very loving and funny guy who can
easily
entertain anybody, I was very impressed by the sensitive and
forceful
efficiency in which he was able to knock down bureaucratic walls. Right
away he
was able to convince the top chief of all the orphanages for the
region
about his goals, in spite of the fact that she initially did not
even want
to listen to an American. (Some Russians have a hard time to accept help
from
Americans, because they feel that Americans look down on them
as a
third world nation).
With many members of the church, he went far away
visiting one of
the poorest orphanages of the state and donated tons of diapers,
affection,
drinking cups, and many other things that brought much joy to that
forsaken
place. Lives were touched that day as Christians showed their love
not only
in words.
Trey talked as well with the elders who asked him to help a
center
here that is in taking care of children who are affected by
the down
syndrome. (That center was willing to give us some room facilities for
the
church if we help them). Trey's financial politics in helping is
that the
leadership and the members of the local church have to
be personally involved in the project they have chosen. This
means
that from now on the Voronezh church will take a more active role
in
helping the poor and needy, which will only increase the
credibility of the
church toward the society and the government.
Trey plans to come 3 to 4 times a year to Voronezh with the faith
that more
and more help will be provided toward the pure and faultless
religion.(James
1:27)
Now, for those of you among the Churches of Christ who live in the
European
part of Russia and want to receive Bibles and Church of Christ
literature
for FREE, you can write to the following address:
Mention how many Bibles or New Testaments you want, your
postal
address and we will contact you and send you what you required. This is
a
ministry from Eastern European Missions (EEM)
For those of you who can READ RUSSIAN, you can get information
about
the Voronezh Church of Christ under the following web page: