|
|
|
|
As a 700 Club partner, you will not only share a message of hope and salvation to thousands every day, you also will provide wells for clean drinking water, food and clothing for children and their families, medical care, humanitarian aid and so much more.
Please join with us today! |
|
| |
|
PRECIOUS IN HIS EYES
Vacilly: Growing Up Too Fast
By Terry Meeuwsen with Ken Hulme and Richard Santoro
The 700 Club
CBN.com – Eight-year-old Vacilly of Ukraine works like a boy twice his age.
He showed me how he splits wood, draws and hauls water from the well and harvests apples and grapes -- occasionally stopping for a light snack.
Vacilly looked after his aging grandmother and helped keep their small country house running.
He’s an amazing child. But he was the only child in this remote country village, and there was no school.
When we met Vacilly’s grandmother, she told us in between her tears that his father and mother abandoned him at birth. Vacilly overheard the conversation and began to cry himself.
Vacilly lived with his grandmother until he was seven years old. She knew that for him to become everything that she wanted for him to be, he needed to go to school. She couldn’t help him with that, because there are no schools in this area. That’s when she called the boarding school for orphans to see if he could go there.
With the support of Operation Blessing, the children receive a good education and practical skills like sewing and woodworking. They also have plenty of food to eat and a warm bed to sleep in.
Remarkably Vacilly, who has never gone to school, began to thrive, but something was missing in the children’s education at the orphanage.
Director Michael Ivanov is more like a father to the kids here. He wanted to help the children grow in moral character. He wanted to give them an awareness of God. But he needed help.
Michael called our CBN office in Kiev -- not to ask for financial help but to ask if he could have copies of CBN’s Superbook, Flying House and other gospel-centered programs for the children. CBN brought the videos, along with a new TV.
Now, every Sunday, the children gather to watch Superkids Club or other CBN animated programs.
"CBN videos are the only programs we let the children watch," Ivanov says. "They see the love of God in the stories and learn how people should treat others."
For Vacilly, it was the first time he saw a television program and the first time he heard the gospel. He can share what he’s learned in school with his grandmother when he returns home on holidays.
Meanwhile, CBN and Operation Blessing continue to help the children. Until recently, they all slept on broken down old beds. But thanks to CBN partners, they now have 50 new beds for the children with more on the way. It was our special privilege to bring a stuffed toy to each of the children there as well.
“On behalf of all the children, thank you,” Ivanov says. “Thank you to all people who are making good things happen for us here in Ukraine.”
Thank you CBN Partners. You’ve given Vacilly a chance for a normal life and have shown him and other Ukrainian orphans a very tangible expression of God’s love. When you partner with CBN, you bring a message of hope and love to those in need – providing food, water, clothing, medical care, and so much more, all in the name of Jesus. Please
join with us today.
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
|