Winter visit to Znamenka

February 15th was not just a calendar date. This day I had my first charity trip to a boarding school for children with cerebral palsy. Honestly, I had never met such children before, so it was very exciting and a little scary how my heart would react. And not in vain: at the first meeting with the children there was a feeling of complete hopelessness, fear, pity, especially when I met a 7-year-old girl Rosa. I had tears and I was a little bit frustrated … I was warned that this would have a great impact on my worldview, probably it did so … Sometimes it was scary to contact with children who were difficult to understand and who had different types of reactions, so you didn’t understand what they could do in next moment. But after meeting with Valery Nizhnik and her poetry, poems, everything turned upside down in my head, her poems turned out to be so deep and strong that they struck me to the core … Honestly, I am still impressed.
She is an incredibly creative and intelligent person. I was simply thrilled, that all my sad impressions went away and it helped me to look differently at these children and their lives. And after that it became very easy to communicate with all the kids. They are incredibly happy and in many ways wise, I think that we should learn a lot from them …
My conclusions after the trip:
If they ask me, “will you go again?”, I will answer – “definitely!” Everyone returns much richer, that he was before. And every heart needs similar emotions to get out of the comfort zone … God blesses us to make such trips. Looking at how happy these children are, you understand that we are so selfish and our problems are so small. We can feel shame … Thanks to the organizers and the church for such an opportunity! This trip will remain in my memory for a long time. I urge the church to pray for these children all together!

Although it wasn`t the first time, when I met the children with such problems, but this trip and the whole day spent with them was a new experience for me. Visiting the orphanage for the children with special needs was incredibly beneficial for spiritual development. It was necessary to constantly deal with pity in my heart and to try to look at their life from the other side, to see joy and happiness in it. I did it. Their way of thinking about life became an interesting discovery for me and showed me that in terms of love and humility I need to learn a lot from them. Despite their physical conditions, they are happy, friendly, engaged in creativity, and this is very cool. It is a good lesson for us, those who have many more opportunities, but at the same time do less and often complain.