Everything in our universe—from the tallest, snow-covered mountain to a tiny, gold earring—is a message, pointing us to the Creator who loves us. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” If we take the time to listen, we can hear the our world share the Good News.  That is what a group of teenagers recently discovered at an orphanage in a former Soviet country.

These teenagers from a local church were able to accompany Sergei—who is an SGA-supported ministry leader—on an orphanage visit. These teenagers were not only able to see the reality of what it is like for the orphan children, even some who still have living parents, but they were also able to witness an opportune moment for sharing the Gospel message. Sergei used the earrings worn by one of the older children to tell of Christ dying on the cross for our sins, and about taking up our own cross to follow Him. Many in that room had taken to heart what they had seen and heard that day.

Here is the story, as told by Sergei . . .

Peace to all workers in God’s field!

With all my heart I am grateful to you and God for the fact that serving orphans does not stop in our city.

On one visit, teenagers from our church joined me. They were interested in why I constantly go to the orphanage; who is there, and what we do there. When we arrived at the orphanage, Yana and Evelina were perplexed by the fact that children who have living parents lived at the orphanage—and that there were so many children in this position. My helpers sat and watched from the sidelines as I interacted with the children, and at the end, they helped me hand out candy and fruit to the children. When we returned home, Yana and Evelina asked me a lot of questions.

When we started communicating with the children at the orphanage, I saw the girl Angelina (she is the oldest of all the children and is sitting in the chair on the right in the photo) with unusual things that were attached to her right ear.

When I looked closer, I saw that they were rings and there were three crosses hanging from them.

This was symbolic and led me to the idea that in the Gospels we read about three crosses on Mount Golgotha. This gave me a reason to talk with Angelina about the events described in the Gospels. We read all the places in the Bible describing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and two criminals beside Him. I especially drew Angelina’s attention to the fact that Jesus, being crucified on the cross, asked the Heavenly Father to forgive people for their sinful actions. We read that He forgave one of the criminals who realized his guilt and turned to Jesus with a small request to “remember him in the kingdom of God.” Jesus treated the criminal favorably, forgiving him all his sins and accepting him into heaven.

At the end of our conversation, Angelina said: “I would like to be this forgiven criminal, because everything is not all right with me either, I am a big sinner.” But what was also interesting was that on Angelina’s left ear there was only one similar cross hanging, and this reminded me of the words of Jesus; “take up your cross and follow me.”

We read in the Gospel (Luke 9:23-26) where Jesus speaks these words to the people who surrounded Him. We speculated a little about what these words could mean for us today. I also touched on the topic of repentance, forgiveness of sins, and following Jesus. Angelina said: “I need to think about all this, maybe I can follow Jesus. I would also like to go to heaven. Thank you for telling me about this.”

Thank God that we still have the opportunity to tell people about Christ and people respond to the Word of God, they want to be changed—they want to go to heaven.

The children are grateful to you for the sweets, fruits, your prayers, and your caring heart. God bless you!

Let us all be looking for opportunities to share the Good News! Please pray for Angelina and that she may grow into a beautiful and faithful follower of Christ.