is your love in action, inside the former Soviet Union

Here’s a report from Doug Brendel to all who support or follow our New Thing ministry in Belarus...

Surprise!

Birthday shock & awe for “The Great Kozovaya”

She’s the humblest person on the planet, and really feels awkward being called “The Great Kozovaya.”

But she has a great heart for the hurting people in her home country of Belarus — and she’s great at getting just about anything done in this difficult country.

So, with her 65th birthday coming up, we set up a surprise.

In the town of Bogushevsk, in Kozovaya’s home region, there’s a “sanatorium boarding school” for children with respiratory ailments.

They needed 3 freezers to care for the 1,000 or so children who live here each year.

I asked friends to give $70, so that 10 of us could buy 1 freezer, for the sake of these children.

But you were so generous, we were able to provide all 3 freezers.

When we arrived at Bogushevsk, I sprung the surprise.

The birthday girl was absolutely stunned ... delighted.

The perfect birthday present for the leader of our Belarusian team.

But here’s what I didn’t tell you: The Bogushevsk facility also urgently needed to repair their toilets and sinks.

You were so generous, we’re also going to be able to fund all the repairs, throughout the facility.

I handed Kozovaya a voucher for the full amount: 3 freezers, toilets, sinks — the works.

Amazing!

A HUGE thank-you — from me, from second-in-command Lydia Danielevna and our “Response of the Heart” team in Minsk —
to all who responded so graciously to this extraordinary opportunity.

And the children themselves thank you.

At a school assembly, Kozovaya and director Yuri had the joy of reporting New Thing’s gift to the students.

They cheered when they heard about the freezers — but they really reacted with joy at the news about the sinks and toilets!

Director Yuri has spent 9 years here. When he arrived, the place was a shambles.

He and his team, working on meager wages, have painstakingly upgraded bit by bit: lights, doors, windows, a fence.

But lots of work remains to be done.

That’s a greenhouse at left. They have to grow much of their own food to get by.

Beyond this, Yuri scrounges contributions wherever he can.

As a sports enthusiast, he went searching for fitness equipment.

The local office of the KGB contributed!

“I have not done as much as I wanted,” Yuri says in pretty good English, “but I have done more than I could!”

The government budget for this facility is so thin, our gift today is greater than the total annual allotment for repairs and improvements.

Doctors from all over Vitebsk Region send children here. They either have respiratory problems or are at high risk for them.

The children live here for 3 to 12 months; special cases are allowed to go 2 years.

Deadliest enemy: tuberculosis. The Belarusian death rate for TB is 35 times that of the U.S.

Kids in the infirmary were bummed they’d have to miss the “sports competition” scheduled for later in the day.

But they loved having a visitor from America!

(The green stuff — бриллиантового зеленого — is an antiseptic liquid common to Belarusian pediatric care.)

Some children’s respiratory problems have stunted their development.

Little Denis is a first grader, but only as big as children half his age.

Doug: “How old are you?” Sergei: “Eleven.”

Doug: “My daughter Lydia is 11. Will you marry her?” Sergei: “No, thank you.”

Doug: “Why not? Don’t you like her?” Sergei: “I’m not ready to get married.”

Doug: “OK, I’ll check back when you’re both 20.” Sergei: “OK.”

Sergei [thinking]: Crazy old man....

Natalya has an extreme stuttering problem — except when she sings.

Then, she’s a perfect angel, musically and lyrically!

The great event of the day, organized by Director Yuri and his assistant Tatiana (left): a sports competition, pitting the Teachers Team against the 9th graders.

One cheeky 9th-grader (at right), passing Yuri in the hallway earlier in the day, muttered, “You’ve got no hope.”

The teachers who served as judges were strict and rigorous.

Points were scored on a dizzying array of details, beyond the ability of any American to fathom.

Conventional baton relay and basketball-dribbling races gave way to sillier challenges — like balloon-chasing.

After a slow start, the teachers rallied. But in the end, the judges ruled that the 9th-graders had won by a single point, 26-25.

I had the honor of distributing silly awards to the winners — windup toys from the Green Elephant toy store in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Without permission, I took a victory lap around the gym with the winners.

Before departing, we stopped in at the desolate standalone building where the new freezers will go.

The box at left is a “freezer” in name only. It keeps things mostly frozen in the winter — but only because there’s little or no heat.

Food storage has been primitive and problematic here.

Three commercial freezers will revolutionize this ancient kitchen operation!

Thank you again to all who gave with such an outpouring of love and compassion!

Tomorrow we head in the opposite direction: southwest, toward the Polish border, to an orphanage.

Photos to come.

Thanks for journeying with us!

Much love,

Doug Brendel

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Thanks again!