Christmas Celebration at St. Paul's Children's Club

For most of January, Kyiv has been on a strict lockdown due to COVID-19. This has prevented us from many of our visits and regular ministry activities. After the restrictions were lifted at the end of January, one of the first things we did was visit our Children’s Club.

Our Children Club hasn’t gathered since April of 2020. We called and texted each other during this time, but virtual communication can’t substitute real fellowship.

Our meeting at the end of January was all about Christmas. While the celebration passed, we didn’t get a chance to celebrate it with the kids.  

The excitement in the room was contagious. We hadn’t seen each other for almost a year. Irina D. invited 12 kids, and 7 of them came with their parents. During this family fellowship, everyone shared their positive and negative experiences from 2020. We learned about the kids’ victories in 2020 and the children even got a chance to learn about their parents’ year. 

Everyone mentioned that the lock-down negatively impacted them because it makes our real fellowship unavailable. We summarized the past year and remembered the Christmas story. Irina asked questions, and as you probably can imagine, the adults answered quicker than the kids. Irina reminded the parents that this was a meeting for children, but she really enjoyed the adults getting so involved in our lesson. It was clear the parents missed the fellowship as well.

After the lesson, we prayed and had our little feast with goodies. That was our celebration!

After the meal, Irina divided kids into teams, and we held some contests. Everybody was playing, and parents cheered on the different teams. We had a lot of fun! When Irina asked, “Will we do crafts?” Everyone answered in unison, “Yes!” The crafts were symbolic, and they represented Jesus Christ as a light in our lives. He gives us His Love!

When we finished crafts, we prayed together and took some photos. All the kids told me that they are looking forward to our next meeting.

Praise God for this meeting and fellowship!