Dec 20, 2006

Santa visits the Orphans


There was a special atmosphere lingering in the air at the orphanage in the evening of December 19th. It was a Christmas party!

So not only did we play & have fun, but most importantly had a special long-awaited guest: Santa Clause arrived with gifts for the kids. The children were totally thrilled: they swarmed round Santa eagerly trying to win his attention & touch his red velvet cloak & white long beard. Each child got a meaningful gift from Santa: a tiny cactus decorated as a Santa Clause (with a red cap, beard, moustache fixed on it).

The Santa said: “This small plant is for each one of you to take care of; it is like your neighbor to tend for.” And added: “Should you pass this test successfully & after I come next year your cactus would be sound & well, you would be ready to take care of an even “bigger neighbor” - say, a dog puppy…”

Some of those orphans had not seen a Santa “live” before. No surprise they were so exited & happy!
Our Santa was played by a our volunterr from the local christian community. He was a very genuine Santa indeed! Except maybe for jeans he wore which caused some confusion among the little ones..


There were about 40 kids at the party.

Dec 12, 2006

Needy seniors Christmas party

Santa Clause paid a visit not only to the orphans but also to our seniors at the Old Friends' Home. Some elderly ladies got somewhat disappointed after recognizing one of staff members dressed as a Santa, - they, admittedly, were genuinely waiting for a real Santa!

Santa Clause was demanding to the seniors: each senior had to do something – sing a song, read a poem, etc. - to claim his/her gift. Believe me, it was fun!

There were 42 seniors at the Old Friend's Home Christmas party.

In addition to a gift, every senior received a handout of food (collected by our volunteers at the Food Bank in November).

Dec 5, 2006

November 2006 report

Seniors

The chief catholic priest (archbishop) of Lithuania paid a visit to one of our seniors’ parties in November. All of our elderly were completely astounded by this.

Also, this month we had two music bands perform for us: one was general style, the other one- Lithuanian folk music with its own musicians.
There was dancing, songs, poems, games…

It was so fulfilling though not easy to hear one of our elderly women say to another: “These parties of ours is the only thing that keeps me going…”

The other good news is that the spiritual aspect of our activities is not fading out to say the least: not only do we read the Bible during the events, but also have prayers! It is so uncommon in such a predominantly catholic country & especially with elderly people around.

Here’s our seniors’ event schedule for November:
1. November 5th (Sunday) – Seniors’ party
2. November 12th (Sunday) – outing to Organ concert
3. November 13th (Monday) – outing to drama theatre performance
4. November 19th (Sunday) – Seniors’ birthday
5. November 24-25th (Friday-Saturday) – Food Bank

Dec 3, 2006


Orphanage

We had a party at the orphanage two weeks ago (November 14th).
It was so inspiring to evidence ties of friendship developing between us & the children at the orphanage. For example, when we arrived some children were already eagerly waiting for us; & also as we left many asked when we would come visit them next time.

The kids & all of volunteers were completely delighted: the games we played were extremely fun!

Nov 29, 2006


Food Bank

The annual charitable Food Bank campaign was held on November 24th-25th. Hope Worldwide Vilnius was designated one supermarket where we had leaflets to give out to the customers & invite them to buy & donate food for our needy seniors.

The campaign was really successful for us this year: in terms of both number of volunteers attracted & favorable customers’ response to our call for support in the form of food raised & positive reaction.

Totally 31 volunteer participated with us. Majority were from a local Christian community & the seniors themselves, but also some others (e.g., volunteers from Big Brother Big Sister program).

In all we raised food worth 1.300 Euros (last year it was 1 100 Euros).

The food is going to be distributed in the form of food hand-outs to our seniors of the Old Friends' Home as well as some other needy persons.