Dec 20, 2008

Dec 2, 2008

Food Bank: food drive, Nov 28th-29th


We participated in an annual nation-wide food drive Food Bank, Nov 28th-29th.

Thanks to our 40-strong volunteers we managed to raise food for over 10 000 Litas, almost 3000 Euro. This is more than twice the value collected ever before!

It was a wonderful experience serving together!

The food will be distributed to our seniors at Old Friends' Home in the form of handouts.







































Oct 16, 2008

Old Friends' Home, Oct 5th




Sep 25, 2008

Sep 16, 2008

Party at Old Friends' Home, Sept 7th

















Ms. Anastassia's - our oldest Family member at Old Friends' Home - 94th birthday celebration!


Aug 3, 2008

July events



July 13th we had our old friend – 90 year old poet Jonas Stasaitis - read his satirical poems about the devil & his schemes against the man. Also some of our elderly read their own poems.

The elderly visited a museum of our national writer-poet Vincas Mykolaitis Putinas, July 24th. They learned many interesting things about him & played interesting poetry games.



Throughout all summer we sought to have lots & lots of fruit, berries during the Elderly parties (locally grown strawberries, blackberries from forest, black & red currant).

We had a chance to discuss opportunities of setting up charitable activities with Christians from Tallinn, Tartu & Ryga.

Jul 5, 2008

June events


Our elderly had a theater group come to them, June 8th. “Penguin egg”- a very entertaining & revealing story about a family of young penguins & their egg which did not hatch.

Jun 1, 2008

May events

May 1st our charity volunteers participated in a nation-wide drive to clean up garbage from parks & forests. Many hundreds tons of refuse was collected: paper, glass & plastic bottles, tires, cans, etc.
So nice to toil together- tending for the wonderful planet our God entrusted us with!


May 29th we had a big party for the orphans to celebrate International Children Day. Orphans received presents from our local donor. This was our last event for children before their summer holidays.

Apr 4, 2008

April events

Some photos from our April events for the elderly



Mar 20, 2008

Old Friends Home 6th Anniversary, March 16th

Some glimpses from our anniversary party



















Mar 19, 2008

Blood drive, March 18th

Time & again I repeat myself: it's so encouraging & fulfilling to be unified in serving the needy!
You are immediately & totally transformed from self-focused to thinking of others.

Thank you to those who care!




Mar 10, 2008

January-February events

It’s so very encouraging to see volunteers organize various activities for the elderly without being even asked to. This shows that they really care.
Our devoted volunteer from BigBrothers-BigSisters program Ula along with her little friend Lyja organized a quiz game for seniors. All were split into 3 teams. You should have seen them getting enthusiastically involved in the game! They also learned an important lesson of being members of a team, not as independent units fighting for their own interests- what they there so well taught of during Soviet times.





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On February 17th we had a special party, celebrating Lithuania’s Independence Day & Valentine’s Day. To mark these two festivals we put up a play based on a fairy tale “About a Little Girl”, with all kinds of animals: mice, moles, frogs, a dragon fly, etc. Many volunteers participated. It was fun both for seniors & for us, volunteers. After that every senior received flowers as a little gift.










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It’s great that volunteers bring their kids to seniors’ & orphan’s events. I believe it’s a great way for them to learn to be loving & caring, sensitive to others’ needs, serving the needy. They help serving a table for elderly, participate in performances, and give a helping hand cleaning up after the parties… What’s more inspiring, the kids enjoy participating in our parties & want to come again!















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We had a party for volunteers to express our appreciation for the invaluable work they do selflessly serving the elderly & orphans on Feb 3rd.
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I believe that what we do as a charity is, primarily but not restricted to, serving those in visible & expressed need but also encouraging & inspiring those capable to show mercy & meet these needs ,be it directly serving or providing the necessary means for this. Accordingly, the impact of a charity should be measured.

Jan 19, 2008

A look-back at the year 2007

There were many great events as well as very inspiring developments for us as a charity bringing together those who give & those who are in need of receiving during the last year.

2007 was definitely a year of growing volunteer involvement & devotion.
Especially notable were the last two events: Seniors’ Christmas & New Year parties.

Here’s the scene: the kitchen & the main meeting room are filled with volunteers buzzing around doing innumerable tasks to serve the seniors: packing the gifts, washing fruit, serving tables, making coffee & tea, cleaning, writing greeting cards, reading the Bible, giving out food hand-outs, making photos, shooting photos, doing dishes, talking with seniors… Everyone is busy for there are many things to do. But they are not stressed, no, volunteers are happy & smiling…

I am hard pressed to find proper words to express the feelings of contentment I experienced at these parties. We were united in serving the needy: not our self-interest but others’. Even one’s face begins to look different: shining with joy which overflows from the depths of your heart.

Here are main highlights of the year 2007:

· Changing hearts: volunteers- serving, seniors & orphans- gratitude
· Blood drive – launched this year; there were 3 events totally
· More content-rich events


Seniors
· More seniors served
· More focus to meeting spiritual needs


Orphans
· Growing ties between orphans & volunteers

Naturally, there were also things which were lacking: Need for Greater Seniors’ Self-Help, More Proactive, Less Self-Oriented Attitudes Promotion. These are going to be our focus areas for this year, among others.

We are enthusiastically stepping into 2008. Honestly, I can’t wait to see many other wonderful powerful changes take place in hearts & lives of our seni0rs at Old Friends’ Home & the Orphanage, as well as those around being positively influenced.

Jan 3, 2008

Seniors' New Year party, December 30th












































Jan 2, 2008