On Thursday 6 January, the teenagers of the “New Hope” church visited the "Church of Christ" in Tokmak. Every year on the eve of Christmas, they show fairy Christmas plays for children, teenagers and their parents. An ordinary night turns into a remarkable event. For them, it is the magical night, full of pleasant surprises, laugh, games and gifts, and for the church it is a great opportunity to tell the Christmas story. After all, quite a number of people do not even know that this holiday is a reminder of the birth of God’s Son Jesus Christ and of His difficult way.
From the very beginning, the children got captivated by the story of Alice in the Wonderland. Everybody was getting ready for the holiday. Everybody, except the Red Queen. She decided to mar the fun, since she hated laughing, happiness and had a cruel heart. By using her cunningness and dishonesty, she took the chromosphere from the Keeper of the Time and jumped far back, to the airship of Darth Vader to join their forces and destroy happiness on the Earth. Alice, the Hatter and the White Queen tried to thwart her, but were unable to do so. Then the Keeper of the Time told about the Child, Who not only can travel through time, but also has power over all the time in the Universe.
The Red Queen learned about the Child and, having talked to Darth Vader who refused to help her, set off to Palestine. She wanted to find the Child and not let It jeopardize her cunning plans.
Alice and the friends followed the Red Queen with the help of a magic clock. They encountered each other in the house of Mary and Joseph, but when the Red Queen saw the great Child, anger, hatred and nastiness vanished from her heart. Jesus Christ purified the Red Queen with His love and reconciled her with her sister. In the end, Jesus prayed with all everyone who was willing. The children and some parents repeated the words after him and finished by saying “Amen” .
Here is such a wonderful story of love and salvation that the church showed. After the play, pastor Roman spoke to the audience. He spoke about Christ and about why He came to Earth. Because evangelism was the primary and main goal of that night. At the end, the children were presented with gifts and wished Merry Christmas.
After the performance, our team was lucky to have a chance to talk with pastor Roman and his brother Yuri about the church, the theater and the impressions. In addition, we were lucky to hear the creation story of this great ministry. Roman said that everything always originates from something small. At first, they had showed small performances for the kid club, and after that, they conducted minor projects. No one had expected this ministry to achieve the present-day extent. Over the holiday season, about 1000 people attend to the church. Praise the Lord for their work and dedication. Yuri then shared his experience of writing the scripts and creating models. The church sew every outfit on their own from materials at hand. They write the scripts by themselves, too, gathering in the evenings after work. Yuri said, “It’s not always easy to find an idea. It cannot be copied or borrowed. It is born in a pleasant atmosphere and in the desire to serve”. His stories helped us realize how hard but nonetheless exciting this work is. We do believe that by having the knowledge such as this, we can serve children of Zaporozhye in a similar way.
We thank the church for the warm welcome and ask it to keep praying for our church. May God keep giving them opportunities to do their job and develop.
