By Alicia Jones
On Monday of this week we celebrated the opening of the kindergarten at New Life Roma Church in Western Ukraine. It was a great celebration as visitors from far and near were present: Sándor Szenczy from Hungarian Baptist Aid, Pastor Craig Hamlin from my home church, Fairview Baptist, a representative from the mayor of the region, and the director of the local Roma school. Our honored guests were the children of the kindergarten class and their mothers.
We celebrated a vision and a dream coming to reality. For two years plus I’ve personally been praying for God to establish a kindergarten for the Roma children in this town. Locally people have prayed even longer. As I said at the inauguration on Monday, we are beginning small, but we believe God will grow it in His time and in His way.
Tuesday the first six students came, on Wednesday we had eight new students and on Thursday three new students. We wanted small groups at first, so that we could get acquainted with the children and their
unique personalities. What a blessings these three days were, learning who the children are and how we might provide a kindergarten education for them.
God reminded me half way through the week of Paul’s words in Philippians 1:6, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We’ve prayed for God to work in these little ones’ lives and we trust Him to carry it on to completion!
See more photos here.