«Let Everything that Has Breath Praise the Lord» - this was the theme of the meeting that took place at the church in West Sacramento (where Igor Antonovich Verstak is the head pastor). Since the quarantine, this was first meeting of the parents and their children with special needs.
Although a little timid, after a long break, the children and teens with the cognitive development defects were nonetheless friendly and excited about meeting for the Bible study. While trying to stick to the rule of not hugging each other, everyone tried to express their joy of meeting their friends and teachers by some other way. First of all, we exchanged Easter greetings, and even those who are normally not very social or unable to express their own thoughts, when they heard, “Christ has risen”, responded by “He has risen indeed!”
All of the children were behaving very well, were attentive, and diligently performed all of the tasks that they had to do. The children really enjoyed the new part of ministry which we started doing, and that is the choir. Along with their parents, the children attend various church services, they listen to choir singing, and for them, just like for any other child, one of the most desired wishes to be a choir singer is now finally coming true! When we offered them to go to the choir stands and take their seats, they did it with much vitality and dignity. Previously we did have music lessons with them, but they were taking place in the classrooms. But here, they were able to be in an actual choir setting and that has left a tremendous impact on them. Unfortunately, a lot of our children with special needs do not have the ability to sing, that is why we offered them to speak out the songs as they normally would recite a poem. This time we picked a song from the hymnal called, “He Lives” and divided it into parts. The chorus was verbalized in a special harmony when the girls “sang” “He lives”, and the boys repeated after them.
Then we came back to the classroom where they learned the last verse from Psalm 150. Some of the children were able to explain to us what “Everything that has breath” means, because for some, this was something that was hard to understand on their level. All of our children are very different in the level of development, but that is not preventing them for caring and supporting one another and that is a good example for all of us!
During the same time, there was another meeting taking place for the parents where everyone was able to share their concerns, challenges, as well as comfort, encouragement, joys and victories. The quarantine period was not easy and had its impact on many hearts. Moms shared how they are getting the strength from the Lord, and how He is giving them comfort, support, and strengthening of their faith. During such meetings, the parents usually share something very precious to them, which can be a great help to others who are going through similar circumstances. That was the case this time as well. One of the mothers shared her experience in trusting the Lord during an especially trying period in her life when her husband passed away.
We were very encouraged that during the time of the closing prayer with the parents, our children with special needs raised their hands to indicate that they too wanted to participate in praying to the Lord as well. Everyone went their own way in a great anticipation of the following meeting.
Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!
N. Smolikova
