Dennis – middle, in the blue shirt – with the older Shelter group on a trip to Lviv this summerOn Wednesday, September 19th, 2012, Shelter boy Dennis Bandilko went to the emergency room and was eventually diagnosed with an aneurysm. We wrote about his story in our newsletter that September. After his life-saving surgery we wrote more about his situation in a newsletter that October. Dennis wrote a thank-you note to supporters who provided money for surgery, which we shared in the November newsletter. Dennis lived with the Last Bell director for many months while he recovered. Here is an update from Andre Pankyeyev about Dennis now that two years have passed.
Thank you for praying for Dennis. I always tell him that people in USA are praying and thinking of him. It moves him a lot and he is very pleased that someone is specifically thinking of him and supporting in prayer.
Dennis works as a janitor and a loader at a tile storage company. The director gave him this job out of mercy, knowing that Dennis went through a complicated brain surgery. Dennis worked there before, but it would be logical if after long period of rehabilitation he wouldn’t be taken back. But the director is very compassionate. He also helped with money for Dennis’s medicine.
It is a pity, but Dennis can’t change his lifestyle as he should. He is smoking and drinking alcohol. When we talked on the phone yesterday, he said he realizes drinking is damaging to his body, especially his brain and blood vessels. But he concludes he can’t quit because of the bad company always around him.
This isn’t 100% true. Sure, he chooses to drink when he sees his friends are (both are graduates from the same orphanage). One of them, Sasha, is his roommate in an apartment with four guys. But his other roommates Peter and Andre don’t live the same lifestyle as Dennis and Sasha. So he has a good example available, but chooses to follow the wrong guy.
So Dennis doesn’t listen to the advice of his good friends or the Last Bell leaders. He complains that he feels worse now: shaky hands and tremors. And he decides he needs medicine. He asks me what kind of pills to get, but I tell him that no medicine will help alongside beer, vodka, and cigarettes. I advise him on what medicine to get, but we won’t buy it for him because it’s money spent in vain.
A month ago he took a vacation from work. He went to Kyiv and for the first time met his sister and her kids. Then he decided to stay in Kyiv with another friend who is quite a drinker! Dennis and Alyosha are working together; Dennis is a loader. He says it’s harder work than he has in Zhytomyr. The salary is better in Kyiv but he isn’t saving any money. He has a loan at the bank that isn’t paid off yet.
Please pray for him that he would pull himself together. Thank you!
Andre
On October 3rd Dennis planned to return in Zhytomyr and go back to his old job. Please pray he followed through and is living near the Last Bell staff now.How do we respond when kids receive lots of help but don’t change their lives? Read our latest blog about Dennis, why we still use the word “orphan,” and how we define success.“God is the kid’s father”
THANK YOU from Stop the Cycle moms (and five dads) for another amazing time of learning at the sea!
At the end of August, God gave us a wonderful opportunity. We went to the sea shore in Odessa region with moms and kids from the program Stop the Cycle. We found a comfortable place right at the sea shore. We enjoyed the warm sea water and southern sun, tasty food, and most of all, family fellowship with each other.
There were 15 mothers, five husbands (the ones who are officially married), 16 children and six little ones under three. Besides me and Andre, there were six children’s volunteers, three of them older girls from Shelter 1. Twice a day our children’s ministers played funny outdoor games with the kids, and for older kids provided Sunday School lessons with crafts, games and songs.
Every day Andre and I taught one-hour lessons on the Biblical way of raising kids: Andre with the fathers and I with the mothers. We studied topics like, “God is an ideal example of a parent,” “The responsibility of parents in raising God’s creatures,” “The power of a personal example,” “Love as a main condition of discipline,” and “How to discipline kids right, showing them God’s love and care.”
Our parents were very active participants in all the lessons and had many discussions. I saw how many moms were absorbing the new information. But the most joyful moment for me was in the bus our way back home, when I saw how the moms tried to practice the principles they learned!
I believe that God changed our hearts, built us up, rebuked us, made us people of God’s heart, and poured many blessings on our kids! I pray for God to continue His work!
A thank-you note from Yulia S.:
“The lessons were very helpful! This was a period in my life when I could hardly handle my daughter’s behavior, and I learned the right way to discipline with patience. I practice the methods we learned and they give a positive result. A quiet mom means a happy child! The main thing I learned is that the child is given to us for bringing up, and we don’t have the right to punish him or her in anger, because God is the kid’s father. So we must not punish the kids in anger, but only with the purpose of disciplining for their good and so they will be under protection!”
Thank you to everyone who prayed for this camp and helped financially! May God reward you 100 times!
Oksana
Dennis – middle, in the blue shirt – with the older Shelter group on a trip to Lviv this summer
On Wednesday, September 19th, 2012, Shelter boy Dennis Bandilko went to the emergency room and was eventually diagnosed with an aneurysm. We wrote about his story 
