Sosnovo Improvements

In the four years we have been coming to the Day Center, it has always been cold inside. Often the kids and all of us would keep our coats on because the electric heaters could not keep the drafty old building warm enough. It was also very costly to run these electric heaters. Well, that all changed this week!

Recently the city of Sosnovo had been given money from the central government for the region that was used to make improvements to the city infrastructure. This included remodeling several city building, making street improvements, and connecting building to a central heating system operated by the city. In Russia, it’s more normal for public buildings to be connected to hot water pipes that run throuogh radiators in the buildings. This is how they heat most of the buildings. In Sosnovo, the public building had not been connected to the city hot water system and therefore had none of this heat. The week we were doing ministry there, city workers were installing hot water radiators in each of the rooms in the Day Center! Now the kids can truly come to a safe AND warm place and not have to keep their coats on! This will also allow Nadezhda to open up other connecting rooms that has a ping pong table (that SAC purchased a couple of years ago) and she can monitor all rooms with doors open. They couldn’t keep the doors open before as they couldn’t afford to heat those rooms. In addition, this will save the Day Center in electrical costs and reduce some of their expenses in a troubled economy. The new heaters should be turned on this week!

Another problem was the huge mud puddle around the entrance to the Day Center. The small area in front has always had poor drainage and when the snow melted or it rained, it would always pool up in front of the Day Center. Pastor Slava said that a couple cubic meters or gravel would be a big help and cost only about 1000 rubles ($30) per meter. Lenoid, the deacon at the church, ordered the gravel and it was dumped just about the time we needed to start the Bible Study… of course! But the kids once they saw the gravel they all jumped in and began to help spreading it. We only had four shovels and a couple of buckets, but somehow everyone got involved and helped. One boy named Igor had a shovel was asked by another boy for his turn to help. Igor said, “Not on your life!” He wanted to keep that shovel and help!

Two other boys in school uniforms (as some public school require) were asked to join in, and they said they had just finished working hard at school on some cleanup. Nevertheless, after putting their backpacks inside, they quickly joined in the spreading of the gravel. Within about 15 minutes all the kids had spread the gravel and there was now a path to walk on without getting your shoes wet!

The kids take great pride in “their” Day Center and were encouraged by the improvements!