Warm winter clothes for Sergei

Last weekend we visited Spiridon's home village and bought for 10 children winter clothes. One of the children was Sergei. He is 8 years old and just started school in September. He lives with his grandparents and when we went to invite him to come with us, his grandmother said that she couldn't come but that she was happy for us to take Sergei with us to the market. Sergei's mother died 6 months ago and after the death of his mom, his stepfather disappeared (his mother got divorced with his first father). Nobody heard from him or knows where he is. So since the death of his mother, his grandparents try to take care of Sergei but with a small pension it is often a struggle to provide in the different needs of the family.
So on Saturday morning Sergei got in the car and we took him to the market to buy warm winter clothes. Already the 6 km ride in the car was a big adventure and his shinning eyes said more than a 100 words, on how he enjoyed the trip. When we arrived at the market we asked him what kind of clothes he needed and yes, he came up with a whole list: shoes, jacket, hat, trousers, socks and sweater, etc. First we went to a part of the market where the second-hand clothes are sold. Often much better quality and cheaper. We were lucky (or probably better to say blessed...) cause we found from the beginning a nice warm jacket and a hat. After he tried on the jacket and the hat, he didn't want to take them off again so he kept the jacket and hat on. Than we went to look for some trousers and Sergei got quite enthusiastic. Every pile of trousers he saw, he would start pulling out trousers and without really looking at them, he would declare that these were fitting him perfectly! Gently we guided him towards two pair of trousers and after he tried them on, we bought both of them. Also we found a nice sweater and 2 pair of thick socks!

Now only some shoes were missing! In order to find some good fitting and whole-winter-lasting shoes for Sergei we went to the part of the market where they sell new stuff and there a lady was selling nice shoes with fur inside but she asked a bit more than they money we had left but guess what? She made a discount when she found out what we were doing. And so at the end Sergei got two bags full of good winter clothes! And as a bonus he got another ride in the car all the way home! What a day! When he came home he struggled a bit on how to open his gate cause in each hand, he had a bag full of clothes!

Praise God that Sergei could feel and see God's love for him in such a practical way! Let us keep praying for all the 10 families that were blessed, that they will understand that God is interested in them, He did not forget them and He wants to bring new hope in their lives!