The Catalog of Good Deeds: Ministry of St.Elisabeth Convent

Showing posts with label Ministry of St.Elisabeth Convent. Show all posts

1. Personal Stories: They Are Finely Attuned to God and People

Our Publishing House published a book titled The Yonder Land in 2011. Its main characters are the residents of the Boarding Home No.3 for the mentally challenged, as well as the sisters and brothers of the Sisterhood of Saint Elisabeth, nuns of St. Elisabeth Convent, and doctors. There is a chapel in honour of St. Xenia of Petersburg in the Boarding Home. Today, just a couple of days after the patron saint's day of this chapel, we would like to share some excerpts from this wonderful book with you…learn more

2. Joy and Growth Under the Snow at the Women's Farmstead

In the pre-dawn darkness of mid-February, our car from Saint Elisabeth Convent slid over the snow through the gate of the Women’s Farmstead, and pulled up to the house in which Fr. Andrew would celebrate Divine Liturgy. It was my second week staying at the convent, and I, along with another guest and one of the nuns who had herself never yet seen the Women’s Farmstead, were being given the opportunity to visit this unique place…learn more

3. Children, Parents and Teachers of the “Iсhvis” School Gave a Concert Devoted to Victory Day

“I want that there won't be another…” was the slogan of the concert that took place on the eve of the Victory Day (i.e. the victory in World War II) in the “Iсhvis” school. The artistic performance that was on the stage that day, fully expressed the pain that our land had to face during the World War II…learn more

4. Fr. Andrew Sommer and the Members of the Prince Vladimir Youth Association Visited St. Elisabeth Convent

On May 21, members of the Prince Vladimir Youth Association from the United States, under the direction of the Father Andrew Sommer, were able to tour the various workshops and the two farmsteads of St. Elisabeth Convent. Nun Anfisa provided a detailed guided tour of the ceramic and sewing workshops along with many other workshops for the guests…learn more

5. Over 200 Adults with Special Needs Participate in a Feast Day Organized by the Brothers and Sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent

The holiday celebration in the residence for adults with special needs began with a service. At the Liturgy, which was served in the assembly hall, more than 200 residents prayed which accounted for over half of all the residents. After the Divine Liturgy, everyone participated in procession around the main building. The holiday concluded with lunch in the open air and friendly interactions…learn more

6. Make the World a Better Place: A New Workshop for People with Disabilities

One of the newest projects in St. Elisabeth Convent is a unique workshop called “Dobrodel” (one that does good deeds) especially designed for people with disabilities. The workshop gives a chance to people with special needs to overcome social isolation and find themselves in society through work…learn more

7. Pilgrimages for People with Special Needs

The volunteers of the Fund in honour of St. John the Russian have organised two pilgrimages for children and adults who live in boarding homes for people with special needs. They visited St. Elisha Laŭryšava Monastery on July 22 and Holy Annunciation Monastery in Malyja Liady on July 28…learn more

8. The Brothers’ Lives: Diaries of the Rehabilitation Centre of St. Elisabeth Convent

The Rehabilitation Centre of St Elisabeth Convent is a place where labour and prayer help people to build their new life — different from the life in a prison cell or a hospital ward. Many of those who come to the rehab have a dark past. Their new life calls for a different attitude to themselves, to their neighbours, and to God. The old self has to die to give way to the new self in the eternal life…learn more

9. A Visit to the Not Indifferent Ones: a Personal Story about the First Meeting with Special Children

Sometimes they only need physical contact. They are excited every time you touch or hug them. The feeling of having someone around makes them sure that they are protected and at peace. I’m talking about the children who stay in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs, where I went to take part in an Orthodox worship service together with the sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent…learn more

10. How Women with Troubled Fates Receive Shelter in St. Elisabeth Convent

Women’s Rehabilitation Center of St. Elisabeth Convent was established in 2011 on the territory of a former military base near v. Nialidavičy (Minsk Raion). The Convent bought several buildings and received some other buildings later for free. There had been a church here, too, but it burned down several days prior to land registration. The circumstances suggest that it was arson: some local resident must have set the church on fire because they didn’t want women who had been on the wrong side of the law to live near their villages. They thought that if they burned down the church, there would be no rehab, either. Time has proven them wrong. Today, a new church is being built here…learn more

11. The Equine Therapy: New Friends, New Treatment

In 2010 on the territory of one of the rehabilitation centres of St Elisabeth Convent there appeared a stable with a couple of horses. This rehabilitation centre is situated about 30 km from Minsk in a village called Lysaya Hara (Bald Mountain). As of today more than 10 equines live in the spacious stalls of the stable. Two of them - Purga (‘Blizzard’) and Begonia, mares of average height and quiet tempre - are used for therapeutic horseback riding…learn more

12. A Cycle of Goodness: How the Workshops of St. Elisabeth Convent Appeared and What They Give to Other People

The House of Love of Labour of St Elisabeth Convent was founded with the blessing of the Very Rev Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of our Convent. It preserves the main principle of the original facility, that is, serving one’s neighbour. It is fitting that a nun named after Saint Chionia, an Italian martyr who was orphaned when she was very young, is in charge of the House of Love of Labour…learn more

13. The Dog’s Chance: How Nuns Save the Lost at the Men's Rehabilitation Center

More than two hundred homeless or alcohol-addicted men gather on a farm 19 miles from Minsk during the winter, where they are supervised by just a couple of sisters from St. Elisabeth Convent…learn more

Sveta couldn’t imagine living without alcohol. She would pour vodka in her throat without eating anything with it. Veronica was almost homeless. Her parents refused to let their daughter who had become a drug addict back into their house. Their stories could have ended at that if not for the rehabilitation center of St. Elisabeth Convent. It provides shelter for women who are in trouble. The Convent supplies them with accommodation, food, and jobs. It gives them the second, third, or fourth chance. Apparently, everyone starts believing in God here. Who else can they turn to?

Breeding Goats and Growing Oyster Mushrooms

“Believe it or not, until we started building the church, we couldn’t finish the repairs of the dormitory. Problems were popping up all the time,” Nun Barbara (Atrasevich) says.

The new church under construction

She is in charge of this rehabilitation center. A former accountant, the nun easily deals with her administrative duties, of which there are plenty. There is a farm at the rehabilitation center, with hens, rabbits, and goats. There is a winter greenhouse on the foundation of a former soldiers’ bathhouse. The women plant tomatoes, bell peppers, and greens. They use former bomb shelters to grow oyster mushrooms from October till April. This year, however, they didn’t grow mushrooms in the bomb shelters: instead, they chose to store willow branches there. The sisters prepare ca. 50 thousand of willow branches for Palm Sunday every year.

Nun Barbara talks with the sisters

There were four “residents” in the rehabilitation center first. Today, there are twenty-eight of them. They are former prisoners, women with alcohol or drug abuse issues, mental health problems, and orphans who were evicted from their free state-provided accommodation. “Of course, they are not led here by the desire to serve God. They come here because they have nowhere else to go,” Nun Barbara is realistic. “Some of them are not accustomed to working at all. They would work only if I promised them a pack of cigarettes, you know.”

The nun recalls how the police tried to talk her out of allowing former prisoners in the rehabilitation center.

“They exclaimed, ‘Do you know what she was in prison for?’ That woman, Marina, spent twenty-five years in a prison camp for murder out of jealousy. She spent four months in our rehab and then went back home. They arrested her and sent her back to prison. She comes to us every time she is released from the prison camp. Currently, she’s behind bars for robbery.

A woman is cooking the dinner for everyone

The sisters, as the patients are called here, live in a dormitory or in a house, three persons in one room. They have meals in a refectory. Some of them stay here with their children. Child protection services don’t mind it: they’ve already seen that the mothers don’t drink while they stay here, and that their children are taken care of. While the women are at work, their underage children go to a kindergarten in v. Višnieŭka.

Every sister chooses for herself how long she is going to stay in the center. Initially, she is allowed to stay here for three or six months. When the three-month-long term ends, she has a conversation with nuns and the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent who are trying to check whether her attitude has changed and whether it’s sensible to let her stay in the rehabilitation center any longer. One can stay in the rehab for as long as she wants but she has to be proactive and help the nuns.

Do the women really change? “The problem is that others can’t believe it. They think that it’s fake. Instead, they should support that person and let her see that her efforts aren’t in vain,” Nun Barbara points out.

The Rules: Don’t Drink, Wear a Long Skirt

While we’re anxiously looking at the soaring prices in the mall, the life of the rehab is different in that it’s much calmer. The women get together for prayer in the mornings and evenings. They recite an akathist —a special prayer to a certain saint. They spend the remaining time working. They sweep the floor and work in the Ceramic and Sewing Workshops. The Sewing Workshop makes priest vestments and modest clothes for female parishioners.

“These women will work only as long as they stay in the Convent. We’ve learned the hard way that they are unable to work anywhere else. Either they don’t get along with their employers or have a breakdown,” Nun Barbara maintains.

During the common prayer

As soon as the sisters gather the harvest in the fall, they start to get ready for Christmas caroling. They rehearse the carols that they will sing during the Christmastide to congratulate the locals on this glorious holiday. They have been to the nearby villages Kosyń, Nialidavičy, Luskava, Višnieŭka, Papierno this year. “The old ladies who live in those villages were so excited! People invite us to visit their homes the next year, too,” Nun Barbara recalls.

Father Andrew comes to the rehabilitation center every Tuesday and celebrates the Liturgy here. No one is forced to pray but… They recall a story that you wouldn’t call anything other than “unbelievable”. During the Great Lent, the sisters decided to read the Psalter round the clock, an hour each. Only three women refused. Later, their mental disorders exacerbated…

There are few rules in the rehabilitation center. Work honestly, don’t drink, don’t smoke inside the center, and wear modest clothes, i.e., a long skirt and a headscarf. Even the guard dog wears pants here.

Not everyone is ready to obey these rules, though. For example, when some volunteers brought a homeless woman who had slept in the railway station to the rehab, she spent only one night here, and then grabbed her belongings and left. Those who don’t want to stick to the rules are asked to leave the rehab. The nuns don’t just kick them out: they do everything they can to find accommodation and employment for them outside of the rehab. The nuns find farming jobs for the women and ask local authorities to provide accommodation for them.

“My Daughter Was Adopted While I Was in Prison”

We are having tea in the nuns’ house. There are icons on the shelves in the dining room and a carpet with an image of Christ hanging on the wall in the corridor. Even fridge magnets come from various holy places.

Alla is sitting in front of me. The woman came here six years ago. She had issues with alcohol abuse. She was trying to fight that dependency on her own but soon she figured out that it’s impossible without God. When she came to the rehab, she had a black eye and no papers. When I look at that smiling woman, I can’t believe that she is the same person who had gone through so much trouble in the past.

Alla has three children. Her youngest son is 15 and her oldest daughter is 24. She visits them from time to time but she doesn’t want to bother them too often. “It’s useless now: they have their own lives. My in-laws took care of them while they were kids. I’m not sure that I really need to be involved in their upbringing now. They are glad that I’m okay.”

Alla is the only woman who has never left the rehab. She wanted to get married several times but the sisters warned her against a hasty marriage. “I love the rehab: it’s my home,” the woman says. “I’d like to become a nun but I don’t want to leave this wonderful place.”

“Look, Gena is coming!” The sisters notice a male figure in the window. “It’s your guest, Sveta, for sure!”

Sveta runs outdoors. She returns a couple of minutes later with a smile on her face and a wristwatch in her hands. “We’ve worked things out. Look what he’s given me.”

Sveta found herself in the rehab because she had no other choice. If she had, she chose alcohol.

“I was a lawyer. Then my mom had a stroke and died. It was at that time that something went terribly wrong… My father is an alcoholic. He has been an alcoholic for as long as I remember him. I started drinking heavily, too—to the point of neglecting my appearance.

When child protection services took Sveta’s daughter away, she came to her senses. She found a job at a health resort and the social workers allowed her to take her daughter back home. Sadly, it wasn’t long until she started drinking again. “I would always say to myself: just one last shot to relax. After you drink, you forget all your promises. I didn’t even need anyone else to drink with.”

Child protection services had to intervene again. They took her daughter away again and sent Sveta to Novinki (a psychiatric hospital in Minsk) for a three-week treatment course. It was there that she met Gena, who worked in the Convent. When the woman was discharged from hospital, she didn’t stop drinking. One day she didn’t have enough liquor. Sveta knew that her neighbor stored a gallon of pure alcohol at home. She broke into the neighbor’s house and stole it. Three days later, the police raided her house. She was sentenced to house arrest. Sadly, the woman didn’t want to obey the terms of her house arrest. Three violations of the terms were enough to get her behind bars but she committed forty violations so it was natural that she was sent to a prison camp located in Homiel for fourteen months.

Sveta came to the rehabilitation center for the first time in December 2016. However, she was unable to stay here long. She returned in July 2017: Gena talked her into it. She resisted, though. She drank vodka to make sure that they wouldn’t let her in while she was drunk. The “diehard atheist”, as she had proudly called herself, finally gave in and asked the nuns to let her come in for rehabilitation the following day.

“There’s little free time here, and that’s great. When I was bored, I was looking for something to occupy myself with and would invariably start thinking of alcohol,” Sveta recalls.

There is only one detail that is missing in the happy end of Sveta’s story. While she was in prison, her daughter was adopted. She doesn’t even know who her new parents are. “What do I do now?” she keeps asking.

“You have to pray,” Nun Barbara suggests.

“I Said: If You Refuse to Help Me, I’ll Die”

Veronica is a young mother who stays in the rehab together with her 5-year-old daughter Milana. Nowadays, she is happy to earn a small amount of money in the ceramic workshop, even though she used to be super-rich because she worked as a croupier in a casino. Drugs spoiled everything.

“Even when I gave birth to the baby, I didn’t stop,” she recalls. “My husband used drugs, too. I was thinking of leaving him but where could I go? I have poor relationships with my parents: we just can’t get along. They were ready to accept their granddaughter but not me. I came to the Convent because I had attended services here for a while. I said: If you refuse to help me, I’ll die.”

Veronica carrying vases and cups made in the Ceramic Workshop of St. Elisabeth Convent

Veronica had a hard time getting accustomed to the new lifestyle.

“I could no longer afford expensive smartphones and designer clothes. I had thought, ‘I’m never going to wash a public restroom in my life!’ I had to force myself into doing the work that I have to do here.”

Veronica’s former husband visits their daughter sometimes. “He keeps talking about love all the time but in reality…” Veronica sighs. She has spent four years in the rehabilitation center. She plans to leave it next spring. “Everybody says it’s too early but it seems to me it’s time. I’m going to rent an apartment in the city. I’m planning to continue working in the workshop for now, and then who knows… I dream of living in the mountains.”

…Nun Barbara knows for sure: If one acknowledges her problem, she’s made her first step to freedom. It is easier to work with openhearted and sincere women. Unfortunately, nuns can’t always be near. What happens to those who eventually decide to leave the rehab? Nun Barbara doesn’t hide the fact that it depends. There is only one piece of advice that she offers to those who leave the rehab, “If you keep going to church, everything will be fine.”

By Natallia Lubnevskaya

Photos by Sergei Nikonovich

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: http://zviazda.by/ru/news/20180119/1516352190-kak-zhenshchinam-posle-koloniy-i-vytrezviteley-dayut-priyut-pri-monastyre

More than two hundred homeless or alcohol-addicted men gather on a farm 19 miles from Minsk during the winter, where they are supervised by just a couple of sisters from St. Elisabeth Convent.

“I feel I can’t cope with all that,” Sister Joanna, one of the nuns of St. Elisabeth Convent, admits. She is entrusted with an obedience at Lysaja Hara, the rehabilitation center run by St. Elisabeth Convent and located 19 miles from Minsk. It is a place where men who found themselves in a difficult situation—the homeless, drug and alcohol addicts, or generally those who lost their path in life—can come and stay.

Currently, there are more than 200 residents at Lysaja Hara, with five sisters who look after them. There are few rules: the patients must go to church and work. They must abstain from alcohol, drugs, and foul language. It isn’t an easy task for the brothers who come to the rehabilitation center to comply with these apparently simple rules, though.

Many people come to the rehabilitation center and leave, only to return later—and they are accepted back no matter how many times they’ve left.

“I work really hard to do what the Lord blesses me to do. Unfortunately, I see that I cannot cope with all that. I’m weak and ill. I’m angry and impatient sometimes. I feel especially bad when I have to tell someone what and how they should do and God knows that I don’t mean to sound rude or patronizing but they still feel offended. It’s really painful…” Sister Joanna complains.

“The sisters hold the reins quite tight, believe me,” Maksim, one of the residents of the rehabilitation center—a “brother”, as they call them here—chimes in. Maksim is 33, and he has spent about 14 years in prison.

The Old-Timers

Valery has spent about thirteen years in the rehabilitation center at Lysaja Hara. He remembers how the sisters kicked off this project in an old wooden house without any amenities, including running water. There were 25-30 men in the rehab at that time.

Valery works as a librarian: ⅓ of his visitors read spiritual books, ⅓ prefer classical works, and the rest like to read adventure and science fiction novels.

“Of course, life is easier here nowadays, although sometimes it seems that it was easier in the beginning. There used to be fewer people and we were closer. Of course, it was a little worse comfort-wise: bathing was a non-trivial task. We didn’t have a wash stand and had to use a cup to wash hands. Life was harder but simpler. It was like a student construction team: in spite of lack of comfort, the atmosphere was awesome… We worked more because there were fewer people. You was always easy to spot,” Valery recounts.

He was an engineer in the past. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he tried to start a business but he failed and started drinking… Finally, he found himself at Lysaja Hara. He used to work in greenhouses, on a farm, in the candle workshop, and in the refectory… Now he works in the library.

There are few old-timers at Lysaja Hara: only Valery and another brother who works as a tractor driver. There are a couple of other people who have been in and out of the rehabilitation center for years. Only about a third of the current residents are those who really want to break free from the bonds of their passions. The rest simply come in search of a warm place to spend the winter. There are more than 200 brothers in the rehabilitation center in winters but their number drops to about 100 in summertime.

The main occupation in the rehabilitation center is labor, to each according to their talent.

They come and go and then come back. They are given new chances all over again.

“It’s important that we give them that chance. They are probably waiting for us to reject them but we don’t. And they are hooked by this attitude. They start climbing out of the abyss. Sure, there are issues with us as humans, as living beings, and there are spiritual aspects, too. The spiritual is at the core of everything here, for sure. That’s the main thing. Otherwise, how are we different from other organizations?” Sister Joanna reckons.

The Nursery School

The rehabilitation center has changed significantly in the thirteen years of Brother Valery’s life here. There are new solid living quarters, a refectory, a church, and a detached workshops building.

The brothers live in cells: the more trustworthy ones in a room for two or three persons, while the newcomers live in larger cells for up to twelve persons.

“This is intended as a way for us to look after each other and not to fall into a temptation. If there are few people around, they will be able to hide in a private place and use the forbidden substances. Work makes us more responsible. When the sister in charge sees that one has enough self-control and is willing to change, then she’ll permit more comfortable terms,” Maksim says.

The newcomers go through the so-called nursery school. They have separate prayer times. There is a brother in charge of them. He talks with them and determines their labor duties on a daily basis.

“If the person pulls through the initial stage, he gets an assignment where he can earn some money as a way of encouragement. We’re not talking about wages here. It’s just an encouragement so that the brothers could buy tea or cigarettes, because most of them smoke. Without the money, they cannot buy anything. Well, and it makes them work harder,” Sister Joanna explains.

The most difficult types to deal with are homeless by choice, in other words, vagrants, and those who suffer from drug dependency.

“Drugs are a disaster! They warp one’s head and soul to such an extent… They even jump on trees and sit there like birds. There was a young man who was helping in the church. A boy, rather. He was possessed by demons due to drugs. He would talk in a strange voice in church and collapse. He would even bang his head against the floor and injure himself. It’s scary… As far as the tramps are concerned, they are used to living in the street. Here they get everything one may possibly need: a warm bed, food, and work… But they still prefer to wander around,” Sister Joanna sounds puzzled.

You won’t be able to stay away from work in the rehabilitation center. Both the newcomers and the old-timers work six days a week. Aside from numerous workshops (carpentry, locksmith’s, and candle workshops), there is a vegetable farm, a dairy farm, and greenhouses.

Every day begins with prayer, breakfast, and work. The brothers have lunch at around midday, and continue working until evening prayer. They work half a day on Saturday. Sunday is the day off. The brothers can leave the rehabilitation center at any time with the sisters’ blessing. Sisters emphasize that they don’t force anyone to stay in the rehabilitation center.

Maksim works in the carpentry shop and makes genuine masterpieces out of wood.

Life Stories

Maksim (who, as we’ve mentioned, spent 14 out of his 33 years of life in prison) has spent a year at Lysaja Hara, although he had planned to stay for one month. His friend had asked him to help the Convent to make church furniture.

“I’ve spent thirteen and a half years in prison. I went behind bars when I was 14. I’ve been in jail for as long as I remember myself. I didn’t suffer from any drug or alcohol-related issues. I just… I was empty inside. I had money and a place to live but I was empty inside,” Maksim says.

He doesn’t feel empty any longer. He carries out his obedience in the carpentry workshop and dreams of getting married.

“I’m not opposed to family life. I would like to get married. And I would like to continue working in the Convent, too,” Maksim admits.

Sister Joanna says that she would easily let Maksim leave the rehabilitation center. She says that she’s been asking God to send him a good and faithful wife. Unlike Maksim, Brother Alexei is clearly unable to live on his own, she feels. He’ll go on drinking until he dies.

Alexei is a young man, a professional actor, who came from Moscow Region following the advice of his parish priest. He had expected to spend three months here due to his alcohol abuse issues. Instead, he has been living here for two years already. At first, he attempted to run away. Now he doesn’t, he says.

“I just can’t stop. You know, as it often happens: I’m late for a bus, I’m late for a train, but I’ll always come to the liquor store in time,” Alexei jokes.

“Do you think that we’d prevent him from leaving the rehab if he had a good wife and if he could control himself?” Sister Joanna adds.

“Some people simply cannot control themselves. The Lord uses this place to make some people strong enough to live in the outside world. We have another Alexei, a construction worker from Russia, who comes to us from time to time. He has been married and his wife is great. Unfortunately, our Alexei will hardly do on his own in this world. We talked with Nun Martha, who is in charge of the rehabilitation center, and she doesn’t want to let him go. Honestly, he’ll end his life in a ditch or on a road. That’s so appalling…” the novice explains.

Alexei came to the rehabilitation center from Moscow Region, following the advice of his parish priest. Sister Joanna adopted this dog and named it Malysh.

It seems that Igor from Brest will also remain in the rehabilitation center. He came here to pull through the winter. He used to be in charge of a cafe. Now he looks after goats.

“If someone had told me a year ago that I was going to work on an animal farm like a pro, I’d have burst out laughing. I saw goats only on TV. When I came here, I saw lambing and calving. It was a revelation for me,” Igor doesn’t hide his feelings.

He came here in an attempt to escape alcoholism, emptiness, and loneliness. It was here that he went to the church and confessed his sins for the first time. He says he feels the urge to start reading the Gospel now. When asked about his plans, he replies, “I’ll stay and work here.”

The Mission

In addition to the brothers, there are about 30 dogs and 40 cats at Lysaja Hara. They have troubled fates, too. They were abandoned, crippled, and left to die…

For example, the cat named Kutuzov has only one eye. In fact, it was the reason why he got this name. However, he is brave like the famous general, too. At one point, he rushed to the defence of Sister Joanna when one of the brothers yelled at her.

In spite of all difficulties and the seemingly insufficient percentage of those brothers who return to normal life, Sister Joanna insists that their work is effective.

“Even if there is one person who gets saved and finds God after his stay here; if someone finds a family and gets reintegrated into the society; if there is a person who works and understands the true meaning of life—for the sake of others and for the sake of God—it’s already worth the effort,” Sister Joanna explains.

Anyway, all misunderstandings will certainly be forgotten on Sunday. It’s Easter time. The brothers are looking for the festive meal, lots of friendly conversations, and a solemn service in St. Elisabeth Convent. Easter is the great holiday that encourages everyone to hope for salvation.

Pictures by Victor Tolochko

Source: https://sputnik.by/society/20180405/1034653985/kak-na-lysoj-gore-spasayut-poteryannyh-lyudej.html

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How Women with Troubled Fates Receive Shelter in St. Elisabeth Convent

The Dog’s Chance: How Nuns Save the Lost at the Men's Rehabilitation Center

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