Nun Nimfodora:

Not far from the convent there is a boarding home for children suffering from retarded psychophysical development. The diagnoses vary: Down’s Syndrome, patrimonial traumas, congenital physical defects and accompanying diseases of internal organs. Nearly two hundred children live within the confines of this hospital. Many of them are orphans.

A sparkling, early morning, there is a footpath among the grass, covered with silvery dew, and in every dewdrop there is a rainbow – in this way one can describe the world of childhood. The basic difference between a child and adult is the child’s simplicity, integrity of his perception of the world, he can completely give himself to a particular feeling.

Children are easy and open, they are not weighed down by the cares of life, they don’t have the sad experience of time passed – they live in the present, in the fullness of that which is now.

In communicating with children, it is possible to feel how one is vain, complicated, artificial.

In the perception of an adult there is mistrust, suspicion. A person sees himself, admires himself, processes everything through his own mind. And only “..when the Lord quietly and meekly penetrates the heart, which is dead, which an intelligent, educated person does not need, then a person begins to perceive that all that is complicated, mixed up, not simple is artificial…drawing near to God makes a person simple, bright, clean.” -- from the sermon of Fr. Andrei

Not far from the convent a children’s boarding house is located – a concrete fence separates it from an adult’s home. Nearly 200 children permanently live in this house, most of them with serious, usually congenital diseases.

Their sincerity, simplicity and trustfulness as well as their joyful perception of the world are remarkable. They have not a trace of cunning; it is hard to see anywhere such a pure and sincere smile.

Children are capable of completely giving themselves up to joy in seeing the sun, a flower, a bird. In order to meet God, they have no need of the long road from the mind to the heart, their souls sense grace and draws them to everything holy. For this reason in ancient times children were called God’s children. Having quarreled, they do not hold onto feelings of anger, they quickly forgive offenses. Those who have relatives love and pray for them. The Lord loves and never leaves these children – perhaps for this reason their souls are so full of joy.

It seems that the boarding house has its own world, incongruous with that on the outside.

Children are simple in their manifestations – they can sincerely and joyfully embrace a person whom they see for the first time, they are ready to share their love with everyone. They are sensitive to other’s feelings, when one is sad, they begin to console them.

In the boarding home there is a division for bedridden children where there are some little martyrs. Time has stopped for them. It is painful to view their suffering, but one’s heart senses that their pure souls will eternally be with God, where all sickness, sighing and sorrow have fled.

The priest administers communion to these children in the ward. Those who are able to go to church are joyful when they are taken to a service.

The children draw wonderfully. It is interesting that their favorite themes are angels, churches, domes with stars and crosses. Their innate sense of composition and color, as well as their internal freedom, are amazing.

Working with these children, the sisters and brothers themselves become more simple and sincere.

On feast days prayer services are offered at the boarding house and skits and plays are performed for the children.

The sisters pray that a small church may be built on the territory of the boarding house dedicated to St. Nektarius, the Greek healer and wonderworker.