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At some point
in his childhood, each member of the dance team was taken to live
in the orphanage, where they all continued After
mountains of paperwork and endless hours of rehearsing, the dance
team made their American debut in February 2003. They performed in
several churches, schools, and public venues in the Dallas metroplex
and the Chicagoland area. Their second tour came a year later and found
them in front of many different congregations, primarily in South Dallas,
where the teens went wild over their dance style. After that trip in
2004, The Broken Dancers tried twice, unsuccessfully, to get visas
for a Throughout their journeys of coming to the U.S. and attempting to come, the young men have experienced tremendous spiritual growth. Before going to their visa interviews this year, they prayed that God would show them whether He wanted to use them in Russia or America in March and that they would be content with His answer. They have learned that God's ways are not our ways and that He always has a plan. Alexei shares with audiences that initially he was bitter about being placed in the orphanage when he was 12 years old. However, he is now grateful for going to live in the orphanage because that's where he met Jesus. What a wonderful, eternal perspective. All of the dance team members are now part of a ministry known as Fireworks, a program of Spoken For International Youth Outreach. Fireworks is
an outreach in Penza, Russia that assists orphanage graduates in transitioning
from life in the orphanage to the “real world”. The program provides
spiritual mentoring and accountability as well as meeting physical,
medical, and educational needs. Participants in Fireworks also
receive guidance in life skills from local believers who reach out
in the spirit of Deuteronomy 10:18 – “He defends The message of The Broken Dancers is simple – God has a plan for each of us and we only need to seek Him then stand back and watch Him be glorified. None of the dancers has had what most would consider an ideal childhood, yet they are each striving to let God be seen through their lives. He is drawing people to their message not in spite of their difficult backgrounds, but because of their difficult backgrounds. Only a creative, sovereign God could take something Satan so obviously intended for evil and turn it around for good. The lives of Alexei, Dima, Slava, Misha, Yura, and many others like them, are amazing testimonies of that power. To learn more about The Broken Dancers or the Fireworks program, visit www.spokenfor.org. ::Lori Bond |
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