Let me tell you a few words about us and the story behind our products…

Our family lives in British Columbia, Canada. We are Orthodox Christians and parishioners of the Saint Herman Orthodox Church (OCA).

There are many wooden block toys to teach our kids to recognize shapes or learn basic block building and fine-motor skills. But I wanted to create a different toy, an educational wooden block toy that children can use to build an Orthodox Church building while learning about its main parts and understanding their main purposes.

The idea was to provide more information about our Faith, Orthodox Church, the Liturgy in a few simple words that both parents and kids could understand. Our Priest Father Lawrence and his wife Matushka Donna helped us to write and proof read the text.

After making few sets we saw that the cost of production is pretty high. It takes few days to make one set and Canadian red cedar wood is quite expensive. But then we realized that making a wooden toy like this is similar to painting an icon… The goal is not to make a living from it, but to help other people, i.e. teach kids about God and the Orthodox Church. The whole idea became a missionary work, a unique way of preaching.

Many improvements we made, such as new Iconostasis, that includes a wooden plate and beautiful icon stickers painted by Danilov Stavropegic Monastery from Moscow, the bell tower, new crosses made from olive wood from Bethlehem. The booklet has been improved to provide more information about icons, Iconostasis, bell tower and olive wood crosses.