DAVENPORT -- ChildLife International celebrated its fifth birthday on Valentine's Day, an appropriate anniversary for an organization built on love.

ChildLife International founder, Connie Siefken, sorts through many donated items given by the people of the Quad Cities, in preparation for delivery to orphanages and hospitals. Thousands of dollars in aid were raised by the people of the Quad City area, some of which was delivered by the ChildLife International group which visited Russia last month.

Connie Siefken, of Davenport, started ChildLife from her home after visiting Russia on missionary trips with Revival Fires Ministries, based in Branson, Mo. Though she enjoyed handing out Bibles and spreading the Word of God, Ms. Siefken knew Russian people -- especially the children -- needed more.

``They are not going to listen to us and believe us if we say, `Jesus loves you,' and leave them there starving, or leave them there dying,'' Mrs. Siefken said from her Davenport home. ``When Jesus went in to preach to the multitudes, first He fed them, then He preached to them. We have to meet the physical needs first, and then the spiritual will come.''

ChildLife is founded on the Biblical verse James 1:27, that religion pure and undefiled is to help the widows and orphans in their affliction. While non-Christians are welcome to volunteer with the organization, Mrs. Siefken said ChildLife is based on Christian principles and will always stick to them.

``We won't promote anyone that tries to promote homosexuality, alcoholism -- those kind of people will not go, because ChildLife is a Christian organization,'' Mrs. Siefken said. ``We will not try to convert (non-Christians) to Christianity, and if they don't want to join the prayers, they can simply leave and have their own time to pray in their religion.''

Not so long ago, Mrs. Siefken did not have the luxury of worrying about her volunteers' principles. For its first few years, ChildLife was Mrs. Siefken and a telephone.

Since then, the organization has attracted a huge amount of interest, thanks to media attention and Mrs. Siefken's contagious passion for helping Russian children. While that is nice, it also stretches her to the limit.

She has so many things she wants to accomplish, and she tries to do them all. She wants to expand volunteer visits into the Tula region of Russia. She wants to find numerous host families to take in two orphans each for a summer visit. She wants to find hospitals willing to donate expensive medical treatment for children.

There are fundraisers to coordinate, trips to plan, donations to solicit and so much more. And of course, there is the telephone.

``It rang 40 times a day,'' Mrs. Siefken said tiredly after returning from Russia in February. ``God Bless Pat Herath, because I could not have done it without her.''

Many volunteers jumped forward to help out ChildLife. Mrs. Herath, of Moline, fielded phone calls about the February trip and arranged the group's plane tickets and visas. Rob Richardson, of Matherville, and Roger Johnson, of Fulton, arranged bus transport to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Every team member asked friends and relatives to donate money and small items to take on the trip.

Still, other details slipped through. The donated medicine the group brought in suitcases was held up at Moscow Customs for more than an hour because there was no paperwork, in Russian, to accompany it. The Customs agent finally let it go through after much persuasive pressure from the Russian facilitators ChildLife had hired for the week.

On the whole though, the trip went great, Mrs. Siefken said. She praised the volunteers for being flexible and willing to pitch in to get things done.

Regardless of any disorganization, ChildLife's good work cannot be refuted.

It shines in the faces of 4-year-old Ksyusha and 15-year-old Yuri, who are alive today because of ChildLife. It lives on in the Moscow children who have wonderful memories of a fun-filled summer in the United States.

And it stays in the hearts of many children as they play with a donated toy or put on their donated mittens. They will remember the men and women with funny voices who came to visit for a day.