Hey everyone. I realize I am posting twice in one day, but these blogs don't leave a lot of room for lengthiness. Today (Thursday) was a little bit different. Instead of working on the fence like usual the group split up into different ministries because it was raining. One group went shopping, one went to the hospital to check up on a boy who goes to the church who spilled boiling water on himself (he's doing much better), Matthew is going to paint a mural of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the youth center here, and I went with the group to the local orphanage.
This orphanage is called first-stage because it is where the kids are dropped off to be in the orphanage system. Parents who either can't take care of their children or don't want them anymore (which happens all too often) simply leave their kids here and walk away. The kids stay here for 30-90 days while the orphanage tries to find a family member to take the children. All too often the parents will pick them up for a couple of days and return them for another 90 days because they don't make enough money to care for them. Because the orphanage is run by the church, they know their kids will be fed and clothed where they couldn't. It's so sad, and it broke my heart to think of all these kids who have to live apart from their parents because of money. In Ukraine everything costs just about as much as in the States, but Ukrainians make about 1/10 the money. It's just not set up for families to have a lot of children, which is unfortunate because the government gives money to families who have children. This is also part of the problem, because the parents often take the money and use it to buy a car or house, and then can't pay for the child they just had. The best thing we can do here is just love these kids as much as possible.
And that's exactly what we did. As soon as we walked in and the kids came into the room we were in, they ran up to us and hugged us. One little boy, Daniel, ran into my arms and refused to be put down the entire 4 hours we were there. All we did was play games with them, and make these little angel ornaments. We got to talk to them (as much as is possible when they only speak Russian and us only English), and play with them. I was so overjoyed, because I played with Daniel for most of the time. He craved male attention, which is hard to come by in the orphanage system which is mostly run by women. In fact, all the little boys there came up to me and a guy from the team, Ken, to play with and rough-house. They wanted to wrestle, and play tag, and just play with older guys. I felt so honored to be able to be a positive male role model in their lives, if even for only a couple of hours. I don't know if we had any impact on them, but they definitely made a place into my heart.
At one point we were putting the kids up on a little tower of foam blocks, and it was starting to tip a little so I put the kids off. They took this as a new game where they were trying to beat me and climb past me onto the blocks. I had so much fun as an onslaught of little boys and girls came running at me and tried to get past me, and I just scooped them down and hugged and tickled them as the game went on. The kids were so loving, and it was surprising that they still able to love so much even though they had been abandoned. It makes me thankful for my parents, and for God allowing them to have the capacity to take care of me and my siblings. I can't imagine if they had dropped me off at an orphanage one day and never returned. So we loved these kids as much as possible, and then had to leave.
We had an hour left before lunch, so we headed to the local bazaar and looked at the stalls. It was interesting, as there were separate parts for stands that were always there, and rented stalls. The smells of dried fish (which is popular here) and vegetables filled the air. There were rows and rows of stalls filled with all kinds of fish, meat, cheese, breads, vegetables, fruits, and lots of other things. We even went into the meat market and saw some butchering going on.
Tonight is the second to last night of VBS for the week here. Next week we will hold it again with the team, but in a different area of town. I'm starting to really love Ukraine, but I still feel a little tug in my heart for Hungary. It makes me feel a little guilty that I come here, and all I can think about is Hungary, but I guess that is God telling me that that is where I belong. Maybe, I'll have to wait and see.
After the team and the camp, Matthew and I will be working with Bill Brower in the youth center. I am so excited, as this is why I chose to come to Ukraine. The center is an after-school program were the kids just come and hang out. We make relationships with them, and then try to talk to them about Christ. I don't really feel in any position to spread the word of Christ right now until I get my own faith a little more in order, but I can definitely love these kids. If this center wasn't here, they wouldn't have anything else to do but go downtown and get drunk. It really is a wonderful ministry, and I love working with youth as I found out last summer with SMT.
Then at the end of the summer and Irish team will come in and we'll work with them. It's nice to finally know at least a basic outline of what we will be doing, although I get the feeling that God might change our plans more than once. He's funny like that, but it always comes out for the better, and I'm excited to see what he has planned for me this summer. I'm really trying to work out my faith with him, and it's great to do that here were I can serve and heal at the same time. I love God so much, and just want to draw closer to him. Please pray for me in this, and in all the other aspects of our ministry here. I'm trying hard to get to know people and build relationships, but it's hard with the language barried. Pray that it won't be a barrier, but a wonderful collection of unique cultures, and that I would pick up some Russian quickly. I've already learned some, but not nearly enough to have a conversation. Thanks for all of your love and support, and I love you all.
David
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