Ukraine...The second time around...

Hi everyone!!

It's so good to be able to write you all again after so long!! Things continue to be busy and time continues to tick on.

Since I last wrote on here, I had the chance to visit the Ukraine again. Our team, which consisted of 7 people, left Montreal on June 4th and returned on June the 19th. This was my second time visiting and working in the city of Dnepropetrovsk (south east of Kiev).

The majority of the work done there happened in orphanges. We got the opportunity to spend time with some amazing young people from 5 different orphanages in the city. There are easily 20 orphanages (perhaps more) in the city of Dnepropetrovsk alone. Unlike Canada, Ukraine does not have a fully functioning foster care system. As a result, thousands of babies, children and teenagers are living out their childhoods in institutions. It is a sad reality for many of them. However, I should make mention that while there we did meet and see with our own eyes some wonderdful places where the workers genuinely care and look after the children there.

The girl in the photo (above left) is named Leana. She, along with her younger brother Vitalic, were abandoned by their mother at the orphanage back in March. The day we came, she was telling our translator how sad and abandoned she felt. I held her and hugged her and told her that although she may have felt abandoned and worthless, nothing could be further from the truth. I tried to encouraged her with the truth and reality that she was special and viable eventhough her circumstances would show her otherwise.

Leana's situation is sad but not uncommon in Ukraine. Many children and babies are abandoned or left for a time in orphanages by their parents for various reasons. For some it is simply because they are sadly not wanted by their parents. Some parents struggle with alcohol or drug addictions, and taking care of a child is a nusance, not a joy. For other parents, poverty and joblessness haunt their every step, leaving them with little resources to properly take care of their children. They place them or leave them in the orphanage because they feel it is the only way that their child will have a chance to survive and be clothed and fed. Some times families are reunited, and sometimes they are not. Please pray along with me that Leana will be reunited with her family one day and will not be hurt or warped by the pain she feels right now. I am praying that God will take what is happening to her and shelter her through it and make her a stronger young woman and draw her closer to Him in the process. God is a God of second chances and redemption. He takes ashes and gives us beauty for them, and I pray He does that for Leana and other orphans in their pain.

When we would visit the children, we would begin with some Christian children's songs that had high energy movements to them. Then one of the men on the team (Cosimo) would lead the children in a musical activity using Orff instruments. They would recreate a thunder storm. The point of the actvity was to relay to the children that even when storms come into their lives, God can still bring something beautiful out of it. After this, myself or another team member (Sheila) would have a short 5 minute teaching about an important truth from the Bible. Then we would finish things off with a craft and then we would hand out gifts that we brought with us for them and the workers.

The teaching I shared with the children was based upon Ephesians 2:10 where it says, "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." I began by showing the children a picture of the Mona Lisa and asking them if they knew who this was. Then I asked them what a masterpiece was and then relayed to them the fact that they are just as much a masterpeice as the Mona Lisa if not more! God had created them all and they were all his best work and the best and most favored of all creation. Afterward, as a craft, we handed out pictures we had taken of the children, and had them make photo frames for their photos. The photos were to be a reminder to them that they are God's masterpiece and most cherished possession in all creation. The kids were thrilled to receive a photo of themselves and their friends because it is very rare that they get to have personalized photos.

My heart was especially touched and compelled when I shared this message at the handicapped orphanage. The handicapped in Ukraine are not afforded the rights and respect that the disabled in Canada are shown. Many public facilities are without ramps or amenities to help them. Those in the orphanage who reach 18 are promptly sent to an old folks home where they waste away the remainder of their days forgotten and alone. These young people needed to hear this message and be told that they were special and of worth no matter their physical state. I am praying that God takes the little we were able to offer them in word and deed, and do something powerful and life changing in and through them.

Finally, one thing that God has made me aware of through being on this trip, is that those who are most unlovable are the ones that need to be loved the most. Love and mercy need to trump everything else because when a person acts aweful, it's because there are deep hurts that need addressing and that are causing the unlovable behavior. Only giving them unconditional love, mercy and understanding will help. It chips away slowly at their defenses and gets to them in a way that attacking their character will not. It softens them and cares for them at the core of their hurt. It speaks to them long before anything else. Showing them this kind of love will eventually produce in them a self motivated, genuine sorrow and repentance for their behavior and all the hate they were harboring. Being given love when we are unlovable awakens in us a sense of brokenness. We become aware of our hurtful, aweful behavior, and are then so touched and struck by the show of genuine love and understanding, that it compels us to become genuinely sorrowful for our behavior and repent of it.

That's about it for me right now. I am hoping to write again soon and truely appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers for me through this adjusment time. May God richly bless and encourage and challenge you in your faith, so that you can be an even more effective witness for Him tomorrow than you are today!!

Me and Alyssa trying to look like Babushkas(Russian grandmas)