The Voices of Ukrainians

Three weeks ago at church, Masha sat next to me.   Masha is ten, has Downs Syndrome and is a fantastic hugger.  She just loves hugging.  So I try to always stop and hug her back.  During the service, she came in and sat between me and her dad, for a while she loved on her dad and then she leaned her head on my shoulder, so I leaned my head over onto hers, and she looked up at me with this big smile.  She reached around and gave me a shoulder hug, and then patted my head, and then rubbed my back for a few minutes.  I didn’t move the entire time because it just felt so good.  It was just simple, innocent affection, and it sent tingles up my spine.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about you need more hugs and back scratches. Human contact is so important.  That’s why I try and hug the kids when we go up to the orphanage.  These are just a few stories of some of the hugs I’ve given and gotten this past month, and why hugs are so important in our ministry. My friend Viktor and some o

Janna and I do one on one English lessons with Marina and Tanya respectively.  We try to do two one-hour lessons a week except for when we aren’t in town. If the girls focus and know their material the lessons would be about 30 minutes. Two weeks ago, we had a really rough lesson.  Tanya stalled for twenty minutes before storming and sitting down sullenly with her head lowered.  She moped the entire time and the whole lesson she didn’t raise her head.  The lesson took three times longer than it should have and in the end I just gave up and let her go before we finished what I had planned for us.  Marina spent the whole lesson with Janna complaining that there was too much work (The lessons that Janna prepares for Marina are always 1 page long).  Janna has been trying to get Marina to master her pronouns and 8 verbs.  This is over the course of almost 20 lessons.  Neither girl had done their homework.  They never have. The next day Janna and I went to our Russian lessons.  We also hav

Here are just a few of the kids that touch our hearts. Nastia   This little girl has been one of our favorites ever since she came to the orphanage 2 years ago with her sister, Luba. Now Nastia is in 4th grade, and she's just a really good kid. One of the most exciting things about this year is that the kids are showing some interest in learning English. This has not been the case in the past. A few weeks ago, Nastia and Lolita wanted to hang out with me, and so arm and arm we walked around outside. They wanted me to teach them English, so I spent about an hour repeating phrases like "today is sunny" (it was indeed a gorgeous day; one of the first days of spring)! and "today is beautiful," or "you are beautiful!' If I stopped for a moment, they would immediately say, "teach us something else in English!" I pray that this trend continues, because once the kids finish school and are on their own, it is extremely helpful if they know En

Last night I talked to my parents.  Apparently, people in their church keep asking when we are leaving Ukraine, because the situation here isn’t exactly stable.  We’ve also been getting emails and messages from worried friends, acquaintances and Facebook entities.  Most people simply assure us that they are praying for us, but some have suggested that we leave the country.  So, I want to state for the record. I have no intention of leaving Ukraine. We have not been in danger yet. Even if we are in danger, we don’t want to leave Ukraine. Yes, we have an evacuation plan if the government kicks us out, but we aren’t leaving.  I came to Ukraine to serve.  We moved here because we saw a need that we would be able to fill, and God opened the doors for us to be here.  My church is here.  My friends are here.   I have building projects and camps lined up for this year, and I’m really looking forward to all of those.  My wife and I only moved to Ukraine two and a half years ago, but si

Janna and I both wondered how the kids in the orphanage would act towards us when we returned from 4 months in the US.  Janna was especially worried that we would have to start again with our relationships.  Most of the groups that I spoke to in the US, I told about Sasha.  I couldn’t wait to get back and see Sasha again.  So the first day that I went up to the orphanage, I was so excited to see that Sasha was one of the kids who came out to meet us as we drove up.  I walked over to her, hugged her and told her that I missed her while I was gone.  She looked up at me, half-smiled and said, “OK.”  I thought to myself, “I guess I’m going to have to work at building this relationship up again.”  In a way that makes sense though, Sasha is now a teenage girl.  Things are never going to be simple with her again.  Since that first day, she has been at a different orphanage getting glasses.  (It sounds like something you would make up, but in the orphanage system getting glasses is a proce