Safe Haven and Giving

So this was the main focus of our last newsletter, but there is only so much you can say in one page, so Janna wrote that article and I wanted to kick off my return to writing for our blog by writing a great Christmas article … after Christmas in the States and Ukraine. Let just say I’m really early for next Christmas. 

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I want to give you a little perspective before I go off telling these stories.  Two weeks ago Janna and I were at Safe Haven visiting with Anya and Bogdon.   We were getting ready to leave and they were headed to the store, and offered to give us a lift.  As we were putting on our shoes in the mudroom, Bogdon looked at some of the house shoes that were in the shoe rack, and noticed that about half of them were falling apart.  He told me that he wished he could buy everyone new house shoes for Christmas, but they were 40 griven each ($5).  I was thinking even in a house of 18 people $5 a piece isn’t that bad, but you could tell by the way he said it, that was a chunk of change.  Safe Haven has plenty of money to make it, and that's about it.  When Janna and I ask if there is anything we can help them out with, Anya always requests the most basic of things.  Sheets and towels, beds so they can stop using cots for some of the boys.  Jackets for some of the kids.  Clothing for kids in the orphanage, because they can’t afford to give them what they wanted. 
In many ways its a good thing, most of the kids will be living in tight financial situations after they leave Safe Haven and they need to learn how to survive on little money.  If money weren’t a concern they wouldn’t learn how to manage it wisely.
But no one in Safe Haven has a lot of money to throw around.  So when they give, it means something. 

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This past summer we were at Safe Haven, at church one day and Anya told all of us about a need in our church. One of the families in our church had a special needs daughter who had an opportunity to go to a quality private school, which would be good because she wasn’t able to progress at the state-run school that she attended. They had been approved for a scholarship, but the school was located a ways from their home. Because of time and location, to be able to send the girl to school, the family would need to get a driver to take them across town to school everyday, and they weren’t able to afford that.

So Anya put the challenge to the church. If we all pitched in a little every month, this little girl could go to a private school. We prayed about it and then she passed a sheet around and asked everyone to write down our name and how much a month we could give. I waited till the end thinking I could put in more if needed to make sure the family had enough. But when the sheet got to me the first thing I saw was that everyone’s name was on the list. I had expected the families that go to church to sign up. I had even expected a few of the older kids who live in Safe Haven to sign up and give a few buck a month. But I think every kid who lived in Safe Haven signed up. And they were giving more than I thought. I quickly tallied it up an it seemed that for us to cover the needs of this family I would have to give just what everyone else seemed to be giving, about $10 a month.

So many things became clear at that moment. First, how small big obstacles, like finances, can be when you have a lot of hands working on the problem. That’s what the church is, in Acts 3 it says everyone gave what they had and none had need. The second think I realized is that Anya and Bogdon were teaching their kids how to give. I’ve had a lot of people ask us if the transition homes work. Its a hard question to answer, because everyone has a different opinion of what they should be accomplishing, but being able to say that I’ve seen Anya and Bogdon teach kids to give with a willing heart, that’s a definite way that Safe Haven has worked.

The last thing that hit me is that The Church at large has taught these kids to give as Christ gave. Safe Haven exists because people choose to give to it monthly. Many who have never even been to the house. They just heard about a need and decided that they wanted to give a little bit to make this ministry possible. And because some family in the States decides every month to give what they can, they have a home to live in. They have a family to lean on and learn from as they finish school and get ready for life on their own. All of us who choose to follow Christ and give have given the kids in Safe Haven an example to follow. And its worked. This is one of those things that makes me giddy excited. Its so cool.

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Janna and I always have a lot of things to give away to kids and families here in Ukraine, mostly because several people and churches have been moved to be involved in our ministry by sending clothes, toys and other goodies.  So about a month before Christmas, Janna was talking to Anya at Safe Haven about putting together a box of stuff to give to Anya so they could put together Christmas presents for their kids both in the house and in the orphanage.
Janna put together a box of clothes, soaps, shampoos, and other goodies to give Safe Haven so they could have a few more Christmas presents for the kids in their home and in the orphanage.  She was telling Anya about it one day in late November, and Danya overheard what they were saying.  Danya is Anya’s 7 year old son and he understands some English, but not a lot.  He thought that Janna was talking about buying presents for kids in the orphanage.  So he went into his room, and a couple of minutes later brought Janna 20 grevin (about 2.50). If Janna was buying presents for poor kids, he wanted to be a part of it.  He didn’t even have to think about it.
Janna was a little embarrassed and she and Anya explained that the box was already done and she didn’t need any money to buy presents.  But she thanked Danya for being so willing to help, and said she would remember to let him help her in the future. 
I had been talking to one of the guys and got to watch the whole thing take place.  And for the umpteenth time I thought to myself, “I love this place.”  It wasn’t the first time that someone had wanted to give without even thinking about it.  But it was one of the most beautiful times because it was Danya, my buddy, and he was just doing what he wanted to do and what he has seen his brothers and sisters and mom and dad do for years. 

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On Christmas Eve, and I went over to Safe Haven because we were having a little Christmas Eve service and sing along.  Janna was sick, but she sent me on a mission: I was to see if any of the kids at Safe Haven would “adopt” kids from Komarivka for Operation Birthday Love.  Their job would be to write the kids cards and buy some birthday presents.  A church in Morse, TX had generously donated money to pay for the presents, we just needed people to buy the presents and make the birthdays special.  We knew the kids in Safe Haven would be able to make the Birthday project super special if they wanted to.  After all, they had grown up in the orphanage and knew what it was like.
I started by sitting Oksana down with me and trying to explain what we were doing.  Oksana has been with us to Komarivka several times, so she knows a lot of the kids and she’s just a super sweet girl.  My thought was that if I just told her what was going on, she would get everyone else excited.  It worked.
Her first question was, “How many kids can I take?”  It was awesome.  I told her, “Lets start with one and we’ll see how many are left over at the end of the night.”
She claimed Katya first, because they had the same birthday, January 19th. But then she started scanning the list and stopped at Andre, Artyem, Nastia, Yanna, and on and on, because she wanted to take all the kids at the orphanage she had fallen in love with.  I think she would have claimed about 20 if they weren’t already claimed.  It was so much fun to watch her.  Janna and I will need to buy a lot of the presents for people in the states who sent money for their kid and I thought, “We definitely need to let her come birthday present shopping with us, she’ll love it.” 
As Oksana and some of the other girls passed the list around and chose kids, and shared stories, it was cool to see how excited they were about giving to the kids in Komarivka.  No one ever asked if they would be getting a birthday present, they just wanted to give. 

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Janna and I have seen the kids at Smile House give so much.  They have worked with us at Smile House, just because they had the day free.  They offer tea, seats, and salo (and I usually accept the first two).  And they’ve given us a welcome place in their home, even though we’ve learned its very difficult for most of them to trust people because of the ways they’ve been hurt in the past.

There are about 5 kids who come with us to Komarivka any chance they get.  Sometimes someone has to ride the two hours to Komarivka sitting on someone else’s lap because Oksana or someone else will show up unexpectedly, saying, “I just found out I could come.”  And at the end of the day, we usually have to drag them out of the kids arms because they’ve already made so many good friends. 

Two years ago we were telling people in the States that we wanted to come to Ukraine and help show the kids here a good example of a responsible, Christ-following adult, and that’s still my goal.  But I want to learn how to give as willingly and generously as Safe Haven does.