The Voices of Ukrainians

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a story about gift-giving at the orphanage and why I was more and more opposed to it based on the negative impacts. A lady from the US wrote me asking my take on Operation Christmas Child in this situation, because the Operation Christmas child boxes are only supposed to be given out by national groups who have a relationship with the recipients of the boxes. I was mulling this issue even before she wrote. Spending two years away from the States and then being there for four months makes things stand out a bit more starkly, and I think the materialism of Americans stood out more than anything else to me. This past year, though, God has been teaching me quite a bit. My answer is over 2,500 words, but it’s a complicated issue. We Americans always want to give some thing . We did presentations at 24+churches during our furlough last year, and we shared our most pressing need: financial assistance. We need people to partner with Children’s Hope Ukraine...

During our Easter retreat with our church, some of the ladies in our church told me I was like the churches grandpa. Everyone loved, me especially the kids and it was clear that I love them.    I was a little disconcerted that someone would compare me to a grandpa already, but kinda flattered by what they meant.     But then one of the ladies said, “But you never discipline. You should.”   It’s true, I have done almost no disciplining in my time here in Ukraine, but from where I stand, that’s with good reason.   At the orphanage, I’m just one of the group of people who visits once a week.   The director doesn’t even allow us to visit during school hours, so obviously we aren’t people with any authority at the orphanage.   At church and a lot of other situations, I just try to help where I can and stay out of the way the rest of the time.   I believe that discipline should be very intentional, and if you can’t have a discussion with a k...

We just made videos about different aspects of Children's Hope Ukraine.  And in the last video,  the American part of our team answers three basic questions.   What do we do in Ukraine?   What is it like to live in Ukraine?   How has your life in Ukraine helped you learn to trust God more?              

While we were producing these videos, Tanya, the house mom at LifeBoat, was in the hospital with some minor complications leading up to the birth of her second biological son, and so I simply narrated a video with pictures about their home, telling the story of how they took guardianship of their first two kids and worked towards getting their home complete so that they could bring in more children.

We just made a series of videos about Children's Hope Ukraine.  Hopefully later this week it will be up on www.childrenshopeukraine.org , but for now you can watch the first video here.  If you would like to use these videos in your church or small group, etc. please let me know and I can get you all of the videos.  Enjoy.

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 imp...

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...

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 ...

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, ...

Two years ago, Janna and I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.  The group we were with was very somber as we walked through the barracks, prison blocks and gas chambers where over a million people were killed.  People in our group talked together but it was hushed.  You could see people stop and look around, knowing they were trying to envision what it would have been like to live through the Holocaust. On Tuesday, Janna and I went down to Maidan to see everything after the most recent bout of violence that had started only a week ago.  Thousands of people were on the square, and the atmosphere was very much like it had been in Auschwitz.  Very somber, very subdued.  Lots of emotion. And rightly so.  In this place, police attacked civilians, their own people.  Last Thursday, a group of snipers started picking off anyone who was on the wrong side of the line, including medical volunteers.  But Ukrainians stood firm and they ha...

Right now, I could not be more proud of my Ukrainian brothers and sisters. Everyone knows that in the midst of a revolution like what Ukraine has had, when the government turns on its people, things can easily descend into chaos.  Normal people can turn into hooligans.  But, on the whole that’s not what has happened in Ukraine.  The Titushky The leaders of the government did recruit unemployed young men to come into the cities to work with the police to fight against the protestors.  At night, these young men, called titushky would travel around commit a variety of crimes from burning cars to looting, to beating individuals on the street.  The primary reason for the hire of these guys was to create the illusion that Kyiv and the country on the whole were descending into chaos and give the government an excuse to institute a state of emergency, and therefore tighter control of the situation.  I have a friend who was near an attack from titushky this past...