On June 23rd, we drove down to Mexico with a group from our church and met up with others from Calvary Chapel Kern River Valley. We spent five wonderful days serving and loving the children in a small Christian orphanage called Ciudad de Angeles. We took several of the youth from our church, including Dominic, and I'm sure they were forever changed by the orphans they met.
Lisa and Monica(all three of the girls in these photos are sisters)
Here's a short video of our time with God's children in Mexico.
Some of you might remember a blog I posted almost two years ago about a little boy Joshua met on a playground. The little boy was dirty, his clothes were a mess and the kids were making fun of him. You can read about our first encounter with him by clicking HERE.
Since then we have seen him a few times around the neighborhood and have learned that his name is Kyryl and he is now seven years old. He's a quiet shy boy that Joshua says the other kids aren't very nice to. Joshua has continued to pray for him and an opportunity to show him the love of Christ since that first meeting.
Yesterday, Joshua found Kyryl playing by himself out in the snow and he invited him into our home to play. Kyryl was very excited to see our hedgehog and told us how he likes to find them and play with them. He really liked Taras. Joshua shared some cookies with Kyryl and they played with Legos together until it was time for him to go home.
Joshua decided to give Kyryl most of the Legos he was planning to take back to California with him. I know those were some of Joshua's favorite things, but he never hesitated when he loaded up a plastic bag full of them for Kyryl. We also sent him home with a little Ukrainian story book that explains the life of Jesus and how he died for us. Kyryl was very thankful and polite when he left. It really broke my heart as I helped him get his jacket and boots on to go outside. His clothes were absolutely filthy and his jacket had more holes and patches than I could count. We still don't know much about Kyryl's home life, but we can only imagine. I pray that Jesus will touch his heart and that he will always remember the kind little American boy who keeps a hedgehog as a pet.
This is Kyryl the first time we saw him almost two years ago.
From left to right, trying to keep from freezing in the snow and wind: Oksana, Olya, Edna, Zhenya, and Vlada
Yesterday, we met up with four of the girls from Chernihiv (Olya, Vlada, Oksana, and Zhenya) to travel to a nearby orphanage in the Bila Tserkva region in the village of Velykopolovetske. It isn't really an orphanage, but rather an internaught. It functions much like an orphanage, but most of the children actually have parents. They have either been abandoned or taken away from abusive parents. For simplicity, we refer to it as an orphanage and basically it is very similar in appearance. The children there range in ages from 6 to 17 years old.
Our plan was to put on a little skit about the birth of Jesus and then spend time talking with the children. When we arrived there was already a group of Ukrainian volunteers from Kyiv putting on a festival to celebrate Svyatyi Mykolai, or the feast of Saint Nicholas. Traditionally, on the 19th of December, children in Ukraine receive gifts to mark the occasion. So we just celebrated with the children and spent time with them later in their classrooms where we received lots of loving hugs and gave back as many as we could.
Pavlina (16), Edna, Olya, Valya (17), and Olya (17)
Edna and I spent a lot of time talking with Pavlina (the girl in red in the above photo). She loves practicing her English and is a really smart girl. It was so sad to hear her talk about how depressing it is for her there. She will have one more year and then she will be on her own at age 17. Edna has promised to write to her and we were happy to hear that she is in contact with American Christians in Kyiv and has been involved in a good church there. Pavlina has other siblings, but rarely sees them.
7 year old Vova really liked his new puppy
Vlada with a little boy who was sitting under a table
Little girls often have their hair cut short because of lice
Sisters, Valya, Tanya, and brother Dima. A fourth sibling not pictured is also at the orphanage.
One of the saddest moments for me was hearing about the three siblings in the above photo. Valya, the little girl in pink so happy with her little squirrel, was horribly burned on the top of her head, down to the bone. Apparently her mother pushed her into a heating furnace as some type of punishment. She suffers from learning disabilities as well, but she had the most beautiful loving eyes and she told me that she knew Jesus loved her. They have two other siblings in another orphanage/internaught.
When it was time to go, it was difficult emotionally as well as physically. One little boy named Artem who had been hugging me and hanging on me earlier, came running out into the snow in the dark. He was yelling, "Uncle Hrysha (my Ukrainian nickname), I didn't say goodbye yet!" He kept holding on to me and I wanted to just sit and hold him, but we had a bus to catch. It broke my heart. I really want to go back there again.
I'm so encouraged by the girls from Chernihiv who travel half the day just to love these kids and share about Jesus with them. They honored us by spending the night in our home and then left this morning in the falling snow to see the children one more time before going home to Chernihiv. They're my heroes. Thanks girls.
Before and after of the old swings complete with new bearings and paint.
Yesterday, I put the final touches on our Playground Restoration Project by painting the new benches and the repaired rigid swings (you can see all the past posts about the playground by clicking HERE). The group from Pryluky made these last repairs and additions to the playground before the Children's Festival. We definitely couldn't have done it without them.
A splash of color for the new benches
We've been planning this outreach for a long time now and I'm so happy to see everything done. The paint we put on this Spring hasn't held up against the summer sun and humidity as well as I would have liked, but it's still a huge improvement. The children, parents, and grandparents really enjoy the repairs and additions that were made and through this we have become closer with a lot of them. It has definitely opened up doors for sharing the Gospel. I'm excited to see how God will use all of this.
Before and after of the suspended balance beam
While I was painting yesterday, several children came up to me and asked all sorts of questions. They asked things like, "What color will you paint that?", "How long will it take the paint to dry?", "What else are you going to build?", "Do the paint fumes bother you?", and so on. The question that took me by surprise came from a little boy. He said, "Why are you doing all this? Is it because you like children?" I said yes and kept painting, but I started thinking about his question.
This bench had been completely destroyed by vandals at one point.
Why did I do all that work? There have been plenty of times when I was frustrated because fresh paint was ruined by kids throwing sand or ripping down "wet paint" signs or by people throwing litter all over the ground right after I had picked it all up. It can be discouraging when not everyone appreciates what you have done, but I didn't do the work to try and please everybody. So why did I do it?
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14
And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matthew 18:3-5
I did it so that the children would have a safe place to play, that they might come and through outreaches like the Children's Festival come to know the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Yesterday we held a Children's Festival on the playground outside of our apartment with the help of eleven people from Calvary Chapel Pryluky. We also cleaned up the playground, added four new benches, repaired the old swings, and added a suspended balance beam before the festival. I can't believe how much we accomplished in just one day. The festival was a huge success in that God's word was taught and the name of Jesus was made known as our Lord and Savior to about fifty kids (not counting about fifteen or so that came late or simply just watched the other kids participate). It doesn't get much better than that.
Songs and prayer to gather the children.
The team had five stations with four rotating groups broken down by age. The theme was, "Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life". There were crafts, Bible Teaching, worship songs, activities, and face painting. The festival ended with songs, a prayer, and a water balloon toss. Words can't really describe how much God blessed our time with the children and with everyone from Pryluky, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
Edna and Olya discussing the festival.
We were happy to see that several mothers and grandmothers thanked us for our work on the playground and for the festival. It was interesting to see how many people in the surrounding apartments were all watching and listening to the music from their balconies. A few people watched the festival from the benches on the playground, including our neighbor Olya (who also helped us out with the cooking). Olya and Natasha, the woman whose husband died last week (see post), said they both want to come to church with us next week. Praise God.
Max and Dominic uncovering an ancient walkway and border.
Max and Yana painting the street with John 14:6.
Kolya and Max replacing the bearings on the old swings.
Dasha and Dasha. "Jesus - the way, and the truth, and the life!"
Max and Sasha securing a balance beam.
Building new benches.
Testing the new attraction.
Sasha finishing the benches.
"God loves you!"
Tanya with her group on the new benches.
Max teaching about salvation only through Jesus Christ.
Natasha painting faces and hands.
Dasha, Vika, and Tanya with happy faces, literally.
"Jesus"
Maryna helping lead the kids in a song.
Water balloon toss.
You can see the rest of the photos we took by clicking HERE.
Today I decided to put up the two swings we had brought from California. The kids had never really seen swings like this before and were a little uneasy about how to use them at first. All the swings I've seen here are either rigid metal or wood. They won't give if a child were to walk in front of one that was in motion. (Dominic witnessed this first hand when he saw a man accidentally get hit in the face by one of these contraptions.)
These are the typical rigid metal swings you see on playgrounds here.
The kids quickly got over their initial fears and started pushing these new "chain swings" to the limit. For awhile it was boys against girls as they competed to see who could touch the opposite overhead support with their feet first. Eventually the girls won out and took control of both swings forcing the boys to find other means of entertainment.
The girls have been using the swings non stop since I put them up. We are so happy that we could do this for the children in our neighborhood. We are even more excited about finishing the repairs we have planned for the playground and hosting a children's festival for all the kids the first Saturday in September. A group of people will be coming from the Pryluky church to help us do this so that we can share Christ with these children in both word and deed. Please pray that many children will come and have God's Word sown in their hearts.
Dominic stayed home from school today so that he could help with the painting on the playground. He was a huge help, but I think he was wishing he had gone to school by the end of the day. As usual, we had more offers of helping hands than we could accommodate. The smart ones like Maryna actually scheduled an appointment and Sasha made me promise to reserve a brush for her.
Maryna painting while the boys just stand around and watch (Interestingly enough, this happens a lot with adults, men stand around and watch while the women do all the work)
It took us all day, but I think we've done about as much as we can before we leave for California on the 27th. The rest will have to wait until we come back. There's still a lot we need to do, but the difference we've made so far is very encouraging. The children, parents, and grandparents really appreciate it and we have been blessed by the response.
Dominic helping Maryna with the spots she missed
At the end of the day it was such a blessing to look down on the playground and see all the children running around and playing as parents and grandparents watched. Hopefully the kids will be more willing to take care of the playground since they had a hand in bringing it back to life.
Maryna and Sasha
Although we aren't completely finished, here are a few before and after photos that show a little of our progress.
