October 29, 2011

I am going to appoliogize ahead of time.  I am the woman with a lot of words, and I have many thoughts and feelings to share with you.  Yesterday was a phenomenal day.  But first I am going to back up.

I want to give you a little Ukraine mentality.  They believe that the only way to get young/old people to do what you want is to come down real hard on them.  They think they should continually tell them what they are doing wrong, and never
praise people for doing things well.

Well, Bill and I get here and we believe that you reward the good and work on the bad behavior.  This created a conflict for the couple (Andrey &Alona) that stay at the house all the time.  Andrey was concerned about them becoming the "bad parents" (in the boys eyes) and us being the "good parents".   

Alek asked us for a meeting to discuss this and some other topics.  We basically had Alek assure Andrey that we are there to not only love the boys and help them know God, but we were also there to help him and Alona run the house the way they wanted it run.  We also hope to alleviate some of the burden on them by taking over certain jobs at the house.

I am so thankful that this came up now.  Andrey is now happy for us to come back and he told us that he is anxiously awaiting our return.  God touches all of our hearts, especially in times of concern.

Now for yesterday; I am not going to bore you with the everyday stuff.  

We were able to visit an orphanage that was about 1 1/2 hours away.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there since we continually had to stop and ask people how to find the village.  It is so small that the GPS  could not even find it.

We first stopped at the missionaries house to pick up some people.  We then drove to the gates of the orphanage and the kids were so excited to see us they were in the road, hanging on the gates... basically mobbing the van. 

When we got out, the kids started hugging  the missionaries, but they kind of just looked at Bill and I and shook our hands.  After a couple of hand shakes, I decided that was enough so I started taking their hand and pulling them into a hug. WOW, suddenly I was swarmed by children wanting hugs.  It was so, so (there are not words to describe it) they were talking to us in Russian and we were talking to them in English and God was our translator; another WOW.

We watched the missionaries conduct group games with the kids.  The first game we could not figure out the rules and the kids wanted us to play so bad.  

One of the girls wanted to take Oksana and us into their dorms and show us her room, so we got out of the cold for a bit.  As we were going into the dorm one little boy  (probably 7 years old) attached himself to me, and when it was time to go outside again he tugged on my arm for me to stay inside and sit with him and a few other kids that were watching t.v.  It was very touching.

I had taken my iPad out for the kids to play with and oh boy Pastor Clay you were not kidding, I was mobbed again.  They ended up taking about 200 pictures and most of them were not worth keeping.

The missionaries brought the rest of the kids in and had a lesson.  This same young boy sat by me and kept asking me to take my I-pad out of my pack, but I continually said "net" (no).  A young lady on my other side reprimanded him a couple of times so he decided he was going to punch her.  I was able to stop him twice but the third time he was in the air with tears in his eyes and fists flying.  It took myself and a couple of girls to stop him.  Then one of the male missionaries came and took over.  I felt so bad; all that pent up emotion waiting to explode.

Before we left the orphanage the kids wanted all of us to take their pictures.  Then it was the longest walk to the van with kids hanging onto us so tight they did not want to let go.  Even after we were in the van they were so close to it I was afraid we would hit one of them.  I cannot wait to come back.  We hope to come and stay in that village at the missionary house for at least a week.

I failed to mention that Oksana was our interpreter.  She is a 21 year old young lady that lives at the girls center in Kherson.  Her love of God and Jesus is so inspiring.  She has gone to missionary school and is going on a two year mission to India.

I was talking to Oksana on the way home and shared how I was feeling a little insignificant in my role here.  She proceeded to tell me a story in the Bible about Moses, and how the Isrealites were fighting a battle against the Amalekites.   When his arms were raised to God they were winning, and when his arms were tired and he put them down they started losing the battle.  So Moses' brother Aaron and friend Hur stood on each side of Moses and held his arms up for him when he was tired.  She went on to say how important the helper role is because not many people are given that gift from God; that it takes a special person.

I was so touched to be taught by this wonderful young lady.  I pray that we will all listen to the young as well as the old because you never know who God will send to you to help you in your walk with Him.

Today we left the Joshua center (our house in Kherson) early and had to say good bye to the five boys that were there.  All I did was hug one of them and tell them that I loved him and the tears were flowing.  I had to work so hard to stifle the tears because it is hard on the boys to watch us cry.  I am going to miss them dearly and look forward to coming back.



K&B