We just had the most amazing road trip here in Ukraine. I was actually dreading this trip. I am not really sure why, but I am so glad that I listened to Pastor Clay, Bill, Alex and most of all God.
We took American Andrey with us as an interpreter. He would like to start interpreting for other American's that come to Ukraine. It was a good deal for both of us. We did not have to pay as much as a trained translator would cost, and Andrey was able to learn from us the things that American's would want.
We first headed to Kramatorsk. We visited a house that is a possibility for a new Center for transitional orphans. I was not looking forward to another small village. As it turns out the village was bigger than anticipated and it was very clean and friendly.
We first met up with Pastor Leo and the contractor, Vladimir. We walked through the house, which is in very bad condition. We were hoping that the foundation would be in good shape so the house could be repaired and updated, but as it turns out the foundation is not safe and we believe in the long run it would cost more to repair than to build new. With that thought in mind, we went with the Pastor and Contractor to a newly built house that was constructed more like an American home than a Ukrainian one. It was absolutely beautiful. The outside had log siding, the inside had wood everywhere; the walls, the floor and the ceiling.
The best part of Kramatorsk was the hospitality. Pastor Leo and Vladimir took us back to their lumber yard, but the great thing is, it is also a rehabilitation center for men and women that are recovering from alcoholism and/or jail. They rehabilitate them through God, love and patience. The construction is part of the rehabilitation for many reasons; it teaches the men and women a skill, plus it keeps them busy and teaches them how to be a part of a family. They have a woman that cooks all three meals a day, and some of the women in rehab are her cooking assistants. Everyone that we met seemed very happy. We were fed dinner in their cafeteria, and I have to say it was some of the best food that we have had since we got here. We had small pieces of beef that were in an aju' that when put over the mashed potatoes was fantastic. There was also chicken and a burrito with a meat inside that was interesting but good. We sat around ad talked for a while and with Andrey translating it was sooooooooooo much easier. They put out some candy and there was one kind that was so yummy, Bill and I kept eating them. I even put a wrapper in my pocket so we could look for some later. The cook noticed and when we got ready to leave she emptied the whole bowl into our hands. Yummy! Needless to say, they did not last very long and we have not found them again yet.
The next morning we met the Pastor, Vladimir, the Pastor's wife and a couple of other gentlemen for breakfast. It consisted of cookies, candy and tea. Bill and I thought it was a very interesting breakfast, but then later learned from Andrey it was more like a tea because we said we had to get going in the morning and not have breakfast. So our own fault and we were looking forward to breakfast after the dinner we had. Oh well.
After Kramatorsk we headed to Berdyansk. There are three more centers there, one being Ruth's house that Grace Place bought last year. Wow, wow, wow what a difference from Joshua's house. At Joshua's house there is much yelling from the house parents to force the boys to do what the house parents want done. At Ruth and Mel's house it is all done with love. At Ruth and Mel's house they are living together as a real family, and they help each other with daily tasks willingly. The house chores are divided differently; instead of a rotation of chores, each person is in charge of a particular task each day that if possible, goes along with that person's interest. For example, Losha (that loves to cook) is in charge of the kitchen every day. He does the cooking as well as the cleaning of the kitchen, but what is nice that we do not see at the Joshua house, is he can ask for help from the others and they all jump up willingly and happily to help.
It is amazing to see God's work at these houses. God even helped us out the first day. We knew that we were going to cook an American style dinner for the kids, but we were planning on doing it on Saturday night and for no particular reason Bill and I decided to do it Friday night when we arrived. We cooked an amazing amount of roast beef, green salad and everyones favorite potato salad. The God part about this is that is was Stas' birthday and I think it is a birthday that he will never forget because the American cooked dinner. We found out later that no other Americans have cooked for them, so it made it extra special.
We had so much fun with the family, and that is what they are; one big 20 person family. The house parents, Vova and Tonya, have three small children of their own and everyone is treated the same. They do not do special things for their kids just because they are birth children. Of all the boys and girls at Mel's and Ruth's house there is only one girl that is not in school or working. We started a game of Uno at about 3:00 p.m. and we found out it continued until 1:00 in the morning. It was great. If you won and had no cards you could just grab 7 more cards and join back in the game. They had a lot of fun giving Bill all the cards that said pick 4 cards, or even using their card that skipped him. Bill ended up with a whole handful of cards... pretty funny. They did take breaks for dinner and praise & worship. It was great - they were not made to join in, but it was great to see they all wanted to join in. Slava Bog (Praise God).
The energy in Berdyansk was so positive, I wish we could have spent more time there. One house I have not told you about is Elisha house. They broke off from Mel's house and have an apartment in the city. Oh, Mel's and Ruth's houses are out in the country about 20 minuets away from the city. Elisha's house has house parent Andrey and he has four boys with him. The cool thing about this house is they have a wood workshop that everyone works at, with Andrey being the boss. They make many things from souvenirs to canopy beds. None of them have formal training. Andrey got inspired to start the business and they have been learning from books and the internet. Andrey lets the boys be creative and come up with designs of their own. Grace Place was blessed with a card basket that we are bringing home with us. It was the first time that they have made this basket and it turned out great.
We've seen that all the houses have a lack of vegetables, so before leaving we left a bag with each house filled with fresh vegetables, sausage, cookies and fruit. They were so excited that they started cutting it up right away.
After Berdyansk we headed to a small village (I cannot remember the name) to David's house. We visited this house in October. David's house is the newest house and just got new house parents. The house parents were orphans themselves and had recently married. The girl comes from Ruth's house. Boy, the difference from October to now is amazing. They have cleaned it up considerably and made it a very warm home. At the moment they have two boys. We talked with both box them and they are very happy there. One of the boys was at Joshua's house for a couple of days when we first got here and he loves being at David's house because he has responsibilities and is encouraged to fine tune natural skills. They have 15 pigs right now. They would have had more but the mother pig that gave birth to 8 babies squished 7 of them. I got to hold the baby. Oh boy, when they were handing him to me he started to squeal and what did I do? I screamed! I had it in my head that he was going to bite me and I don't even know if pig's bite. I did eventually hold him and he quieted right down.... pretty funny. They are raising the pigs for meat for all the centers. Each center will pay David's house for the meat and in this way the meat is cheaper for the centers and David's house makes money.
They boys, Michael and Sergey, like to help elderly people in the village. They will turn their gardens over for them, shovel snow, what ever they see needs to be done. The elderly will try and pay them, but the boys turn them down saying they were doing God's work. The house parents are going to start having the boys preach for short times occasionally so that at some point they will be comfortable preaching for a whole church session. They hold church at the house and they have about 20 members that come over on Sunday. It is wonderful to hear about the evangelism they are doing in their small village. Even though we think they have nothing being so far way and in such a small village, they know they have everything and they don't want to leave. God is at work in David's House.
We left after a couple of hours, leaving them with a bag of groceries and enough money to buy 3 pair of muck boots (badly needed). Thank you Grace Place.
We are back in Kherson, spending the last couple of days with our boys. We will be taking them out to Celentano's, Ukraines pizza chain, tonight for a fun family dinner. Then tomorrow we are packing to catch the 7:45p.m. train to Kiev.
We will see everyone soon.
God Bless
Karen
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