Two days ago I went to the orphanage in a neighboring city called Makariv (emphasis on the second syllable). I finally felt like I found the reason for coming. It feels good to put on the “children’s pastor” clothes again. We just spent time with 10 to 15 year olds, but apparently there are more children at the from age 2 to 9. Try as I might, I couldn’t see them. It may have been nap time though.

One unique opportunity was for me to see a skit I’d written performed in Russian. The Key of Hope team had discussed teaching the children about respect, and specifically this week about respecting each other. I had written a skit involving a plate of chocolate chip cookies with two characters, Mosha and Sasha (common Russian nicknames). The skit was basically about Sasha stealing the cookies, not realizing that they were for the kids in the audience. One surprise for me was that when it came time to perform the skit, instead of the chocolate chip cookies, they had prepared a dish of layer cookies, with bars of chocolate scattered among it.
I discovered afterwards that the only place I can get chocolate chip cookies in Kyiv is at the home of an American missionary. I’ve decided to make some for the Thanksgiving Love Feast that is planned soon. Incidentally, I did bring a pack of Oreos for that time when I miss American food. But as I’ve only been here a week now, I’m supposed to still in my honeymoon phase.

The language barrier was again the hardest part of this orphanage trip. I really want to talk to the kids beyond, “Hi. How are you? What is your name? How old are you?” Another difficulty is remembering names. In America, when you meet children, their names are David or Jennifer, they seem to be much easier to remember. When you’ve never heard the names before, like Eera or Yana, it doesn’t seem to lock in as well. I fear that I’ll be asking names all over again next week.

As is common for mission trips, I shared a little devotional that was translated sentence by sentence into Russian. I brought some puppets as a visual aid, because I was talking about something that happened to me as a puppeteer. I’m told that puppet ministry is very effective in Ukraine. Nurlan, the Key of Hope team leader, asked if I would be willing in the future to do puppet shows for the younger kids. He told me he felt bad because they took the young children out during the program because they believed they couldn’t sit still through the teaching. We’ll see what we can do about that. My feeling is that you could bring them in at least by 7 or 8, but I haven’t seen the teaching in the past, or spoken with the orphanage director.

All in all, a very positive experience. I’m learning more Russian every day, and believing by faith that I will be able to have a better semblance of conversations sooner than later.

The picture above features a few kids from the orphanage. The girl in white is "Eyre." I don't know the proper spelling, (since it would be Russian letters anyway) But it's pronounced, "EE-ruh."

¶ 10:57 AM

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