Thursdays at our team meetings, we each tell our highlight of the week.  This could be anything from a testimony, to a happy moment, to just a great deal at the market.  It’s often difficult for me to share a highlight, not because I don’t have one, but because I have so many, I can’t choose which one to share about.  I want to talk about two things.
     Christmas came early to Kyiv.  Today I received a care package from the good folks at LMCC.  In Kyiv, they send you a little note to go downtown to pick up your packages.  So getting it was an event, and when I saw the size, I was amazed.  (So were the people behind me in line)  I received some clothes, a dvd, someone even made me brownies.  On my way to the Street Kids Shelter, I mentioned my box of wonders to some of the Key of Hopers.  I was told to thank you from the whole team, because they’re all going to come over and eat my new jar of peanut butter.  Rotten friends I have.  :O)
     I wanted to share another experience of the week.  One of our missionaries is going home for good to Denmark  (Mmm, where Legos come from).  She’s trying to visit all the sites before she leaves, so I tag along sometimes.  That’s why I went to the National Museum of Chernobyl this week.
     For my younger readers (Hi Madi!) let me briefly sum up what happened at Chernobyl.  On April 26, 1986, there was an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (about 50 miles kind of north of here, according to my roommate).  An explosion destroyed one of the reactors and released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.  The accident was bad enough, but the shame of it was the response of the Communist government.  They did all they could to cover it up as long as possible, even from the people that lived there.
     There should have been evacuations immediately.  Instead, in the nearby city of Pribyat, seven weddings took place the day after the disaster.  May 1st was a labor holiday and many people were outside preparing for the celebration.  Everyone was exposed to unbelievable amounts of radiation before they were told (after 36 hours) that they would have to be “temporarily” evacuated.  Temporary is a relative term, scientists tell us this area might be safe to live in, in about 900 years.
     Anyway, the museum was amazing, kind of haunting.  The walls were covered with photos of workers who put out the fire, many of them losing their lives to radiation burns or cancer.  There was a 3D reenactment of the explosion and a computer simulation of how the cloud covered Europe.
     I couldn’t help but think about how communism, the government built on the foundation of atheism, left so much destruction to so many people.  Chernobyl caused an area as big as the state of New York to be uninhabitable.  Communism promised so much to the little guy, but in the long run only delivered persecution, poverty, and oppression.
     I know that communism is hardly the enemy it was a generation ago.  But here in Ukraine, it’s easy to see the results of rejecting God.  Every day I minister to kids who have been abandoned or abused.  Alcoholism and depression is a major problem in nearly all former soviet republics.  Ukraine has the worst AIDS problem in Europe.
     I haven’t yet met a person who’s working with at risk kids because they were motivated by their atheism.  Maybe some might exist somewhere.  But I’ve met many, many in churches and organizations of all backgrounds who sacrifice because of the God they love.  Makes me glad to know Jesus.

¶ 4:57 PM

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