Well I’m in my last days before leaving for camp in Uzhgorod.  You ought to know that I’ll be a little internet inaccessible.  I’ve been shopping for materials and supplies, and it makes me long for Walmart.  Was it Faith who quoted to me, “If you can’t find it at Walmart, you probably don’t need it.”  They have a store here called, “Metro” and it’s as close to Walmart as I’m going to get in Kyiv.
So I wasn’t able to find plastic baseball bats, but I bought some toy samurai swords instead.  I could find watercolor paints, but no brushes.  That should make for an interesting craft project.    
Of course this means I’ll need to shop instead in the open market.  I was just hoping for finding everything at one place.  But I really love the open market system. (The Russian word is “REE-nok”)   As a pretty strict rule, unless I’m at Best Buy, I hate shopping.  You know the feeling (if you’re a guy) when you’ve been in a store for almost an entire hour, you feel like if you don’t get out soon, your head will implode or something.  
It’s different in the open market.  There are no slick ad campaigns and giant pictures of super models daring you to be different, just like everyone else.  You’re not force fed the latest hits from the artists of today.  
The outdoor market consists of individual kiosks, where people sell their stuff.  In the open market, you’re a human being pit against other human beings in a quest for that singular toilet plunger or box of matches.  In the O.M. you’re buying regular things from regular people.  If you don’t like the price, you look for another stall where they’re selling it cheaper.  Or, if you’re a haggler (I’m not), you can try to talk the price down.  
Prices are better for food in the open market, and your produce and bread will be fresher to boot.  I’m not sure about other stuff, but I imagine it’s cheaper in the Metro.  Still, when I buy that cheese grater, I’ll get it in the O.M.  The thing about shopping the market, is that you’re helping “the little guy.”  Often the saleslady is a “babushka” trying to supplement her meager pension.  For an American to buy a half kilo of her homemade carrot salad helps us both out on different levels.  And you can’t beat the price at sixty cents a pound.  
Of course there are certain things I wouldn’t buy in the open market.  Meat for example, or fish fresh off the stack.  I wouldn’t buy a laptop off the street, though I could  get DVDs that way, new movies in two languages for $5.  Oh but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

¶ 11:44 AM //

Okay, this isn't their normal expressions.  But I like Silly.  Rianne and her husband went back to Amsterdam this weekend.  I'll miss them.

¶ 5:41 PM //

Here's Oleg all scrunchied up chewin on his thumb.  We'll take good care of you, young man.

¶ 5:38 PM //

     Sadly, my digital camera has ceased to function.  But I’ve still got lots of pictures to show.  Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon.
     Dorothy said of Oz, “People are always coming and going around here.”  Same goes for YWAM Kyiv.  One by one, the YWAM schools are finishing up their classes.  Four schools are all finishing within a couple of weeks: the communication school, counseling school, discipleship training school, and School of Biblical Studies.  I’ve made significant friendships in each school and I’m continually saying goodbye.  Not fun.
     But some people in my life here aren’t going anywhere very soon.  Like these babies.  It’s been exciting working with the little fellas this week with all the new things we learned from the American nurses last weekend.  Let me tell you about little Oleg.  (pictured above… oh and below too)
     Oleg has a pretty bad case of asthma.  I’m not sure what other reasons he might be in the hospital, but I often hear him heaving, trying to breathe.  Off the top of my head I’d place Oleg around a year and a half, but I didn’t really pay attention.  He’s a pretty big boy and it’s hard to tell with orphans.  They don’t usually get the nutrition they need and tend to be undersized.  But not always.
     Oleg has been in the hospital for about two months.  And funny things happen to your body when you lay in a hospital bed for extended amounts of time.  In Oleg’s case, he tends to keep his arms at his side, not stretching them out.  No reason to.  But muscles that aren’t used are muscles that shrink, and he was losing mobility.
     My first mission in arriving at the hospital is to get Oleg to stretch those arms without hurting him.  It doesn’t take much and it’s better all the time.  You just rub his arms down from the shoulder while gradually pushing his arm down into a straightened position.  It’s just a case of relaxing some muscles and stretching others.  
     The other thing with Oleg is his breathing.  I’ll prop him up against me, cup my hand slightly, and gently thud on his back to loosen up the stuff in his lungs.  He’s a great little kid and really ticklish.  So if I barely squeeze his little thigh or rub his neck, he’ll squeal and coo.  Moochie Moochie.  He loves all the personal attention and I turn it into a game instead of a “medical treatment.”
     Last Friday I was happy to see that he was reaching out for me to pick him up.  His arms were almost fully stretched out and a big smile was on his face.  The daily Mother’s Care visits are really paying off.
     And before I forget, some people were interested in knowing how they could help Marina, that little girl I mentioned last week.  If you’d like to help out with her medical costs, you could send the check to:

Mothers Care
PO Box 513,
Crystal River, FL 34423  

The check should be made out to "Mother's Care" and is tax deductible.  (501c3 in America)  Email Rebecca at  mothers_care@hotmail.com and tell her that you gave specifically for Marina’s medical expenses.

I guess I’ve talked plenty so I’ll close it off for the day.  Thanks for your continued prayer.

¶ 5:35 PM //

Tolek (Short for Anatoly, I think) is a Ukrainian Jumping Bean.  He is always excited to see you and is perpetually in need of a Kleenex. 

¶ 3:42 AM //

Daniel is a pretty no nonsense child.  He almost always looks serious, like he's trying to work through quadratic equations or something.  He does think it's pretty funny when he tries to walk though.

¶ 3:40 AM //

At three years old, Marina has had a lifetime of health problems. She’s dealt with a cleft palette, gangrene, multiple amputations, blood problems, skin disease and some conditions I don’t even know the names of. I wrote a little article back in December about masks and this frail little girl.

It’s been six months since that time, and she’s actually a bit of a pioneer in the Mother’s Care ministry. She’s now the first child under our custody. After two years of wrestling with paperwork, government and hospital administration, she is now under our custody. Sonya, a Ukrainian on our team, is her official guardian.

What makes this situation unique for me, is that my nephew at home is a week younger than she is, and their lives are so vastly different. Marina has spent her entire life on a hospital bed and it’s evident by her health and development. Isaiah can speak clear conversations, run like crazy, and beat rhythms on his drums. Marina doesn’t even have the mechanics to do any of this at the moment.

She just had surgery this past Thursday, and when Marina’s recovered well enough for travel, she and Sonya will be flying to the United States where there are doctors ready to help her. Most importantly, she’ll be out of the orphanage system and with people who will give her the time and care that a little girl needs.

Ultimately, Mother’s Care wants to set up a home to minister to more children like Marina. Imagine a place where all children can feel loved and valued, no matter what their situation is. That will soon become a reality as the funds are raised to set up such a home.

In other news, we’ve had some visitors from the states this past weekend. A few nurses from Pennsylvania stopped by for a weekend to teach us. They specialize in physical therapy specifically for helping children develop. Babies in the hospitals are left in their cribs nearly all day. Because of this, they don’t get the exercise and the movement that they need, which causes other health and growth issues. We were taught techniques for helping our little guys loosen their stiff muscles and lend a hand in developing their motor and language skills.

The weekend was very beneficial for us and for the children we work with. I look forward, this week, to applying some of the things we’ve learned. God is good and is really equipping us to help His kids.

¶ 12:30 AM //

This is just a handful of the ninety kids who will be part of our summer camp in July.  Good boys.

¶ 11:42 AM //

I was surprised to see one of the orphans wearing ski shoes like the rest of us wear sneakers.  Those are his real shoes that he wears every day.  Gotta take what you get.

¶ 11:41 AM //

I started writing this update on a train from Uzhgorod back to Kyiv. It’s a sixteen hour ride. Yippee! Long train rides are really fun with the right people and the right location. I can’t even express the beauty of the Ukrainian countryside with the rich dark soil and the hints of the Carpathian mountains. You can see old fairy tale style thatched roofs in some places. It feels like we’re like a small part of God’s train set.

We’ve been doing groundwork for a weeklong camp for orphans. Uzhgorod is in the southwest corner of Ukraine, just on this side of the Hungarian border. An interesting feature about our camp, is that our campers will be almost exclusively gypsy children. According to an article in the BBC, it is believed that gypsies are the most hated race in Europe. Many campgrounds won’t even let us rent the facilities when they find out the kids are gypsies.

It grows more interesting though. There are many more needs with orphans than the “churchling” kids or unchurched kids I’ve worked with in the past. Here’s a few challenges I’m facing.

• We expected forty kids and we’ll be getting ninety instead. The age range is between 6 and 16. The camp will go from Monday to Friday, the first week of July.
  
• Orphans need and desire more adult attention. One thing that challenges workers in the past is a sort of clinginess from the kids. My team has made it a goal in the past to have as many staff as kids, but this will be impossible with this amount of campers.
  
• These children haven’t been taught about hygiene as a lifestyle. In fact, they take a shower and are given a change of clothes once a week in the orphanage. Good hygiene will be a focus point at our camp, and the kids will make t-shirts midway through the week.
  
• Due to situations beyond our control, we’ll be having the camp at a former military base. There is no playground there, no swimming facilities, or any child friendly equipment. We need to import the fun.
  
• We need staff who can speak Ukrainian, Russian, or Carpathian. They’re mostly westerners who come to help. Not as many local workers.

I’ll be the camp director this year. Even though I have the least experience with orphan camps, I have the most experience directing camps. We also have a church team coming from the Faroe Islands to help.

I sincerely ask for your prayers as we plan for this really important activity in the lives of these orphans. This is a major event for them, in ways that kids from nuclear families cannot fathom. God needs to be revealed to these kids as their Father. This is a tough lesson if your earthly father has been abusive, has dropped you off at an orphanage, or is completely absent from your life. As far as I know, that’s the normal situation for all of these kids.

¶ 5:41 PM //