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

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