Our apologies for the time in between blog entries. The service for internet has been spotty on the ship.

Our next day of orphanages was in Kherson. We visited two orphanages, and two HopeHouse families between 4:00 and 9:00pm. It was intense trying to get everything done. But thanks to God’s provision we were able to actually sit down with the Hopehouse families at a local church and break bread with them. They provided us small sandwiches, cucumbers, tomatoes and cookies. We were exhausted, but filled with joy at the end of the day.

The first orphanage was a whirlwind visit, but there were many connections with the kids and team members. It was mostly older kids (10-15) and we had fun. The chicken dance always gets the kids smiling (and anything Kevin does).

The second orphanage was very pretty and it was actually right on the Dnieper River. These children were much younger (3-9). This orphanage was for children who had potential for getting TB and were receiving preventative treatments.

The entire team is working together to be the hands and feet of Christ with each doing as they are gifted from God. A special thanks to Chad and Wendy Webb for managing all of the duffles, and for all of their late nights sorting socks! Nancy, Jill, Danielle, Ellen, Olivia, Hope, Mandy, Debbie, Lynn, Amy and Katie all helped with the socks, and we (and the children) really appreciate the work on this!

Sorry for the lack of posts, we’ll try to catch up on this today.

Today we went to 2 orphanages in Sevastopil. Both of them were ones we visited last year. The children at both orphanages remembered the ones of us who went last year.

At the first orphanage we were met with the sounds of a brass band playing. The band was made up of some of the older boys from the orphanage. They played their music for us before we began our music. Ellen Martin quickly re-connected with a boy she met last year, Dima. He was smitten with her, and they had fun remembering last year. After we finished the program the director of the orphanage invited us into his office for a reception. They offered us refreshments and then they gave us gifts made by orphan children. This was the first time that any HopeHouse group had been offered a banquet like this in 15 years. We ended our time there by giving the orphanage the gift of lights for the rooms (they call them chandeliers) and lace for the childrens windows.

During our visit in the orphanage director’s office he talked to all of us and he basically said that he could tell from our smiles and our actions that we had the love of God in us and a love for these children. He also professed his love for the same God. Even with the language barrier he saw the love in our hearts! Praise God!

Yesterday we spent visiting two orphanages, one in Simferopil and the other in Sevastopil.

In Simferopil we visited the largest orphanage we will visit. We saw about 200 children, many with special needs, and most are not likely to be adopted. The entire team connected with the kids and some made some very special connections. We were blessed to have enough supplies for all of the kids, and they enjoyed the pictures, face painting and recreation. We did run out of hats with the last boy through the line. Joel Horton on our team took off his Ohio State hat and gave it to the boy. God provided not only the hat, but the heart as well. HopeHouse provided the orphanage a large industrial weed eater as a gift after our visit.

Later in the day we visited a small orphanage in Sevastopil. A small group of girls performed for us before our music team began. Jamey Bennett, Sheila Uselton, Pam Tippins, Jill Wench and Dawn Koch make up our music team (Jamey and the Royal Ruckettes) and they have been incredible. They are bringing upbeat, relavant and just plain fun music for the kids.

Mandy Miller and Emily Wood spent sometime inside the orphanage praying for the children. They both felt led to pray inside and they prayed over rooms, and other items inside and outside the building.

We spent time sharing after our visits and it was a very emotional and heart filled time for all of us. A number of people shared about how God has revealed Himself to them through their experiences on this trip. We are continuing to learn how God is changing us through this experience.

Thanks for the comments! Keep them coming.

We left Odessa yesterday and arrived in Sevastopil this afternoon. We had an eventful day sailing on the Black Sea preparing for our first orphanage. We all learned a new song written by Sheila Uselton. The song “Please Remember” is a great simple song that we are going to use to sing to the orphans right as we leave. It was translated into Ukrainian and we are practicing it often. The very last lines of the song is “God loves you”. This is an awesome message to leave with the children, a message of hope and of love.

This evening we spent time with a HopeHouse family and had some wonderful worship time. We got to hear their stories, and then they sang us songs. Kevin Wood borrowed their guitar and Olivia Brunson and Emily Wood joined him in leading us in a worship song that was very moving. The family thanked us for taking the time out of our lives to do this work.

God has continued to bless us in unexpected ways. We found additional duffles that will help provide more supplies to the 2 additional orphanages on our trip that we didn’t plan on.

Tomorrow morning will be our first orphanage. Please pray for the children that we will see tomorrow and that their hearts will be open to the message that we bring, God’s love and his amazing grace and mercy! Thanks for all of your prayers, we are feeling it!

We arrived safely yesterday evening after a long flight and bus ride. All our travels were safe, we got all of our luggage, and customs was a breeze. God has truly been with us and continues to bless us on this mission.

We are all on board the ship in Odessa, and today we are preparing our teams for orphanages starting Tuesday. We also got a chance to do some shopping! Yuri is treating us to a tour of Odessa this afternoon.

The entire group seems to be rested after our long trip here. Thanks for praying for us!