Today we went to the Chernobyl Childrens Hospital and visited close to 200 kids. There was only small percentage of orphans, the rest were from families affected by Chernobyl. We did our full program outside, and we were not rushedl. There were many tears and sad hearts as we packed up for the last time. [...]
Her devtion read, “To obey is better than sacrafice” (1 SAM 15:22). God doesn’t want you to just suffer on a mission project. God isn’t looking to see how many hours you spent witnessing. It doesn’t matter how much you feel you had to give up to follow Christ. God wants to see if you [...]
Patrick and Kasey shared their personal testimony and led us in a powerful devotional. Then we began to share as a group on our thoughts and experiences near the end of our mission. Mary Barnes shared with us that since she had been on this trip she was feeling guilty having such nice accomodations and [...]
Today we went to the nicest orphanage we have seen. What a difference there is in the kids who have been truly cared for versus just being kept. There were 105 kids between the ages of 5-17. We were inside again today but we got to keep the entire program except Rec. The face painting [...]
Today we went to an orphanage and visited 90 children between the ages of 4 – 7. The children looked as if they were 2 – 5. We shortened our program just so that we could spend time loving on them. We made sure that each child got a Polaroid picture. Jenny, Brenda, Lauren, Patrick, [...]
We sang, prayed, shared, laughed and bonded yet again. During our final prayer Gene Schamko asked us to think of the names of children that were imprinted in our minds and hearts and when prompted during the prayer to say them out loud. It was very moving to hear the names of Sasha, Misha, Natasha, [...]
Today the shipped dailed until 2:00 so we got some rest. We have been going non-stop since we arrived and we are all tired. It has been hard work the entire time, packing duffles, carrying duffles, playing with kids, and just the travel wears us out. But there is no complaining becuase we are all [...]
Happy 80th Birthday Mom (Virginia)!!! I’ll miss being there with you! From Deneen
Something we wanted to mention was that we are giving each orphanage a gift based on their request based on need. So far we’ve given a refridgerator, 60 pairs of sneakers for the kids, several comercial vacuums, around 50 gallons of paint and mattresses. In one orphage they requested a TV and Ice Cream for [...]
What affected us most today was the older kids (teenagers). They seem to be more distant, skeptical, and somewhat unemotional. They think we are here for the small chlidren. Our strategy has become to target the “leader” of the older group, and then the others seem to follow more readily. By the end of our [...]
