Our first night in Ukraine was marked by raindrops saturating the dusty ground all around Eagle Village, the place that would be our home for the next month. Our very last day in Eagle Village was fittingly marked by a similar occurrence. Except this time, instead of raindrops soaking the ground beneath our feet, it was teardrops. Standing shoulder to shoulder in a circle in the front yard of our house, hands clasped so tightly, fingers interlocking with the people that became our family in such a short amount of time, and sniffing back runny noses, we prayed.
We prayed and we wept, bowing our heads to our Father in humble adoration and thanksgiving for the month we just experienced and asking that He bestow abundant blessings upon the children, the families, the town, and the church of Eagle Village. As I stood in that circle, attempting to hide my teary, bloodshot, baby blues behind my aviator sunglasses, I recalled the rain that fell that very first night. I remembered how after the rain subsided, God so eloquently stretched a glorious rainbow across the skyline.
Now I've seen rainbows before, but not like this. This was a full color spectrum, full arced, full blown rainbow. If this was to be a sign for our month in Ukraine, God hit the nail right on the head. For as much as it rained in Ireland (every day) I didn't manage to stumble across one single rainbow. Now here we were in Ukraine on our very first night and God was dangling a magnificent one right above our heads. That rainbow spoke of the beauty of that place, and the beauty of the people that we would encounter there. Vivid colors and personalities, both reflecting the beauty of the Lord, effortlessly. Every single person we came across from that evening onward was just as captivating and alluring as the rainbow the very first night.
We spent the month working with a wonderful ministry called HopeHouse International. This ministry aims to provide free housing for Christian families who adopt. In the country of Ukraine, there are several unique laws concerning adoption:
One is that when a family shows interest in adopting an orphan who has siblings, as the majority of them do, they are required to adopt all of the siblings. This is in an effort to keep biological children together and not split them up.
Secondly, there are regulations when it comes to the size of the house that the children will live in. The house has to be large enough to accommodate all of the children. This is problematic for many Ukrainian couples who would like to adopt, but because their house is not big enough, and therefore does not meet these regulations, they cannot. This is when HopeHouse comes in and is able to provide families who adopt 3 or more children with houses that are big enough to accommodate the entire family.
When HopeHouse first started, they were able to simply purchase these houses, but ever since the events of 9/11, the economy has changed and they are no longer able to do this. The new approach is to build the houses from the ground up.
Enter team Theophilus!
We assisted in building one of the houses that will be lived in by a family and their adopted children. We also helped to finish a lot of interior work on a house that had already been built by the organization and will be used as a 'missionary house' where future teams like ourselves will come and stay. Our days were very long and tiring, but well worth the sweat and sunburn.
On a typical day we would get up and have breakfast at 7:30am and start work by 8. We did manual labor and construction work until 1pm when we had lunch (soup and hot coffee every single day.) The boys spent their mornings mixing and pouring concrete, installing insulation and windows, and building a porch for the house. The girls spent a hefty amount of time at the missionary house.
We are now professional painters, wall-paperers, and tile grouters. Basically we're a bunch of home improvement Martha Stewarts these days. Also, if you need any logs fireproofed or stained, I know a few girls who can get the job done.
Our evenings the first week in Ukraine were spent putting on a vacation bible school for the local kids. We did a daily bible lesson, song, verse in English and Russian, craft and game if time allowed. I don't think one night passed by that week where I didn't look up as the sun was setting against the mountains in the background, the joyful sounds of children playing echoing through the air, and thank God for where I was.
What a blessing! 'Is this real life!?' was a regular thought. The remaining weeks were spent doing more construction work and manual labor in the mornings and in the evenings we alternated our activities.
Every other day we drove up a narrow winding road through the mountains to an orphanage camp that was nestled away there where we did sports ministry with the kids. We got embarrassed in soccer on more than one occasion. Understatement of the year. On days we didn't go to the orphanage camp, we participated in the church's small group. Again, what a blessing it was to be in fellowship with that community, spend time in prayer, talking, sharing testimonies, stuffing our faces with sweets and hot tea, and singing worship songs as the minutes ticked by and darkness fell..
As far as our living situation was concerned, we were right in there, experiencing and doing life the way HopeHouse does. We were staying in one of the houses that HopeHouse had built, living on the 1st floor. The whole house had 3 apartment style levels.
On the 2nd floor, was a family who had 3 adopted children and 1 biological, and the father was the pastor of the local church we partnered with. On the 3rd floor was another beautiful family who had 3 adopted children and 3 biological. The father was the foreman for all of HopeHouse's building projects, and therefore our boss!
We really were thrown right into the middle of their lives, and what an amazing experience it was to just be a part of their family and do life with them day in and day out. There were always plenty of kids around to play with, and even more love to go around. Whether it was giving a piggy-back ride, kicking the 'futbol' back and fourth, painting our toenails and braiding hair, or just sitting around laughing and attempting to teach each other our native languages, there certainly was never a dull moment.
Eagle Village and Ukraine will without a doubt always have a special place in my heart and I pray that when the people I encountered think about our time spent together, they might not remember the crazy blonde american girl but rather the crazy awesome Jesus that is in me. Below is a video clip of our time spent there, enjoy and be blessed!
