Something I�fve been excited about for this trip is finding out what the Lord is doing in each country, what His heart for the people is, what He is redeeming, what grieves Him. Stop 1 is Ukraine. I can�ft pronounce or spell the name of the town we�fre in, but it�fs about 2 hours from the capitol Kiev. We are working with a ministry called Jeremiah�fs Hope. It was started by Andrew Kelly, an American who visited here as a teenager, fell in love with it, and moved here as an adult to start a home for boys phasing out of orphanages. He then went on to start this ministry. Jeremiah�fs Hope is a camp, the outreach is mostly to orphans, but it also houses camps for missionary kids, and an occasional church group.
In orphanages in Ukraine, summer camp is mandatory. Originally summer camp was implemented to take the mass amounts of children from the orphanages and indoctrinate them with communist teachings. It is still in practice for orphanages to send the kids off to camp for a week during the summer as a time for the staff to take a break and make necessary repairs to the orphanages. When the kids come here they get so much more than the traditional Ukrainian camp experience. They get Jesus; they learn about what He has done for them, and they encounter His love in the staff.
The Lord is spoiling us this month. We get to sleep in the cabins, on real beds, and shower in real showers with warm water, and we have electricity. The weather here has been legit, it feels like fall! On a different note, something I�fm hearing about Ukraine is that Alcoholism has a grip on a lot of people in this country. Another thing we�fve talked about is the lack of funding for their social service system. The social workers here care, but don�ft have the money to change things. Most of the time when they find out about children living in abusive situations they don�ft have the resources to pick the child up and take them into custody.
Right now there�fs a little boy staying here that was taken out of an abusive home situation and brought here until they can find a place for him. His name is Artyume and he�fs 7 and crazy.
My next blog I�fm going to introduce you to my team. It�fs gonna be a good one. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers!
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