I just left camp dream. My heart breaks for those kids. They were so sad to see more of the their leaders leave. We’ve really been blessed with the amount of time we had just loving on those kids. Most of my group that I led left a few days ago, and I had a new crew of kids come in a few days ago. I didn’t get to say goodbye to a lot of the kids that I fell in love with, but our goodbyes today were definitely bittersweet. Also, the staff that worked in the kitchen…that we never really got to speak with a whole lot…we just worked along side of them…they were so sweet and so sad to see us leave. These kids are incredible. I can’t even imagine what they’ve gone through. Alcoholism is a huge problem here. Most kids have lost a parent due to it. Most of the kids stories are just heart breaking. We were super fortunate to get a team in from Cali to work with us. They are amazing and super fun and I’m now committed to carrying one of them on my back for the 11 months ( i named my pack after her). They brought some VBS stuff for us to go through with the kids…which was great for some groups…however my group of kids…not so much. My group came from broken homes and just really messy situations and VBS stuff just didn’t suit. I used it the first day or two just because I didn’t know what else to do…but I knew that was never gonna fly. So I prayed… and I started writing my own lessons for them and made them do physical activities that would tie in with it to prove my point. I even made them do wall sits one day with someone sitting on their lap. Yep drill srgnt Ashley…teachin about God and showing His love 🙂 The funny thing about doing wall sits in Ukraine…they don’t paint their walls…they chalk them. yep my kids love me. Once I started writing my own lessons and tying in personal stories and gearing them to situations that would break them down a little bit and hit home for them…they listened. Most of our day was just running around with the kids and spending quality time with them, playing games with them. I played a lot of frisbee, skip bo, ninja, soccer (i’m terrible and am going to have to pick it up quick). A lot of hugging and high fiving and sitting next to random kids and rubbing their backs. It was absolutely incredible to have these really tough kids that are faster and stronger than me, crumble in your arms at times. One of the trouble makers came to Christ while we were there too which was totally sweet. I’m so blessed to have had all of the people at that camp with us, such as the translators and Fajar…and most of all Forrest and Darcy (camp mom and dad for us).
I left the camp and am now in Lugansk for a few hours and will be catching a train to Kiev and then to Bucharest, Romania. 40 ish hours on a hot train….get excited.
