As I’ve already mentioned in my previous blog, the area where I am at this month is known for trafficking girls and women to become brides for those that are willing to pay the price. Because this area is known for its beautiful women, the girls here seek the attention of boys and men by how they dress. We could tell that the high school girls were starved for attention based on the times we’ve got to hang out with them outside of school time. We did a cultural exchange program at one of the schools where the students interviewed us about our experience in different countries and where we challenged them on how they wanted to make a difference in the world.
Ukraine was once a communist nation, but although it isn’t governed by communism now, MANY of the people are. Our contacts shared with us about the persecution that people had experienced not too long ago, in the past 100 years- being put in prisons for 10+ years for faith in any religion since the government was atheist. In the past, individuals would be convinced by the government to bring false evidence to prosecute someone who would then get killed. Two weeks later, they would charge that accuser of bringing false evidence and would’ve had him killed as well. That was how things went back then.
Some of the teachers and staff still had a communist worldview. They were very proud of their nation sharing with us about the best things in Ukraine such as their natural foods. Although they permitted us to visit their school, some were scared of our visit because they didn’t want any mention of Jesus so we didn’t talk about Jesus. Although the Russian Orthodox church is a huge part of the culture in this area, Jesus seems to be a terrifying person to mention. We were Christians trying to help people wherever we get sent and the students knew this. If we can provide more encouragement for the students to impact their community and to know that they are loved -that would be great!
We loved the students and they loved us! We got to put together a soccer tournament with them and will be teaching them softball in a few days. It was probably my first time playing soccer that day. My rule of thumb was to stay between the opposing team member and the goal. I was horrible during the first half, but I did way better during the second half. I actually like soccer now. We lost 2 to 7 and it was one of our Ukrainian contacts on our American team who scored those two points in case you are wondering. First step, high school kids. Next step, World Cup.
