After a night in an apartment in Brooklyn, a night on a
plane, a night in a hostel and a night on a train we are at our ministry
location somewhere along the Ukraine/Russian border. This month, we are working
at a kids’ camp that is run by YWAM missionaries. The camp currently has around
120 kids running everywhere…all the time. It’s pretty crazy at times but in a
good way. The kids are either orphans or from a bad family situation. I’m not
exactly sure what our jobs will look like the entire month, but right now we
are just helping out the team in whatever way we can. Now If only I spoke
Russian…
I have been feeling a little frustrated since we have been
here. I’ve been frustrated with the language barrier and really unsure about
where my place is here. Honestly, I’m still not sure where my place is exactly,
but I feel like God has showed me a few things already. Right now we are
working with a team of 16 people from a Russian speaking church in Fresno
(Gethsemane Baptist Church I think). We have worked with them the past few
days, and they are doing amazing work! It’s been awesome to just watch them
love and teach these kids. They came so prepared…it’s truly unbelievable (this is
their second year here). An aspect of the Fresno team being so prepared (and
because they all speak Russian and English), is that I feel like there is
nothing for us to do. I have just been kind of floating around not really sure
how to interact with the kids or how to help their team.
So that’s where I am. And God is stretching me. Instead of
getting a task done or helping in whatever tangible way I can come up with,
I’ve had to just come to a place of learning to simply love on the kids. I like
tasks though. I like to have specific things to get done, and “love on the
kids” is not very tangible. Today was really cool though because I had the
chance to really spend a lot of time just hanging out with the kids. I played
catch with a few different kids, kicked a ball around with another kid (pretty
sure he got annoyed with how bad I am at the soccer stuff), and played way too
many games of Connect Four with the kids. As I was sitting there getting really
bored with the lack of a challenge from my 10 year old Connect Four opponent, I
sat back and thought about how blessed I am. I thought about the fact that I’m
in Ukraine playing Connect Four and trying my best to show this kid that God
loves him, and because God loves him, I love him. My way of showing this kid
that God loves him cannot be done through a verbal channel, but I’m learning
that it can look like me happily playing endless games of Connect Four and
doing my very best to give the kid the attention and support he needs.
can tell that they have been deeply hurt by different things throughout their
short lives. Pray that God’s love would break through any language or cultural
barrier. I would also ask that you pray for energy for our team. We have all
been pretty tired most of the time. We aren’t exactly sure why, but we need
energy to keep up with the kids.
