I already miss...

... the joys of a hundred orphans running around camp.

... the peacefulness and tranquility of a camp all to ourselves.

... seeing Campbell ride his bike around, "working on camp", and being independent.

... conversations with Tanya.

... hearing Andrey laugh at his own jokes.

... watching Campbell and Andrey yell at each other across camp in Russian.

... Luda's borsch.

... shashlik and banya at Sergey and Rita's.

... watching the guards break a smile as Campbell comes to hang out.

... lil' Sergey and Misha coming over to our internet cafe.

... our humble little home, where our guests sit on our bed to watch football games.

... hearing Russian.

... ears being blown out when I start the car after Jenya's been driving.

... that great feeling of when the lights and water come back on.

... working on the camp... or just hanging out with Matt while he does the work.

... the sea.

... sitting on the porch looking at the trees and feeling the peace of God when life doesn't make sense.

... being a part of programs that change people's lives.

2 hours before we leave. I was wrong Tanya... it's not like when I said goodbye before coming to Ukraine the first time... it's worse. We love each and everyone of you here in Ukraine. You are our family.

End of an Era

As we face down our return to Colorado from Ukraine I find myself already getting a bit nostalgic for our time here.  Not to say that I'm not excited to be back at home but I'll miss Kerch.  I was looking through some recent pictures and ventured upon a few older ones that I don't think I ever got around to posting.  Here's a few....

I found this Soviet-era painting in the back of a storage last year and was told to throw it out/burn it.  It was probably about 7 feet tall by about 10 feet long so I cut the canvass off the frame so that it might be stored somewhere less vulnerable.  It was done with the best intentions but we eventually used the back side to make a huge sign.

There was a time when it was not uncommon for me to work security - even the all-night shift.  Really nights were a better fit for me because it involved less need to talk to visitors.  One night Sergey stayed with me and he took this picture.  It's nowhere close to this light in reality (as shown by how our feeble lighting system look like spotlights) but I like the effect.

It kind of captures the way your head feels about 4 am on a winter morning before the dawn comes.  Also somewhat post-apocalyptic.


Here's some of our recent visit to the 300 year old Turkish fortress of Yenikale with Judith.  She took all of these pictures.

She stitched this one together and I like that it shows a lot more of this side than any of the pictures I've taken.

This was us walking back after a more staged photo op sitting on the arch but it worked better as a casual shot.

I think this may be my favorite.  As we walked the top the fortress wall into a massive headwind, Cam felt like a bird on my shoulders - closing his eyes and flapping away like he was heading to Russia.

Rejection will come

Today we had a visitor to camp named Artem.  He's 5 years old but roughly the same size as Cam.  Since he came expecting to have a playmate here, we decided to let Cam skip his nap (something he didn't seem likely to do anyway) and play with Artem this afternoon.

They appeared to enjoy it for a while but eventually they came to an impasse.  Cam wanted to play with cars; Artem wanted to ride bikes.  We advised Cam to invite his new friend (who he still only knew as 'Kid') into the house to play with his cars and tracks.  Unfortunately, he either couldn't convey this invitation or Artem wasn't interested because we soon heard Cam's furtive cries from outside.  He had been rejected...

Sarry and I debated whether he is mature enough to yet feel that rejection or if he was just tired and angry that he didn't get his way.  Whichever it is, his dirty, tear streaked face gave a preview of the day when he will be rejected and will unquestionably understand that someone doesn't want him, value him, love him....

I'm dreading that day but for now all we can do is impress upon him in no uncertain terms that he is wanted, valued and loved - regardless of what this fallen world and its inhabitants tell him.

Worst tasks at HopeCenter: a comparative study

I always thought the worst job at HopeCenter was sewer duty (haha, duty...) but today I have been exposed to one that might leap frog it in the standings.  Remember as you read this that I have been blessed - by way of a croquet mallet to the face in my youth - with a very bad sense of smell  so when I refer to stench, it is much worse than you might imagine.


I'll give you the breakdown and you can make the call....

Sewer duty:
Currently the camp has exactly 8 people here consistently.  That doesn't significantly tax our waste disposal system as long as no one flushes toilet paper (especially when some percentage of those utilize the trees as outdoor urinals).  On the other hand, during the summer there are as many as 150 folks here.

Occasionally it becomes necessary to clear out the sewers in order for them to function at peak efficiency - following the proverbial logic of poo flowing downhill.  Around camp there are several dozen manholes for the sewers which all have at least an in-coming and out-going path that runs through them.  When it gets clogged up someone has to climb in and dig out the gunk.  Since what passes through is mostly bio-waste, it decomposes into a black sludge.  The smell is... unpleasant to say the least.

Aside from the smell, the worst part is the headaches.  I think the decomposition releases methane; not the gas on which human respiratory system is designed to function.  On several occasions I've honestly thought I might pass out from what I assume is oxygen deficiency.


Meat room refrigerator cleaning:
This was a new one for me... and I think Yuri too.  Basically, the big fridge in our kitchen's meat room is where the once-frozen raw meat is stored temporarily prior to being turned into goulash or whatever.  A smell had begun to develop so today we endevoured to clean it out.  Apparently, over the past few months the process has been allowing blood and juices (mostly pork) to leak down into the frame at the base - a fact that unknown to us when we started.

Upon pulling the first screw a geyser of a black sludge (there seems to be a pattern developing here) came shooting out, accompanied by an odor that made the aforementioned sewage smell like sugar cookies by comparison.  It oozed, I cleaned, it oozed again, I cleaned up again, I flushed it out and cleaned up again.  By this time the whole end of the building was absolutely rank and I was covered in it up to my elbows.

As I type this, I can still smell it on my hands after washing with (in this order):

• hand soap
• industrial hand cleaner
• dish soap
• diesel fuel
• concrete water (lye and sand - for exfoliation)
• hand cleaner again
• body wash
• face wash

All that and it's still there.  If you can smell something over diesel fuel it's quite a smell.  I still don't know if the fridge will ever be useable again.

I debated posting about it but in the end decided that since it has dominated my day (due to the constant odor reminder) I would write it up.  I have tried not to be gratuitously disgusting and I assure you the actually experience was worse than I've conveyed.

What do you think?  Shoveling decaying sewage vs. cleaning rotting pig blood - which is worse?

Mowing the lawn and test post

I'm taking advantage of these pictures Sarry took today to test the new post editing features on Blogger.  This will be wildly exciting for you readers who will see exactly zero difference from the old format.  Enjoy...

Last Camp newsletter

If you have a blog reader you will probably have already been alerted that I have posted on this but upon review I scrapped that post and decided to use Apture to link to the original document. So when you click ... HERE... you should be able to read the PDF version of the newsletter just as it would be emailed to people. I don't know why I didn't think of this before....

As a matter of fact, I think I will link to all the summer's newsletters....

When you click the link above it should show you Camp 4's letter but listed across the bottom should also be those for Camps 1,2 and 3 in order. Let me know if that doesn't work.

End of Summer at the Sea

I always have to explain why we consider it a treat to go to the actual sea when we live so close to the beach, but here it is again. Our beach is on essentially a shipping channel. The water is good and relatively clean (sand and seaweed being common contaminants) but it's not the same as the open water beaches.

Usually we go down south to the Black Sea but yesterday we went north to the Sea of Azov. I'd never been to Azov and am kicking myself for not doing it until now. We went with the whole staff and volunteer team. Some pictures.

We were on a cape with a beach that spanned a long linear distance and I think we literally doubled the size of the crowd with our arrival... that's a long way of saying it was empty.

Just off the beach was a wooded area. It was nice to have shade and a bit of break from the wind.

We never did get confirmation either way whether this whole was designed to be a toilet by the previous occupants. Poor Jenya.

This is... not what it looks like. Russian tradition. This a wood burning tea-maker with a small furnace down the center with a water tank on the outside.

Us boys in the water.

Us.

Sarah with Cam. I didn't purposely make sure that Cam's huge melon was strategically blocking Sarry's slowly expanding baby bump.

The centerpiece of the occasion - 25 lbs of shashlik.

Cam's antics

Lately we've been working with Campbell on his talents in the area of the visual arts - specifically photography. He shows real promise with an eye for a good shot but he still struggles with a few of the basics. Here are some examples...

I know this one is his right away due to the telltale finger shaped shadow across the upper left. Too bad, it was well aimed.

This one on the other hand has pretty good lighting (ie. no finger) but he both struggles with the aim and the traditional concept of other people's personal space.

From an artistic standpoint this one is interesting as he utilized the flash to wash out the subject for effect but unfortunately he succeeded in annoying his father and lost his camera privileges for a few minutes.

Honestly this is a cool picture and made even more so in the fact that he actually asked the ceiling fan to hold that pose. This shows excellent vision and foresight.

Beautiful subject but we're back to the finger over the flash.

On a different subject Cam has been working on his bike-riding skills and with the children of many employees and volunteers around, this is vital. Unfortunately there are only 4 kids bikes (a 2-wheeler, a medium trike and 2 little trikes) and they get filled up pretty fast. Cam seems to have the hang of the adult bike mainly because his low center of gravity makes it more stable for him than everyone else. You wouldn't think it would be that easy to flip a 3 wheeled bike but it happens all the time. Here's a clip of it.

Almost farewell

Ok, it's past midnight the night before the UK team leaves and we have our last entry from their designated blogger....

day 13, 7.00

so this is incredibly late, and we go home tomorrow, but i figured that i would catch up now in the ten minuets i can esrape together between the last ever trip to the beach and our bbq this evening from the Gaws.

two days ago was the last full day at camp and we did beach Olympics, but the waves were to big so we did them on the football pitch as the weather was gorgeous and we had quite a few water fights and it was really good fun, we also did the closing ceremony in the evening and ward fours dance was amazing, they are the youngest ward and they were pretending to be chicks and were so cute! the international team did various funny skits organised by hannah and claire, one of which was the game guess who, where we pretended to be characters of the team. i was babs, the kids enjoyed all the acts greatly, the evening finished with a binfire and a slideshow of all the kids, altogether an immense final day.

yesterday the kids left, it was so sad to think what they might be going back to and that we probably will never see them again, i had to remember that we had given them all we could in two weeks, hope, what the camp is named after and the reason for our lives, jesus christ. we may not be able to solve any of their problems or give them an easier life but we can give them someone who will hold tight to them and never let go, a reason to live and a reason to laugh. i will continue to pray for the girl in my ward and the children who touhed my hearts and names i remember, for every other child, god nows but your prayer for their lives now is always always needed and welcomed.

today we did touristy stuff, the cam felt so empty without the children so we went down town for a meal and a tour of a near by fortress, i will miss this place so much and i think that they do such an amazing job here, well done!

Team 4 update #3

Wow, the team is now writing prolifically. Next installment...

day 10 - 8.30

today was the sandcastle competition, it was great fun the kids got split into there three teams, and were really inventive, one team themed there castle 'egyptian' complete with larger than life size turtle and smaller than life pyramid! the leaders also made one, with mote and balcony, i thought it was the best but then i am a tad biased as i was one of the main castle builders along side josh and holly!
as it was a sunday the kids dnt have to do morning exercises o we got a half an hour lie in, but as my body is finally getting used to the time scedule i woke up at 6 anyway! typical, but i enjoyed thehalf an hour in bed that i woulnt have normally gotten.
we made picture frames this evening, and the kids all got a picture of there ward to go in the middle, they are so careful with there craft, give a 13 year old boy in england some sequens and cardboard and the likelyhood he would spend longertan fve mins on it is little, however al the kids take everything with such grace and thankfulness, it reminds you how much we've got and how little they have.

only two days left, i shall miss them all.

Camp team 4 update #2

Here is the latest from Catherine, our designated blogger for team 4.

Day nine: 7.00

craft competition and talent show happened yesterday, first the talent show, I was posh spice from the spice girls! One of the many ‘bad cats’ put on by the adults to make the kids acts seems even better, the show was complete with Britain’s got talent style judges, one of the kids acts was a beautiful rendition of the prodigal on to dance, really good, another ‘bad’ act was swan lake complete with men in leotards and an evil hunter killing the swans! V.funny. The craft competition had three age categories and within that prizes for girls and boys. They kids could make anything they wanted but for it wto be a valid entry it needed to include a paper plate a sheet of paper and a lolly stick! It was crazy good!

Day nine: 10.30

Today the talk was on jesus and there was a time for response afterwards where many many kids asked for prayer over there live. It was immense, very special. In the evening we played the infamous ‘biffer’ where there are 10 stations hidden around camp and the kids have to do the activities at each camp and then run between each making sure that they never let go of their partners hand. There are however biffers. These are people (me included) who run around wearing war paint and generally being scary throwing flour at the kids. If hit with flour, they have to sit down and call for a doctor who will tie a bandae round there arm, before the can get up and keep moving again. It was great fun, but im exhausted, so goodnight J

British Team Update

For this last camp of the summer we have a lot of folks from England (London and Cambridge) and a brave soul from amongst them is blogging on their behalf. Catherine Rogers has been writing daily updates and has emailed them to me. Here is exactly what she has to say... unchecked or edited by me...

kerch - Day one; 7/09, 10.55 pm

Its very late and we've just come back from a late night swim in the sea ! the water had phosphorous in it and shimered like the reflection of thousands of stars from the night sky. The last few days have been crazy; we left at 1.30 from cambridge, meetng the london bunch at heathrow at four. We then caught the 6.25 plane to frankfurt to catch the connection to ukrain. However the first flight took longer than expected, so it was a bt crazy trying to get twenty two people's passports checked an securtified (is that a word?) in forty five minuts, it seems ok, but frankfurt is massive and we were runing all over the place. I forgot to take my watc of at secrurity in this minor panic and ths got stopped, allothough i did explain that i could take my watch of and walk through the gate again they insited of patting me vigourously all over, which i wouldnt have minded as much if they hant made me take my belt of first and i happened to be wearing the baggiest linen trousers you ever saw! i ended up in a crouched position so they wouldnt fall down, whilst the rest of the youth continued to watch and laugh! ah well, at least we made the plane :)

Today all we really did was organising the next ten days an adjusting to the culture. The people here are lovely; you really feel their imense hospitality . I kow it may sound odd but everyone is so welcoming, you cant help but feel comfortable.

I can't wait for what tomorrow holds:

Day three: 09/09, 07.00 am

Yesterday was very reaxing, and despite the thunderstorm warnigs the wather was very good for eglish standards, so when you wernt i one of your various meeting subjects (crafts/sports/morning exercise) the beach which is only ten minuets away was visited by nearly all. The evening activities envolved eating smurs, an american concoction envolvng melting you marshmallows over the campfire (yeah, there was one of them too) and squising it with chocolate inside two crackers thus melting the chocolate. a delicious , different, tasty snack. We also played numerous campfire 'bonding games' as well as limbo and the occassional line dance! I found myself surprised at how early it was, as the sunsets so eary here, even when its hot, so after about an hour and a half in arkness i realised it wa only 9.00!

This morning the children arrive so i thought i would fill in the blog before my 'roomies' wake up! hmm breakfast at 8.15...

Day three : 09/09, 11.00 pm

Today was D-day, the kids arrived!

I am aboutly wacked so this gonna be short...

They arrived in dribs and drabs some time between 10 and 3. They were immediatly checd for lice and infectious deseases. I was put on baloon modeling outised the queue for the 'hospital' to entertain the chldren whie the were waiting, and afterwards, with the children who did have lice (the kids with infectious diseases were immediatly sent home, although i dont think there were any) as the children with lice had to have there hair shaved of, i think i found it much sadder than any of them, one girl had long wavy blond hair down to her waist, but didnt seem that thrown by it to me, i guess i just kept giving her balloon flowers and dogs and the occaional hat, to be that upset, also they have probaby been through much more than i could dream of, and by loosing their hair they get to come to the camp! I was on ward 2, which was the second oldest ward out of four, so ruffly 11/12 year olds, althought there was an 8 and a 12 year old, as they had siblings/friends in the ward. I put them to bed with Eliasah and we told them about ourselves.

day four: 10.09, 10.50.

aparently it was to 'cold' go to the beach today but on english standards it was pretty warm, instead we played scavenger hunts with them and various sports, this evening we had the opening ceremony which was simply hillarious! we all dressed up as super heroes, i was batgirl, but among the bunch there was a superman a wonderwoman and a bannana girl! the kids all had to be invloved, naming there wards (the dorms were they slept and did most of the activities, ward 1 being the oldest and ward 4 being the youngest) super kids, super family, super village and happy teenagers. it was a great evening, and a brilliant firt 'full day' my day ended by reading to my ward the story of ''the happy prince''

day six; 7.00

devotional start at 7, and my whole rom was up and so i got woken up to, but i decided not to get out of bed so i filled in my journal istead, an explanation of why i am up so early. In the mornings i go to my ward at 7.30 and do there hair and then do the morning exercises at 7.50 with breakfast at 8.15, however yesterday it was tipping it down, so we gave the kids some wht of a lie in as we can do morning exercises, getting them up at 7.50 to do the girls hair, due to the rain we watched a film (the tale of desperoux the mouse) and in the afternoon interest groups inside, such as needle work hair and make up, christmas tree making, some completated constructinthe boys seemed to enjoy envolving LEDs and duck duck goose. i myself did facepaints. despite the rain it was good fun. the story today was ruth an wasvery inspiring.

day six:8.20

so the rest of my team are clearing up the crafts, which were duck puppets, that everyone loved, so i thought i would fill this in now to get out of it (i did help te last few days) iknow i know, excuses! the story today was david and goliath and was acted out very funnily by two men in skirts, great fun all round! as it was raining gain, i found myself watch the incredible in russin with various children on my lps, a very bizarre situation, but we have it at home and i have watched it enough to know the plot and the good jokes so i didnt feel that left out. it was james birthday today o this evening we are going to the beach for a late night campfire (he sun came out around 12 and 'dried up all the rain') but as you arnt llowed to come back on your own and they threw around 'latest 1' i thought i would catch up on some sleep, as i am feeling a bit sleep deprived and generally exhausted, what with the hypernes of the kids and the long days and late nights. i hope the wether stays good for tomorrow o that we can finally take the kids to the beach!

day eight: 7.00

yesterday was the midpoint of the kids being here, the first day we went to the beach and for the bedtime stories in my ward, the best evening yet. we were teaching them how to use the bible they were given, then had a competition to see who could find the verse the fastest and then asking what they thought the verse meant, the were so responsive, some of the answers we got were so insightful, for example one of the girls admitted that she finds it hard to believe in god, when he doesnt appear to answer her prayers, and another explained that by loving god you can love other people more easily, these are 8-12 year olds, who are not necessarily from any biblical background, the speed at which they have grown with us and god amazes me, for example, on the first night, one of the girls prayed, by the second night we got giggles, third we go a sentence, but yesterday we had a volunteer! among all this joy one of the lads in my ward broke his arm in two places during the wide game on day 7, and will have an operation on tuesday, meaning he will miss out on the rest of the week. prayer always needed.

I hope that gives you all some idea of how the team is doing. Please pray for us.

My boy's the jam

This was just today. We had a station with line dancing for the kids and Cam was a co-leader.

Please note his crazy fresh style as he feels the beat.

Also note the extremely short attention span when it comes to the Macarena which he inherited directly from me.

...and I quote "....

I've been woeful at posting during camps. Some is that I'm busy and the rest is a lack of motivation and content. To get you through my slump I'll give you a handful of intern blogs which you can check out for the latest at Hope Center. Here you go...

Because I made a promise - Tommy (from LA)

Here I am, Send me - Judith (MN)

Sarah and Charisse's Hope Center adventures (from VA)

Hope Center Summer 2009 - Naomi (MN)

These cover the whole gamut; from serious to ridiculous with plenty of pictures. All are worth checking out.

Kerch graffiti

I posted here about the homage to Sarah written on a nearby wall by some unnamed Anton. Since then I have been considering posting some of our other Latin-lettered messages so here are a few along with a guess at the mindset that was behind it. These are all on exterior walls in our neighborhood. Please feel free to guess if you have a theory.

Shoo Roop (peace) Rap... I wish I had something witty to say about this one but I'm stumped. Maybe I should have started with one on which I had some idea. Anyone else?

I like this one - it combines cryptically poor penmanship with an obvious drug reference and a hippie afterthought... very American. I read 'shaml' but I could see some other options too. None of the variations that I see make a word of any sort. At the bottom we have some Cyrillic which could actually come out as Gaw. The 'r' letter is a G but the W shape makes a 'sh' sound.

This 'staff' one is in several places and I don't really know why. I suspect that it was written by someone who heard the word at camp and decided that it sounded cool.

This and the next one are some of my favorites. I am shocked to discover that ODB is alive and well. Perhaps he made it over here after his faked death but someone recognized him.

As mentioned, ODB may not have counted on people in Kerch recognizing him after his 'death.'

Similar hand writing but I'm not sure I know much about the South Dakota rap scene. I'm nearly certain that Wu Tang Clan do not hail from the Great Plains.

More tough news

I don't know exactly why I decided to delay this post but I did. I always planned on writing about it - I'm just a few days late.

We got news on Monday morning that one of our amazing summer kitchen staff died of an epileptic seizure. Natasha was only 33 years old with a husband and a 12 year old son. She was quiet lady with a pleasant, shy smile. She was on the summer cleaning staff 2 years ago and seemed to enjoy being in the peaceful confines of our camp.

She has been a Christian for about 5 or 6 years and her husband had just begun attending church in the past year.

She was such a humble servant that we didn't have many pictures of her. This is her in the kitchen:

Natasha's death is our second in the Hope Center family in the past 6 months or so. We lost Yuri the security guard to a car accident in early December and I figure this is a good time to remember and memorialize him as well. We all take some measure of comfort in the fact that this brother and sister are with our heavenly father and free from the immense difficulties that challenged their daily lives.

Yuri with Cam and Alosha:

Camp 1 highlight

This is a picture that will always have a special place in my heart. It's a long story but I'll do my best stay on track...

In this photo, left to right, is Sergey (camper), Sergey the translator (who will be called Seroja for the rest of this post), Kolya and me. The two boys are from Vasilkov orphanage and came with the toughest groups of boys I've dealt with at the Hope Center. Directly disobedient and constantly disrespectful... even the young boys would laugh at you and run off if you asked them to follow the scheduled events. They actually booed pictures of people they didn't like at the final slideshow - a universally (so I thought) loved event.

For these reasons and others, I am nearly always asked to adopt the oldest boys at most camps and these were some tough boys. Sergey and Kolya weren't much different for the first week they were here. That was when Seroja started taking an interest in getting them to follow the rules.

Initially it started with some butting of heads, raised voices and threats of being sent home but gradually there was a softening. A few days before the end of camp Seroja and Kolya took a long walk around camp and talked about life and what I had been sharing (through Seroja's translation) with the boys. He encouraged Kolya with what he knew of the Bible and advocated for accepting Christ. Here's the weird thing...

Seroja wasn't a Christian. He'd heard the gospel message ad nauseam at camp over the years but never really made a serious commitment.

After this talk and some deep soul searching on Kolya's part, the boy accepted the Lord with open arms. It was a beautiful thing to hear him talk about the strength and peace he felt for having made the decision. Seroja was so moved by this that he accompanied this group of orphans to the train station. As he was saying goodbye to Kolya, this young Christian encouraged Seroja to also make a decision; "You're ready, I can see it in your eyes," he told him.

It was at this point that younger Sergey came and asked Seroja and one of our interns to pray with him to accept Christ as well.

If you're following this, my boy Seroja has now played a major role in leading 2 people to Christ - prior to having accepted Him himself!

As you can imagine, this made for an amazing 24 hour period, but it gets better. Last night I was honored to pray that same prayer with Seroja as he finally let down his barriers and accepted the Lord himself.

He spoke on the phone with Kolya this evening and the young orphan told him, "I'm praying for you and Matt and you need to pray for Matt too."

What do I say? Shocked, humbled, broken, rejoicing, weeping... all at once.

Can't wait to see what the next camp has for us.

Street Kids

I wish I knew where this video was from so I could give credit. It features some street kids from Moscow but it is a story that could easily come from Ukraine as well.

These are the types of backgrounds that we are faced with on an almost daily basis in our programs.

Anniversary and Cam

As I mentioned on a few other media, today is our anniversary. 6 years today and 4 of those have been spent in another country doing ministry (one of those, we were in separate countries). Romantic time together and celebration is not something we've come to expect.

Today at dinner the kids, staff and international team serenaded us and showered us with bouquet after bouquet of flowers, congratulations and kisses. It was one of the single most touching times since we've been here. Birthdays are special but to share this occasion with Sarah makes it... well, perfect.

Here's the kitchen table with our flowers. We had to borrow two of the 3-liter juice jars just to fit all our gifts.

Caution: Sudden and unrelated topic change!

Last night we handed out the Bibles to the kids and took some time to write a short encouraging note in the inside cover. It turned into a yearbook-style book signing and even Cam got into the act.

The kids would bring him the Bible and Cam would look at them thoughtfully - as though contemplating what would be best to inscribe - and then scribble some chicken scratches. He always concluded by slapping each Bible shut with a very Russian 'oh-pa!' and sending the child on their way. It was freaking hilarious. Here's my phone camera picture of it...

Hope Center Video redux

Today camps begin in earnest and we'll have kids here consistently until the end of August.

I figure today is a good time to re-post the Hope Center video that we made last year. It uses pictures from last summer and tries to express the need in Ukraine which makes these camps so valuable.

Already I've met a boy whose father died, leaving his mom to decide whether she could feed him or if he should go to an orphanage. We've welcomed a group of hardened street boys brought by a local church. We have boys and girls who have suffered from all manner of trauma and abuse. It's not too late to donate on their behalf to fund this valuable program (see the link in right-hand sidebar).

At least watch the video as it explains exactly why we believe we were called here.