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.

Shakhtar Champions!

Despite having fallen desperately far behind to Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian league, Shakhtar have claimed the UEFA Cup against Werder Bremen. Werder would have been heavy favorites had they been able to field their full squad but the victory is no less sweet for my squad from Donetsk. The 2-1 scoreline (after extra time) was fair with each squad's keeper making one howler apiece.

In honor of the victory, I'm posting a clip of one of the most unique goals I've ever seen. It was scored by Shakhtar's former captain, Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem against Sevilla in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup.

This (along with the 2 goals scored by Luiz Adriano and Jadson against Werder) is why Shakhtar brings in Brazilians. Enjoy....

A glimpse of our programs

Here's a video with some of the faces from the Hope Center's after school program that runs weekdays from noon to 5 through the school year.

The kids get a hot meal, tutoring, English and economics lessons, sports and other activities.

For those who are familiar with the Hope Center volunteers, the program is run by Anya, Natstya, my Sweet Sarry, Nina, Jenya and Tanya (others join in as needed).

I'm pretty sure the song is by Hillsong but I don't really know. Also, the music gets a bit monotonous about halfway but since my iTunes library is limited when it comes to slow stuff, this was my best option.

Sad but true

First, I congratulate all of you who read the title of this post and immediately thought of the Black Album....  we're on the same wave length (you can decide if that's a good thing).

I was reading this post on Jason's blog and he was essentially saying that the video below really saddened him (don't go by my summary, read the post yourself).  Though I see his point, I found it to be quite funny insomuch as it seems to be purposely misstating the beliefs a several religions in an attempt at slightly edgy comedy.  Watch it and tell us what you think....

Stop! Thief!

That's right, I flat-out stole this!  This YouTube vid is thanks to Little Green Footballs. 

Just watch it and tell me that it isn't the slightest bit disturbing.  

The kids aren't even smiling... but their parents are grinning like mad.

The first thing I thought when I saw that was something like this (to fully understand this clip you may need to look into Farfur the Hamas mouse):

Don't misunderstand me.  I'm making no correlation between the substance of the messages but it is eerily similar in its strategy.  Kids singing about geopolitics?!?  Seriously people.  You can chalk this one up as yet another example of me not understanding this Obamania thing.

My friend Paul is sneaky....

I don't know how this one snuck past me.  This is one of the videos for Global Action that I just accidently found on YouTube.  I know Paul made it but he never mentioned that I was in yet another video in cyberspace.  It's got some good stuff for our ministries in Ukraine so enjoy.

New Features

2 items in the right-hand column I would like to draw your attention to:

1.  I have a poll regarding an idea for improving the reader's understanding of my posts about the HopeCenter; please vote!

2.  A little further down is a link to my new YouTube channel.  It's basically just a page that displays all of my videos.  Currently is it just the 2 most recent but I will progressively upload videos from earlier posts to make it a more comprehensive collection of the homemade videos that have appeared on this blog (plus a few more).  It's actually easier and more efficient to export a video project directly to YouTube than to my own hard drive.