Day 7-8-9 Ukraine Update

Day 7
This was the second full day of camp and it was filled with many activities but more importantly we are getting to know the kids better. One of the kids that stands out is Nazar. The statistics for kids that graduate from Ukrainian orphanages are very bad but some still somehow succeed. It seems to me that Nazar will be among them.

Nazar is always happy, always smiling and playing around, and always ready to pitch in and help. He was orphaned at birth and had foster parents until he was ten years old when he entered the orphanage system. When asked what his experience was like being in foster care he will tell you that it was very good. When asked what it was like to be put in an orphanage he will tell you that it was fine. He says he’s very flexible. He graduated from the orphanage at age 16 and was pretty much on his own after that. He entered technical school and is now in his second year there. A year ago he came in contact with one of our translators here (Olya) who is a strong Christian along with her husband. Since then she has taken him under her wing and he asked her if he could call her his sister. She, of course, agreed. Nazar was baptized in February and is now her sister in Christ.

(Double-click on the photo below to see the larger pictures.)


Day 8

We all went to church today. The service ended sooner that we thought and our driver did not come to pick us up for some time after the service ended. This gave us some time to talk with the pastor there. About 13 years ago his church in Kiev began outreach work and providing economic assistance to the people in Ivankiv. Ivankiv is the nearest inhabited city to Chernobyl. That makes it not the most attractive place to come. The people there asked for a church to be established there. He was asked to take the position and reluctantly accepted thinking he would only be there for a few months. That was 13 years ago. He got his bible training from St. James Bible College in Kiev. The college was run at the time by a man named David Illian. That was in 1993. David Illian moved to Magadan Russia in 1994 and lived there for part of 1995. That was when Mike and Linda came to know David. We really do live in a small world.

We lost power again in the evening but it did not slow us down. We played our evening games by the light of flashlights.

Day 9

Power was restored some time mid day. When we awoke in the morning we had to start thinking about how we would make do with power and water (since the water system depended on water). We started to collect water from the local public wells for dish washing and toilet flushing. So generators were in place to keep the refrigerators and water system going.

The roads to the camp can be pretty treacherous to navigate. Someone got stuck today really well. It took us about 2 hours to free the car and get it to a real road. It was actually a lot of fun and good bonding time with the boys.

Storks and stork nests can be seen all around the village. It has been reported that the storks have been flying around Andrew and Jenny’s (directors of the camp) house for the last month. We have seen them flying around camp in the evenings. Today Andrew and Jenny announced that they are expecting their second child.