Heart Breaking Moments

There were three moments in my trip to Ukraine when my heart was absolutely broken stirred.  I briefly skimmed over them in my last Ukraine post because I knew that I would need to explain them a little further elsewhere.  So here goes…
Anya As Janna, Mrs. Tina, and I worked we got to swap stories amongst us. Ms. Tina and I mostly listened as Janna shared testimonies- theirs and the kids at Komrivka (the orphanage). Many of the kids in Komrivka are social orphans, meaning their family is either unfit or doesn’t want them. One child in particular stood out to me, Anya.
Anya has some bone issues and had to have corrective surgery immediately while it was possible. Once Anya was admitted to the hospital (which was a very trying ordeal) she was there for about a month- a month!- before her surgery. In that month one of the missionaries tried to visit her every day and she had a lady from a local church stay with her. Anya is a social orphan but they still had to get her mother’s permission for all this. Her mom visited her once the whole month and then only talked to her for ten minutes. The surgery finally took place after a lot of stress physically and emotionally for Anya. Normally this is a surgery done at about seven years old or younger and so it was very painful for Anya, who is fourteen. Also the Ukrainian people are not big on pain medicine, so they would only give Anya a minimal amount. Janna told us that when she would cry one of the other moms in the room (there were three kids to a room plus their parents) would snap at her and tell her to stop crying and toughen up. There was also absolutely no privacy or attempt at privacy for her. It was so heartbreaking to hear and to think about this young girl in pain, in the hospital, alone, and so lost.
Mrs. Tina and I were able to visit Anya in the hospital on Friday, and she is a beautiful, brave young lady! (To read Anya’s story in more detail here is Janna and Daniel’s post.  They also have some updates!)
Dinner and an Analogy As I mentioned, we were able to go out and have dinner with the Stoddards and Rosses Thursday night.  Daniel and Janna had not only prepared a slide show of pictures from Komrivka for us (because we were unable to visit (a three week quarantine)) but also a short but moving analogy.
We arrived at dinner to find the table scattered with Ukrainian coins- kopeks. A one-cent kopek is worth one-eighth of a penny. They are absolutely worthless, even in Ukraine. Janna told us that is the view Ukrainian people have of their orphans as well. Even those who work in the orphanages have that attitude. How could anybody say someone is worthless? much less a child? Looking at and holding the kopecks, even now, I think- each of these represents one orphan. It was very sobering.
Understanding the Fear
The last thing that really stuck with me we learned Friday at one of the sites we visited. ‘The Memorial in commemoration of famines’ victims’ is a museum dedicated to the three major famines in Ukraine. Its main focus, though, is the famine that took place from 1932-1933, Holodomor. This famine was artificial, forced by the Soviet Union for the purpose of killing the Ukrainian people. During that time about eleven million people died of starvation and many others were deported to Siberia. I cannot describe how or why it struck me the way it did, but I do know, walking through that Hall of Memory looking at pictures, I felt like I was just beginning to understand the fear that grips that country.
Looking out over Kiev, I knew my heart was forever going to be missing a large piece.

“Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Luke 10:2
Through Christ,
Lady B

Ever Changing

One of the neat things about giving your whole life to God is the variability.  I once heard that it was like chasing a wild goose only there is purpose with God.
One of the crazy, unexpected turns my chase has taken me on is in the form of working.  That is right, I am working, and at the same daycare.  My boss sent me a text last Thursday asking if I was interested in working permanently.  I only had that afternoon to pray about it, and pray I did.  And, well, I said yes.  So now I am working in a classroom four days a week for about three and half hours.  I love it. 
My first week has included such things as screaming kids, dirty diapers, scolding, saying no twenty dozen times and cleaning up vomit- twice.  But you know what, I love it!  
I also get to do things like soothe an upset child, read stories over and over, sing songs, listen to children's laughter, be piled with six kids wanting to sit in my lap at the same time, pat backs at nap time and laugh at the antics of toddlers.  I am a big part of theses kids’ lives and, even though they are only 1 1/2, I have a chance to help shape them.  I want to bring Christ into their lives as much as possible!
I have to say God does surprising things but I do so love “chasing the wild goose.”
Through Christ,
Lady B

The Close of a Season

Now, this actually does not have anything to do with the end of summer and come of autumn.  The title is because of the end of a short chapter in my life (”a time and a season for everything”).  The chapter of daycare worker. 

As I was leaving work this afternoon my boss asked to speak with me.  They had to let me go.  It was not something they wanted to do, but they need someone who can work until six in the evening.  When I first started working there we had talked about my hours (11am-4pm), and I told them I could not work until closing, because I needed to be at home to help Mama with supper and such (here is where I blush because honestly that did not always happen).  Anyway, the two hours between when I leave and closing are the roughest part of the day and when they need the most help.  They found somebody who can work those hours, everyday too, so they had to let me go. 

The worst part of it for me was not so much being fired (for lack of a better term) but that I had grown quite attached to the kids in these past few months.  I really thought I would be there for a while and watch the kids “grow up” in a sense.  I also felt like a was just getting to know the other girls and enjoying their company.  Mrs. S may call me every now and then to substitute, and I know where to find them, but it is still quite a shock.  I cried all the way home, and when I got home I went immediately to my prayer journal.

I know God knows His plans and He does not have to reveal them to me.  I know He is in control.  All I can do is seek Him and wait “in the silence until [He] come[s] and sit[s] awhile with me.”

I will leave you with this quote from Ms. Jane Porter (author of The Scottish Chiefs) that I came across just last night (what great timing!):

The mourner banquets on memory; making that which seems the poison of life, its ailment.  During the hours of regret we recall the images of departed joys;and weeping over each tender remembrance, tears so softly shed, embalm the wounds of grief. 

Through Christ,

Lady Helen

Too Loud?

I just watched The Diary of Anne Frank last night. I "enjoyed" the movie but the history behind it churned my stomach. How anyone could be so overcome with evil and greed to do such atrocities is just unfathomable. But it is not just Hitler and the Nazis that made me sick, it was those that could have done something and didn't- especially the Christians.
I once read that Jews, when they were being transported to the concentration camps, would yell for help especially when they saw a church along the railroads. The Christians in the church heard them, but instead of finding away to help they sang their hymns all the louder.
I began thinking, as I was drifting to sleep- What is it that we as Christian do “louder” to drown out the cries of those in need?
There are orphans all across the world; at least 143 million children have no family. There are slaves everywhere but we, in our comfortable lives barely get exposed to that reality. The poor surround us but we expect others, or the government, to take care of them.
So what do we do? We turn up our Christian music, we bury our heads in work, school, leisure. We make ourselves feel better by say a quick “prayer”…James 2:15-17 says, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (NKJV)
We are to be the body of Christ; His hands and feet. But what are we doing? I am learning this too, and just as there were some who chose to risk all to help the Jews; there are those who choose to serve those in need…in whatever capacity they are able.