The Good and The Not So Good

Club Pearl

Saturday September, 6th marked the season opening of Club Pearl. Club Pearl meets the first Saturday of every month to offer fun and fellowship to local children with disabilities and their families. A team from Kiev joins with local volunteers each club meeting to give every participant individual attention.

Moms, children, and volunteers met at noon at a local social work building. After a welcoming from Vera, we sang Happy Birthday to one of the participants, Sveta. It was Sveta’s 31st birthday. She was presented with a card and flowers. She was grinning from ear to ear with excitement. Like Sveta, the club is a community of friends.

Following Sveta’s serenade, we continued singing songs together. Ira, from Kiev led the kids in fun songs with lots of motions. Participants sang loudly. Those who could not sing used their hands and arms to do the motions. Others danced and hummed along. Moms enjoyed the singing just as much as the kids.

After singing together, it was time for moms to meet together. Coffee and tea helped to break the ice. Laughing, sharing, just talking about life; something these mom need desperately but find difficult to squeeze into their every day schedule of caring for their children. Vera painted a picture of her vision of the monthly club meeting. New ministries such as Bible Study, English lessons, and an Audio book library were introduced.

While moms met kids had fun. A skit introduced the Bible lesson about creation. The story was told as pictures to illustrate it were painted on a paper on the wall. The empty paper was soon full of sun, moon, and stars. Pictures were then taped on of various animals and Adam and Eve. The story of Adam and Eve continued. The audience heard about the fall of man, the separation from God, and how when Jesus came he made a way for humans to have fellowship with God again. To follow up kids were given a word puzzle paper to do in groups. Children also used construction paper to create a whale of their own to take home.

Three and a half hours after club began we were able to begin packing up. Moms and students hung around to talk and play. It was a successful meeting. Moms, children, and volunteers, are now counting down the days until they can meet again for a time of fun and fellowship.

Living With Bugs

Living in a culture different than the one you’re from, you expect that there will be some difficulty. There will be things that test your patience. The new and unknown brings the unusual and unexpected. In the past months I have been in situations and had experiences I would have never dreamed of… not bathing in over a week and then having to bathe in water filled with paint chips, bitten by two dogs in the same week, living with a mouse, living with a cat who loudly climbs up the door and whelps all night long and now living with an infestation of bedbugs that once hibernated in the old pillows we cleaned out of cabinets and were spread by the roaming cat…

While many of these things have caused physical discomfort and mental unrest, I have come to the conclusion that when compared to the deep sickness of the world they are minuscule. I did not come to Ukraine to battle mice and bugs, I came to serve. It has not been easy or comfortable but that all fades away when I am holding a kid in my lap in Vapnyarka or watching a child who has been shunned by society because of a condition they were born with laugh and smile. I am beginning to better understand what Proverb19:23 means when it says “The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”

Returning To Vapnyarka

Wednesday I will be returning to Vapnyarka for a little while. (For those of you who are wondering and still concerned about the afore mentioned “bed bugs” an exterminator will come while I am gone and kill all my guests before I return.) I am very excited to see the kids. I will also be meeting with Natalia to work on some information and website projects. Please pray for my safe travels. Please continue to pray for the children in both Vapnyarka and in Chernefsi. May God’s work be done not our own ideas of what we think needs to be accomplished. Thank you for your support. May God Bless You, Tiff