Removing Shadows

I think it is safe to say that i am over jet lag and we are back into the swing of things. It is kind of hard to believe that we have already gone and are back. I think the reason it has taken me so long to write some of my reflections because it seems impossible to summarize what we did!

This is the best picture that I have that gives an idea of what the orphanage looks like.

The kids loved having their pictures taken and loved seeing the pictures on the back of our digital cameras. At night I printed the pictures and took them back to the kids. They were thrilled to have a picture of themselves!

This little boy was so excited to have a picture of himself that he wanted his picture taken with his picture.





This orphanage had the only autistic program in Odessa. So one of the main focuses of the trip was helping the teachers who worked with the autistic kids. The teachers were so great and did so much with the very little that they had, but they were so far behind from where we are here in helping our kids with autism. The little girl in this picture is 7 years old. She just came to the orphanage this year. The teachers were told that she would never talk. Within the first day Sam had her attempting and saying words.

The men turned an old storage room into a new bedroom. Sounds simple, but nothing in Ukraine is simple! They put up new (plaster) walls, all the electricity and a new ceiling. There is now a new beautiful room for parents who come to stay.


This picture is at the Black Sea, about a three minute walk from the orphanage.


Murray is preaching a sermon series on Jonah right now. Last week Murray preached on the shadows that arise as a result of sin. When the light of Christ illuminates the darkness, the sin that is there casts shadows. Our time in Ukraine can be summarized as removing shadows. Ukraine is such a sad a dark place. Although it is no longer under the reign of communism, all the effects of communism are still there. And these poor innocent children and the victims of so much sin. By cleaning, building, loving, playing, hugging and laughing, our goal was to help remove some of the shadows cast on those children.