Ukraine

Dear friends,

I’m back from Ukraine! It was an amazing time, filled with teaching, prayer, fellowship and ways to serve and learn. Our team was small but God’s purpose is mighty.

I'd like to give you a piece of what I experienced of the Ukrainian culture. First, they are a people who rarely laugh. Our group would be in a public place - a restaurant or hotel - and if one of us laughed out loud people would turn and look at us and mutter. Our interpreter would put a finger to her lips and look at us, because in that culture, people are much more serious, more stern. Christians smile, and the younger generation is beginning to smile more it seems, so said two people who have been there for several years in a row. But overall, they do not openly show joy. It is also a place where memorials to World War II are scattered throughout the city and countryside. The pain from the war is still fresh in many ways. There are places where the ground is still so full of radiation that if one eats food grown in that soil it can cause birth defects and illnesses. I saw a stork's nest; I was told that it has only been two years since the storks came back to nest in Zhytomir Ukraine. All the storks disappeared after the bombing, and only recently has the radiation levels gone down enough that they will come back.



Breath Of Life has been working with a ministry called Mission To Ukraine. It started as a crisis pregnancy center, and grew to include lifeskill and parenting classes, Bible studies, and help for families with groceries. The picture above is of a wall covered with pictures of babies born because of the ministry's help. Because drinking is such as huge problem, family values and responsibilities can be scarce. So when a woman finds herself pregnant she often finds herself alone, with two options: parent, usually in poverty, or abort. Notice that adoption is missing from these choices. Breath Of Life has been working to make infant adoption accepted in Ukraine. This year, fourteen-year-old Travis came with us to help. Travis is the oldest adopted son of Jeannine Floores, the founder and director of BOL. It makes me smile to describe him. Travis is part black, part Asian, part white, six-foot-tall, talks a lot, typical teenager, and a few months ago came to his Mom and said, "I really think that God wants me to go to Ukraine and share my testimony about how you can be adopted and love your family and your biological parents for the choice they made for you." So he raised money and went.

Now I think that is cool.
Travis shared his testimony and answered questions about being adopted. The first response to infant adoption is usually anger: How can you give your child away to strangers? is a common response. But slowly God is working on the hearts of those in Ukraine to see that we are all adopted into His kingdom, and that he wants parents to make the best choices for their children, even if it's often very hard to do.

This is a home we visited, bring groceries and praying over them.










This is my favorite picture of all. His mother, above, is a beautiful women. Her eyes showed such sadness, and also such a longing for joy. They would light up quickly like a child's, and it seemed that she simply yearned for hope. For a good future for her family. I hope to go back next year, and I think that Travis does also. I cannot thank you enough for praying for me on the trip. It is amazing to see God's love working in so many places. I feel that it is so important to see the needs all around us, and how to help them and pray for them.

God bless, ~Sonnet