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Tuesday Post

Edik receiving his picture and letter from the Pivirotto family

We were able to see Edik before his leaving for the rehab center. We felt like his spirit was low but didn’t know why. He’d been in the hospital for over 2 months and was now going to a rehab center about 120 km away. My guess is that that’s got to be pretty tough for him. Even though it was a hospital, I guess it was home for him. After the rehab center he’ll be going back to the Vinnitsa Christian Orphanage. Please continue to pray for him as he rehabs. From what we understand, there’s a good chance that his leg won’t grow any longer and he’ll walk with a limp for the rest of his life. The more he grows, the greater the limp. There’s also a chance that he’ll be fine. Thank you for committing him to prayer.

From Left (David, Alyona, Ivan, Daniel, Emmanuel, Joseph)

The day we left Vinnitsa, we went by Slavik and Alyona’s house to bring food and infant clothing. The two older children (Anya and Sophia) were at school and Slavik “went to renew some documents and then disappeared” said Alyona. Please continue to pray for this family. If you look closely, you can see Joseph’s left foot tied to the bedpost.

We’ve arrived in Munich and awaiting our flight to Paris. We’ll stay there for about 18 hours and then depart early in the morning to head back to the States. The team will be speaking in my Sunday School class on Sunday, January 24. I think you’ll be very encouraged to hear from them. Thank you for your commitment to this team.

Mike

Sunday Post

Hey! This is Christina. Our team, along with all of the older children from the orphanage, visited the children’s hospital yesterday evening. The children sang a few songs and shared some scripture. We (the American team) sang a few Christmas songs, Jillian shared her testimony, and Stephen performed some of his tricks. Edik seems to be doing well and in good spirits. His leg is continuing to heal and he will enter rehab in the near future. It will be approximately a month before he returns to the orphanage. One of Edik’s friends from the orphanage told him not to come back until he can run All of the children on that floor of the hospital really seemed to enjoy our visit and seemed to be encouraged by it.

We gave the children their Christmas letters last night. They were ecstatic! They have been carrying their pictures and letters around showing everyone!

I was asked to share what a birthday in Ukraine is like. The team went to Litin this morning for church. When we arrived, Pastor Paval informed us that we were leading a two hour service. We quickly put together songs, testimonies, and preaching. We sang Amazing Grace, You Alone, and Sanctuary. Caleb and dad (Mike) both preached and did excellent. Immediately following the service, we had lunch at the church. After we finished lunch, we held a youth conference at the church. We did a bunch of Q/A time, and dad taught on Uzziah and Hezakiah from 2 Chronicles. It went great. Right before we prayed, a guy named Pasha raised his hand for one last comment. They taught me the birthday traditions of Ukraine. I had two “options”. The first was to get my ears pulled 19 times. The second was to sit on a chair and be raised straight into the air 19 times. They decided on the second option. After finishing a delicious meal at Vova and Tanya’s house, I was surprised with cake, ice cream, a card, and birthday decorations. I really enjoyed it!

There should be more updates to follow.

Christina DeGuzman

Saturday morning update

Hello all,

Our students have all taken at least one child out to lunch and out on the town today. The purpose of this time is to continue to build the relationship and clarify the Gospel, encourage, comfort, or build up the child they are with today. Its a great opportunity for one-on-one evangelism/discipleship. I’m sitting in McDonald’s enjoying free Wi-fi. Wow! Ukraine has sure changed since that first trip in 2001. Yet, as the city continues to grow and “Westernize,” so much stays the same.

On our trip into Vinnitsa we stopped at a home where three of the children from the orphanage live with their parents. You see, in Ukraine, just because you’re in an orphanage, doesn’t necessarily mean that your parents have abandoned you or are dead. In many cases, they are “social” orphans where the parents or close relative cannot take care of them or has decided not to. You can imagine how difficult this must be to have your mother or father simply not want you. In this particular case, the government saw that the parents couldn’t adequately care for the children. The father is a drug addict and alcoholic while the mother is an alcoholic. The three were put in the orphanage but the parents got them back. When we went into the home, there were seven children in there! SEVEN! These weren’t older kids but seven kids ranging in age from a little baby up to about 10 years old. I have seven children and to see the conditions they were living in, made me want to vomit.

As soon as we walked into the home, there was a stench in there that I cannot adequately explain other than to say it smelled like death. I looked down as Vince asked the dad (Slavik) how his leg was doing. His lower leg was terribly infected as the bandage was saturated with infectious pus. Apparently, the years of drugs and alcohol has rendered his body incapable of fighting infection. Gangrene is setting in and it needs to be amputated. You cannot imagine the smell.

The home was a little bigger than a couple of large janitor’s closets. No inside bathroom, and no running water. One of the children was tied by his ankle to the bed. Alex said this was to ensure that he didn’t leave. I guess he’s the rambunctious one. He tried to make it to Vince but the string prevented him from getting to him, so we went to him.

“Are these all their kids?” I asked. Alex said, “Having children is their job.” They get money for the amount of children they have. The more children they have, the more they get. Ukraine has an initiative right now to boost their population. If the children are in the orphanage, they don’t get paid money for them. That makes sense…in a morbid sort of way. I’m hoping to go back to this home to get video and pictures. I think it will be helpful for us to see where these children are coming from before arriving at the Vinnitsa Christian orphanage.

This afternoon the team will be going to visit Edik in the hospital while Alex and I will be meeting with the Psychiatrists. Alex and I will be doing this at 9am your time and the team will be visiting at 10:30am. Please be in prayer for these events.

Tomorrow’s schedule:

10am Service in the Litin church
2 pm Youth Conference in Litin
5 pm Dinner at Vova Pochapskiy’s home with some of the children from the orphanage.
- We’ll also be trying to create a live video feed with some of the children to my Sunday School Class in Beaufort. We’ll attempt to hook up at 11 and then go live at 12 or 12:15 in the church library. Pray this works. Our class has played such a huge role in this trip.

I created three posts of pictures. Here are the links:
Team Pics
Ice Skating
Christmas Stuff

Enjoy your day and thanks for praying

To comment on this post, please email Vince at cbcmissions@gmail.com

Ice Skating in Ukraine

We took the kids ice skating this morning. Here are some pics:

Christmas at the Vinnitsa Christian Orphanage

Here are a few pics from our Christmas program

His Kids Team 2010

Everyone always wants to know how people are doing and what it looks like. Here are a few pictures

Friday Post

This is my first opportunity to get online to write to you. Lots to update:

- Our bags were not there when it was time to leave Kiev. We’ve called over and over but the only response we’ve had was earlier today (Friday) when they said, “Your bags are here in Kiev. We will deliver them either Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday.” Since we’re leaving on Tuesday, it looks like we’ll be wearing our traveling clothes for this trip. I don’t mind and it looks like Alex and Stephen are doing fine with it as well. Don’t know how well it will go over when I preach on Sunday in jeans and a black t-shirt but it should be fine.

Alla Dorogenko

- Please pray for Alla Dorogenko. She’s one of the orphans here in the Vinnitsa Christian Orphanage. Her father died a number of years ago and her mother earlier this week as her liver “exploded” from Psorosis of the liver. She was what’s considered a “social” orphan and is now truly orphaned. She’s a sweet girl that’s had a very difficult life. Vince spoke with her earlier today about the Gospel and Jillian has really encouraged her as well.

- Both a boy and a girl at the orphanage asked “How did you start your relationship with God?” They are hungry for the Gospel and a relationship with Jesus Christ. Pray they would come to know Him today.

- Tonight we are having a special Christmas program where we will give out the gifts, cards, and pictures from you. The students and translators are out doing the shopping right now. The children from the orphanage have a program for us as well. I have a feeling its going to be a really special night. We’ve invited many of the Christian leaders from the area to attend this time as well. This is important in helping them understand the ministry of working with orphans. Both Hope and Stephen are sharing their testimonies and I (Mike) will be sharing about the overall vision for orphans from Scripture, CBC’s role, as well as the heart that God has given my Sunday School class for orphan care.

Edik 11

- Edik is a boy from the orphanage that we’ve been praying for for a couple of months. We visited him in the hospital yesterday as he has been there for  2 months now. He will be getting out of the hospital and admitted to a rehab center for one month. We spoke with the doctor yesterday to try to understand what’s going on with him. Apparently, he got a bad bone bruise at some point that developed into an infection in the bone. He had surgery where they scrubbed the bone and inserted some pins/rods. After some healing, the infection went to another part of his leg. They called it Osteomelik. We had never heard of it but there were many children in the hospital with this problem. Edik’s spirit was full of joy and happy to see us. We’ll be going back there tomorrow with the whole team along with a donation (tv and dvd player) for the activity room.

Tomorrow’s Schedule:

We’re leaving early in the morning to take the children ice skating as this is something they never get to do but absolutely LOVE it! In the afternoon we’re going to Edik’s hospital floor with the American team along with many of the orphans as we want them to do ministry with us. I’m sure it will be encouraging for Edik and will give the orphans a ministry of their own.

Also tomorrow afternoon I will be meeting with the Psychiatrists from a couple of years ago who said, “We are atheist and we are communist but we want you to tell us what the Bible says about families.” About 6 hours later, many said, “We are no longer atheists because there’s no way that you can believe in a standard for right and wrong without believing in God.” I’m looking forward to this time as I believe it will be one of the highlights of this trip.

Thanks for praying. Now you have a full list of what to pray for.

Press On!
Mike

To comment on this post, please email Vince at cbcmissions@gmail.com

Snowed in…in Kiev

Well, we made it to Kiev after having our tickets canceled in Munich…don’t ask…just one of those things. Then…Stephen, Alex, and I all had bags lost when we arrived in Kiev. Not a huge deal but one thing that’s really funny is that I had purposely packed two bags and divided my stuff into two bags just in case one of them got lost…well, they both got lost. Hahaha…guess I didn’t outsmart anyone on that one. They said our bags will arrive on the next flight from Munich at 1:30 am.

When we arrived in Kiev, the guy that picks us up wasn’t there. We knew it must have had something to do with the weather because he is ALWAYS there. We were right…a 4 hour drive turned in to a 7 1/2 hour drive. The conditions are really bad and getting worst so it would have been well after 2 am by the time we would get to the orphanage. We decided to stay the night at the airport hotel and leave in the morning during daylight hours. This also allows us to get our bags.

I must say that all the snow is really cool to see and play in…but not to drive in. Pray for us as we drive down tomorrow morning. Our Christmas gifts, letters, and dinner will now be held on Friday. Everyone is really anxious to get down there but the decision to stay in Kieve was certainly the wise one. I hope to get some pictures and videos on here when I’m able to get a good connection.

Thanks for praying and don’t forget to take a look around the HisKids web-site to get a good overall picture of the work this ministry does.

In Frankfurt

Our flight from Dulles to Frankfurt was uneventful…that’s a good thing. We’re in the airport in Frankfurt and waiting to go to Munich so we can catch our last flight to Kiev. From Kiev, there’s a 3-4 hour drive in good weather. The weather forecast calls for lots of snow and 20-30 mph winds so its probably going to be a little longer than the norm. Vince will be driving a rental vehicle (SUV) and Vova Pochapsky will be driving a van. Please pray for this trip. We’re scheduled to arrive in Kiev at 4:20 pm (10:20am EST).

Everyone seems pretty good. Sam wasn’t feeling very well when we got off the plane in Frankfurt but seems to be doing better now.

Looks like there’ll be a white Christmas in Ukraine this year. Of course, if I were to guess, every year is a White Christmas. We’ll get to celebrate Christmas with the children in the orphanage but the flight delays prevent us from being able to put the Christmas boxes together. We’ll make sure and give them a special day/celebration for this though.

Ukraine trip: Day 1 — In Savannah

Our flight to Dulles (from Savannah) was having some kind of mechanical problem so it was canceled prior to us being able to check in. We waited a long time trying to get re-routed to Ukraine and the best case scenario had us losing two ministry days while spending a night in Savannah and Frankfurt, thus not arriving until Thursday (their Christmas Day). Turns out, Lufthansa opened up another flight from Frankfurt to Munich so that we are now able to gain that day back and we’ll be arriving on Wednesday instead.

So, the airline gave us a night in a hotel in Savannah as we have an early flight tomorrow morning (5:50am departure). From here we head to Dulles and leave there around 5pm tomorrow en route to Frankfurt. From Frankfurt to Munich and Munich to Kiev. We should arrive to the orphanage a little after 10pm their time (I think that’s 4pm on Wednesday Beaufort time).

Please pray for our travels and the ministry in the Vinnitsa Christian Orphanage as well as the teaching, encouraging, equipping, and evangelism opportunities that God will provide.

While here on the site, take a look around to see more about HisKids.

Press On!
Mike