Stories of some of the orphans

Vorzel, Ukraine is one of the hundreds of places in Ukraine where there is a orphanage.  Vorzel is about an hour outside of the center of Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine.  Most orphanages in Ukraine are not as good as this orphanage.  The reasons seem to stem all from God's grace on this orphanage.

Almaz, an evangelical Christian church in Kiev, is the church who spearhead the ministry to the orphans at Vorzel.  The church has cared for these orphans for the many years now and God has provided volunteers from Ukraine and many places in the US to come to Vorzel and minister to the orphans and caregivers through construction projects, playing with the kids, and showing them the love of Christ.  Over the last year, most of the children (who can read) have received a children's Bible.  Every summer our team from Virginia Tech comes to Ukraine to care for the orphans.  This trip last year was my first trip to Ukraine.  Now, I'm here for the second time, and I'm hoping to stay for as long as God wants me to stay here!  I know for now it is 3 months, and I pray that if God is willing He will enable me to stay longer to continue working here in Ukraine.

The last two weeks in Vorzel were a wonderful way to start ministry here in Ukraine.  This year there were many different children than last year, so it was exciting to meet them and be able to minister to a new group of kids (and exciting that some of the kids from last year are now adopted).  On the other hand, it's also a little sad, that there are so many new orphans.  Some of the kids are perfectly healthy and beautiful, and it's hard to imagine how any parent could give up such a child.  Sometimes my heart just breaks for these children, because I know that these years may be the only happiest years of their whole lives.  Life is very hard for orphans in Ukraine and the system works against their integration into normal society once they get older.  The boarding schools the kids go to after the orphanage are tough places, where some kids never make it out alive.  Once they turn 18 they are turned out of the schools, left to be on their own, with no knowledge of how to function in Ukrainian culture and society.  This is why so many of them turn to drugs, gangs, crime, prostitution or other avenues.  For these children it will take God's grace to make any changes in their lives, and to give them a hope for the future (spiritually and physically here in the earth)

Here are a few stories of the kids at the orphanage:

Lierra (Pronounced Lerra)

This little girl is about 2-2.5 years old.  She doesn't talk much, but she is really easy to communicate with.  She is always smiling and always running around finding a new place to play.  She's pretty easy to entertain and I even was able to teach her (and also another little girl, Sabrina) some English words like up and down.  If I had the opportunity to adopt her and her brother, I would, if God blessed me to do so.

Nikita

Lierra's brother, and he has a fiery, adventurous personality.  We believe they probably came from different dad's since they don't look alike at all.  He's always running around doing something that boys like to do.  He loves riding on a bike, now that we finished the sidewalk for them to ride on.

Nina

Nina is the middle sister of three sisters (Nadia, Nina and Oksana).  She was at the orphanage last year with her two sisters.  Now Nadia is gone, because her mother took her back home.  Unfortunately, w=from what we hear, Nadia is not living in the best conditions even though she is with her mom.  Please pray for her protection and for God's care.  Nadia, Nina and Oksana were all at the orphanage because their mom has 8 children and they are the youngest ones, that she could not afford to care for.  Because they still have a mom who has parental rights, they can not be adopted, even though they are technically orphans.
Nina is a really sweet girl, and like to do things that little girls typically do.  She has a girlfriend at the orphanage, Karina, and Nina loves taking pictures.  This year she even developed a crush on one of the guys from the Almaz team.  It was kind of cute.  Nina also remembered me from last year, which was surprising, but exciting at the same time.

Oksana 

She is the youngest of the three sisters.  She is quiet and really sweet.  She doesn't fight as much as some of the other kids do and she is in general a pretty happy child.  She likes to blow bubbles and put on lip gloss (that one guy on our team brought for her)

There were 4 kids at the orphanage that are siblings from the same family.  This is usually uncommon to see so many kids come from the same family.  Their story is sad, but paints a real picture of things that happen in this world.  They had a family up until their dad died in a car accident.  When their dad died, their mom could no longer afford to care for them, and so she was forced to give them up (likely because of financial reasons).  People generally struggle to make it by in Ukraine because jobs are scarce, pay is low, and the cost of living is high, especially in the cities like Kiev. Below are the pictures of the 4 kids.

Sasha and the smallest brother, Stopa (from the 4 siblings)

Sasha is probably the oldest of the four siblings, which is why he seems to be the most responsible one. He especially looks after his smallest brother, Stopa.  Sasha knows some English and understands us sometimes when we talk to him in English and broken Russian.  Sasha and Justin made a great bond with Seth from our team, the son of Jim Pace (Our VT team's pastor).  

Justin, one of the older brothers of the 4 siblings

He has an immense heart and is a hard worker.  The whole 2 weeks while we did construction, he wanted to help in any way he could.  He a small guy, so there wasn't much for him to really help with, but almost every day the guys on our team graciously found some way he could help (sweeping the dirt, moving wooden 2x4's, watering the concrete, etc.)  He is a great helper and a very sweet boy.

Juliana, the sister of the 4 siblings

When we asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up, she said "A mommy".  You can usually find her playing mommy with her baby doll.

Dianah

 Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to hear her whole story, but she has been at the orphanage for the last year.  It seems that she has some mild cognitive delay, but no one knows for sure.  She doesn't really talk and she plays differently than the other children.  I played with only her for several hours one day, helping her climb up and go down the slide, walk around the play ground and play in the sand box.  She is really quiet and really sweet.  I look forward to spending more time with her in the future.

Masha

This sweet little girl has the sweetest, shyest smile I've seen of all the kids at Vorzel.  She's probably about 2 years old and she doesn't talk.  She gets very attached to the person she is playing with and gets very upset when someone leaves her.  Over all she is really quiet and sweet.  I really loved spending time with her.  As far as I know, she does not have any parents.

Sabrina

She is an orphan from a gypsy family who left her here in the last year.  She has some behavioral issues that will take some time to change, but she is a pretty sweet and funny little girl.  She has some scars on her right arm and the right side of her neck.  The scars are probably from a burn, but no one knows how exactly she got them.  Unfortunately, she probably came from a very neglectful home, which is why she is a little different than the other kids in her behavior.

Maxim

His story is not known to me, but he was pretty excited about this Russian children's bible we gave to him.  It's the Jesus storybook Bible, one of the best ones out there!

More stories to come soon as I continue to visit the kids at the orphanage!