Summer kicks off...

It's been way too long since my last post and so much has happened that it will be difficult not to overwhelm this post with information and pictures!  In mid-May, my mom came for a month-long visit.  It was a wonderful time of getting to introduce her to our lives, our friends, our work, our church, and our country.  She jumped into our daily routine here and even had her own assignments at the rehab center.  But it definitely wasn't all work and hopefully telling a bit about our activities while she was here will give you a better taste of our lives in Ukraine!

We celebrated Kolya's 40th birthday with a surprise outing for pizza, bowling, and a walk in the park. For me, the greatest joy of the day was watching Kolya in his electric wheelchair.  We've known Kolya since 2008, when he first came to rehabilitation following his spinal cord injury. He was depressed and completely dependent on his aging parents for all of his care.  I remember how he learned to do some things independently, like feed himself and work on the computer.  In time, he began attending church, camps, and other activities in our ministry and God granted him the gift of salvation. 

 

Due to the extent of Kolya's injury, he still has very little independent movement...he can't roll, sit up, or propel his manual wheelchair more than a few inches.  Physically, he continues to depend completely on others.  His mother was his primary caregiver until she died a couple of years ago.  His apartment is not wheelchair accessible, so at home he is constantly in bed.  He longs for the opening of the Agape House...and one of the joys awaiting him as a resident of the Agape House is the opportunity to use this electric wheelchair daily! 

 



 

Our ministry has over 40 electric wheelchairs that have been generously donated from other countries..and they will be well-used next month at camp!  But unfortunately, accessibility issues in Ukraine prevent them from being readily used in daily life.  The Agape House will change that for those who reside there and on Kolya's birthday, as we watched him zip around when and where he wanted for hours, we had a little taste of what that would mean.  Freedom. Independence. Joy.  For Kolya and many others!

Our next celebration was a wedding!  Alla, one of our therapists, was a beautiful bride and we all enjoyed celebrating with her and her new husband.

Sveta's mom, Nadia, with my mom

We visited friends, including Sergiy and Natasha Bolchuk, the leaders of our ministry:

Three mother-daughter pairs (plus Sergiy Bolchuk)

We traveled to the village to visit Lyuda (our former roommate) and her family:

We took Julia with us to a replica village outside of Lutsk to see how Ukrainians used to live.

 



We toured the Lutsk Castle, which was built in the 11th century, and walked the streets of Lutsk.

 

 



We traveled to Sveta's hometown of Zhitomir for a weekend with her mom.

The statue of Lenin that previously stood on top has been removed and now a banner hangs with the faces and names of men from the region who have died in the war.

 

 

We drove and walked in the countryside around Lutsk, enjoying the fields of poppies and wheat and the sunny, warm days.

 

 

Mom was a welcomed 4th member to play the harps at church on her last Sunday!

And rehab goes on, of course, but since this post is long already I will write a separate onet soon about rehab.


Our team, minus Vadim.
 

Vanya, pictured above, is a new addition to our team.  He is Katya's husband (she is between me and Vanya) and is now a volunteer at our center in the mornings.  He has expressed a desire to attend our future PT school and join our team as a  full-time therapist.  For now he is learning to work with prophylactic patients and, since he has no medical background, he is also my "guinea pig," letting me test the clarity of the material that we are preparing for the PT school on him.  A male PT for our center is an ongoing prayer request and Vanya seems to be on track to be an answer to that prayer!

The last bit of news I will share in this post is about the Festival of Hope crusade that we attended yesterday in Lviv.  It was put on by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, with preaching by Franklin Graham and music by various Ukrainian and American musicians.  Over 35,000 Ukrainians were in attendance at the large soccer stadium built in recent years.  We traveled in 3 buses with people with disabilities who are unbelievers or who brought a friend or family member who is an unbeliever - our group totaled 26.

We traveled 4 hours in the cold rain, praying the skies would clear before the outdoor event.  In Lviv, we were welcomed by Christian family into their spacious home so that people with disabilities could rest for a couple of hours and eat before the event.  It continued to rain all afternoon, but as we arrived and unloaded at the stadium, the rain eased up and then stopped.  There was not another drop of rain until we were headed home!  We brought electric wheelchairs for people with spinal cord injuries and had to go to 3 entrances to find an accessible way to the stadium. 

Waiting to find out if this entrance will work for us

Eventually we not only got into the stadium, but were taken onto the field for the closest seats in the house and an unobstructed view for people in wheelchairs.  During the event the crowd grew and we were eventually joined by many others on the field.  In the end, the report is that around 3,000 people went forward to repent, including two 16-year-old boys who were part of our group.  Please pray for the Ukrainian churches as they follow up with all of these people and for God's continued work in the hearts and lives of His new children. 

I apologize for the length of this post.  I'll try to write soon about rehab, but until then here are a few prayer requests:

- Camps for people with disabilities next month (Adults: July 14-19, Children: July 22-28) - people to accept invitations to come, finances, program preparation, preaching, preparation of group leaders, salvation of people who come to camp, volunteers to staff the camps adequately
- Final 2 weeks of work at our rehab center before camps and vacations - pray for the education of all our patients for home activities during this extended break and that we finish these 2 weeks strong
- People who repented at the Festival of Hope, particularly Anton and Lubomir from our group

I hope you are all having a great summer and I would love to hear about your lives as well! More to come shortly with details on rehab...



 

Our Rehab Center Turns 8!

Earlier this month we celebrated the 8th anniversary of our rehabilitation center! Some of our current and former patients gathered with their families and our staff for an afternoon of celebration in the park.  God gave us a beautiful day to spend together in His creation.  We enjoyed shish kabobs, played volleyball, and fellowshipped together.  Patients shared about when and how they started coming to our center, their impressions, and their progress.  It was a time of rejoicing for all of us. We are so grateful that we have been able to provide physical therapy at our center for the past 8 years and look forward to seeing how God uses our center in the lives of people with disabilities in the future!

Natasha, Ira (therapist), Anya, and Tanja (the first patient at our center)

Mykola and Andre

 

Vadim was in charge of the meat

It was no small picnic!

Sergiy Bolchuk, leader of our ministry, sharing the Word of God before we eat

Enjoying the sun!

 

Dima and Oksana

 

 

 

Please join us in rejoicing over the 8 years of rehabilitation and the lives that have been affected and please pray with us for the future of our center.  We continue to have a waiting list of people wanting to receive therapy.  We continue to pray for another male therapist to join our staff.  Sveta, our director, recently returned from 3 months away and has a desire to implement some of the things she learned at our center.  Please pray our therapists will be receptive to change and that we will have wisdom with discharging patients and beginning new ones.  And please pray that God will be glorified each day as we work and for the repentance of our patients and their families. Thank you to all who pray and support the work here! 

 

Christ if Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

Another blast of winter greeted Ukraine during the weekend of Palm Sunday, making it seem more like Christmas should be approaching than Easter!

 

 

But the weather improved throughout the week and we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord last Sunday with beautiful spring weather!  Like several other eastern European countries, Ukraine follows a different calendar, so Easter typically lands on a different day than in most of the world.  At Fimiam Church, we had services on Passion Thursday (much like a Good Friday service in America), Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday.  We typically have two services on Sundays, but for Easter we had only one, resulting in a packed sanctuary with overflow into the foyer and outdoors.  It was a wonderful service - we even sang "Up From the Grave He Arose" in Ukrainian!

 

From the back row of the sanctuary

After church, over 40 people in our ministry for people with disabilities shared a meal and fellowship together at the rehab center.  It was our "family" Easter celebration!

 

 

On Monday evening we attended a beautiful Christian concert put on by churches in our region and a few famous Christian singers from around the country, with the proceeds benefiting the more than 60 children in our region who are now fatherless as a result of the war. 

 

I also spent some time observing how orthodox churches celebrate Easter.  On Saturday afternoon I went our central church to watch the events in the courtyard.  It is a beautiful church and hundreds of people came and went in the short time I was there.

 

 

I tried to stay on the fringes, but soon realized I was anything but inconspicuous.  I had no head covering, was in jeans, had no jacket on (it was 70 degrees after all, but you wouldn't have known it by looking around me), and was not carrying a basket.  What I observed was that when the courtyard had a full circle of people, the head priest and several other men stepped onto the porch, said a few words, then proceeded around the circle to "bless" the people and their baskets by sprinkling water on them.  Every family had a basket which contained hard boiled eggs, meat (symbolizing the sacrificial lamb), Easter bread, and other contents of which I couldn't ascertain.  Maybe the pictures will give a better understanding:

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

Late that night, a friend and I returned to the same church - this time with our head coverings and skirts - to observe a portion of the all night service.  We were there through the midnight hour when the celebration of Jesus' resurrection begins.  Although my friend is Ukrainian, she has also never been to an orthodox church so we were both a little lost as to what was happening.  At midnight the priests went outside with a parade of people behind them carrying various items.  Many people followed but we lingered while my friend asked a few questions of a women who clearly worked at the church.  This woman could not give us any answers regarding what we had seen, what various items symbolized, etc.  All she could say was "it's our tradition."  When the priests returned indoors, one brought out a large candle and informed us that it was a holy fire brought from Jerusalem.  He said the people of Lutsk were so blessed to have this flame as now they could speak directly with God themselves. 

This same type of service occurred all throughout the country last Saturday.  Thousands of people sought the blessing of God on their lives and their baskets last weekend, but so many of them are still blinded to the truth and hope of the Gospel.  Please pray for the truth of the Word of God to be spoken in all churches across Ukraine and for the light of the Gospel to penetrate hearts.   

 

 

 

In rehab news, we are grateful that God has provided some of our youngest patients with new equipment to help meet their needs.  Sveta brought back a generously donated pediatric wheelchair from the US that we hoped would work for Mark.  Unfortunately it did not meet his needs, so we put it in storage, having no doubt that a child would come along that would need it.  But we were disappointed that Mark still did not have a wheelchair and his mom was still having to carry him.  Then a few weeks later Polina returned to our center.  Her family lives over an hour away, so they come to Lutsk intermittently for 2-week periods of rehabilitation.  Sveta tried unsuccessfully for several months last fall to locate an appropriate wheelchair for Polina in Ukraine.  In the end, she traveled to Kiev with Polina and her parents and they came home with a less-than-desirable, but adequate stroller.  So when Polina came back to our center this spring, we decided to try the donated wheelchair with her - both she and her parents loved it!  So we adjusted the wheelchair for her and she will be able to use this wheelchair for several years.  Then we asked her parents to consider allowing Mark to use the stroller, to which they immediately agreed!  So now both children means of mobility and can easily go outside with their families!  We are so grateful for God's provision! 



Mark

Polina

Mark was also blessed with a wonderful standing frame which came through a humanitarian shipment to another church in Lutsk.  We couldn't have ordered a better fit for him if we had tried!

 



And lastly, meet Anya, a 13-year-old with severe scoliosis.  She went in for corrective surgery last fall and came out with no sensation in her legs.  The surgeon took her back in and she came out with sensation but no movement, which is still her condition.  She and her parents believe the surgeon who has told them she will walk within 6 months...she is at 5 months now and there are no signs of that happening.  She has been reluctant to accept a wheelchair, believing she would not be needing it for long.  Recently we received a few wheelchairs in a humanitarian shipment and among them was an active wheelchair just Anya's size. Please pray for her as she continues rehabilitation and faces the reality that she will likely remain a paraplegic.  Please pray for Katya (her therapist) as she works with her and has opportunities to share the Gospel with her. 



Would you please join us in praying for:

• Summer camps for adults and children with disabilities, including the finances necessary to hold the camps, the organization of the camps, and the volunteers needed to serve the people with disabilities and their families.
• Additional therapists for our center.  We are particularly praying for male therapists since Vadim is our only male therapist and he is part-time.
• Anya, Mark, and their parents who are unbelievers.  Pray that we will be faithful to share and show the light and truth of the Gospel and that God would open their eyes and save them.

Thank you once again for all of you who pray and support the work here!  I am SO grateful for you!