Boy, have I enjoyed peace and quiet this week. It will be the calm before the storm, with preparations beginning to gear up for our next Ukraine trip.

The orphanage we're going to serve is four hours from Kiev in a remote northern village near the Russian border. Some of you know about it from our newsletter. Last visit we slept in a church in sleeping bags on inflatable mattresses. There was no snow, but it was still very cold and none of the team had actually dressed for it. So this time I'm going prepared with long johns from my good sister up north and enough layers to allow me to sleep at night and to keep me from being distracted by frostbitten appendages during the day!

From what I understand, we'll be sleeping in a big room that has gym mats on the floor and great big windows that probably don't hold heat. The bathroom that Music Mission Kiev built for the kids (their first indoor plumbing) has two showers and one toilet (thee are 300 kids here) and is right down the hall, although we hear it has been somewhat damaged since we were here last. Since last time we had so much trouble with hot water, I am planning as though there will be no showers from the time we fly out of Orlando until we leave the orphanage to go to Kiev - about 6 days. That way anything I DO get will be a pleasant surprise. (I was so appalled by my "addiction" to hot water and heat last trip - I'm hoping I'll be able to stand the "roughing it" a little bit better this time.)

This trip we also get to eat with the orphans. Last time we ate in the room we slept in, mostly ramen noodles but also some occasional treats from the villagers, who are glad we come to help the kids as they are all just barely able to survive themselves. (I need to pick up some potato peelers are gifts - I only wish I could bring some kind of a sun-powered tractor to help these people who work with a hoe all the time in this backbreaking farming.) The kids eat bread that almost always has a moldy smell (we ate it last time with no ill effects) and pretty much the same stew every day. We'll bring extras for both us and them.

This trip our goal is to spend one-on-one time with the 10-16 year old girls, who are in a great deal of danger in the orphanage. Some of their attendats are men, and they sleep right scross the hall from the boys. We know at this point there is no enforcement of law in this place, and that this is just part of the country getting on its feet … so abuse is part of life there right now. The kids may get a break from it when we are there, I think, but it goes on when we leave, so we continue to return to bring hope until the director discovers a conscience or until they allow more intervention from the outside world. At present, we have to bribe the director just to show up.

Our plans with the girls are to take them menstruation "care packages," since we're thinking no one is talking to them about their bodies and how to care for or protect them … and then to talk more about womanhood, modesty, etc. Their walls are plastered with posters of female pop stars with very few clothes, and this is such a heartbreaker. If only those people understood the effects of their irresponsibility on other cultures! Almost 70% of these girls wll probably end up in prostitution, and these performers definitely contribute to that effect. I'd love to bring some craft supplies in an effort to "cover up" some of the immodesty on those walls! (-=

I'm also thinking of taking a "princess" kind of dress to have each of them wear and be photographed in. None of these girls will be having a "coming out" party that I know of, and they loved it when my husband took photos of them last time. So much of their realty is bound up in what they see on TV. In that way, they face similar struggles to American children.

Anyhow, donations are coming in to support the trip, and if you have an interest in providing food, supplies or otherwise, we still have a laundry list of them to go. So let me know (you can contact me through my web site) if you'd like to help.

Kids need help all over the world. Whether you help someone next door or go into an impoverished country, kids need love and attention. And we forget that no amount of material stuff really makes a kid happy, American or Ukrainian. What the really need is a kind look, a hug, a listening ear, someone to walk with them. It's so easy to get caught in the "buying things" routine to express our love for our kids here in the US, but that can be a real trap. When I consider how happy many of the Ukrainian or African kids that I've met are with a ball or a simple toy, I recognize that with our material treasures our kids may be as impoverished as those children. If we're not engaging with them as parents, they're still starving.

We're constantly surprised at how paths open for us to do work overseas. We recognize that there are so many needs here and at home. But recognizing the global family is important in this modern world, and relationships between countries are built by individuals understanding and helping each other in spite of what their countries are doing or not doing. And we want to bring real liberty to individuals at home or abroad - liberty that brings life and hope and healing.

Thanks for reading this week! Be thinking of us as we prepare!