Summer 2007
June and July were busy months for Tallahassee based charity, His Kids, Too! Arriving in Dzerzhinsk Ukraine on the 27th of June, we were busy making the final preparations for the summer Bible camp. Our daily average was 125 children, and 38 team members from the U. S. and throughout Ukraine. The final week, July 9-13 was spent delivering thousands of lbs. of humanitarian aid throughout the Donetsk region to over 5000 orphan children.
The trip can probably be best summed up by eighteen year old, Nancy Cooper a team member from Birmingham AL:
The trip can probably be best summed up by eighteen year old, Nancy Cooper a team member from Birmingham AL:
Ukraine Trip 2007
By: Nancy Cooper
When our group left for Ukraine a few weeks ago, I was excited and nervous about the two weeks ahead of me. The nine of us were headed to Dzerzhinsk, a small town in rural Ukraine, to help with a community Bible school and to distribute humanitarian aid. Though I'm not the most well-traveled teenager, I thought I had prepared myself, having studied travel guides, practiced reading the Ukrainian alphabet, and packed every travel-sized toiletry know to man. None of this, however, prepared me for the emotional and spiritual journey ahead. By the time the Bible school began on Monday morning, I was overwhelmed, exhausted, and worried about what I'd gotten myself into. I didn't know how I could relate with the children when I couldn't even talk with them. My worries were quickly relieved, though, by the children's warm smiles and anxious laughter. As my class sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children," both in Russian and in English, it struck me that though language is not universal, God's love is. I didn't have to read the Russian Bible to my class to minister to the children.
Simply holding hands, singing songs, and making crafts with them was enough to show that we cared. Each of us showed God's love in some way that week: playing basketball, teaching a game, or leading a silly song. I'm so grateful to our church and His Kids, Too! for the opportunity to have been able to reach out to the children of Dzerzhinsk in this memorable way.