"Graduates" From Grace Youth Shelter

On a Monday night it was our pleasure to host some of the young men and women who have grown up in the Grace Baptist Church Shelter. It just happened to be the 9th anniversary of the opening of the home. We have known many of these children since they were six and seven years old. Three married couples came and one young man brought his fiancee. Their wedding is planned for mid-June. In the right foreground you can see little Melanie, our first "grandchild" from the Shelter. Her mother, Marina, grew up at Grace, met Alexi who works for the Grace Mission and was married at the church with her extended family at the Shelter.

The boys enjoyed the banquet style meal. Velodia is in the foreground. The third young man, Sergei, was conscripted into the Army when he was 18, has served his enlistment and is back helping with construction at the Black Sea Camp. He is one of the young men who would benefit from having a small apartment at the Transition House (see last Blog.) In fact the first four boys you see in profile here are in need of decent, supervised, clean housing that is safe and emotionally supporting. According to Ukrianian statistics, more than 85% of young men leaving state orphanages wind up in prison within three years of leaving. Grace Shelter has prepared these young men for a better life with spiritual and emotional support as well as the love of house parents and a congregation of "extended" family.

Christina, Velodia and Mischa (striped shirt)

The other side of the table shows more of the girls and some of the younger boys, ages 15-17. Our dream is to hold this dinner at the new Transition House when it is completed. For many of these young people, it is a treat to go to a restaurant and have a three hour dinner with family and friends. This restaurant was named "Robin Bobbin".

Third from bottom is a profile picture of Lydia, the house mother to these 32 young people over the last nine years.

Baby Melanie (pronounced May-lahn-ee) sitting on her Momma's lap. Marina grew up in Grace Shelter. Melanie is hugging a bunny that plays "Jesus Loves Me" in English. She loved to press the bunny's tummy to make it play, over and over and over and over and over and over......

John and K. J. Proctor with Christina (left) and Violetta (right). Christina is 18 and so is no longer at the Shelter. She is in great need of adult supervision and a constant loving support she had before. She is a prime candidate for the Transition House. Violetta is 15 and so has a few more years before she will have to leave us.

Grace Transition House

The Grace Baptist Transition House rises over the concrete fence in the small village of Fontanka on the outskirts of Odessa. This house is being built as a shelter for the children over the age of 18 who have to leave the Shelter at Grace Baptist Church. At the age of 18 they must leave, but they are not prepared to live on their own. Here they can live with adult supervision while finishing college, trade school or obtaining their first jobs. The property was bought from a project abandoned by the regional government. At the time there was only a basement and the first floor.

This picture shows the size of the building with two adults in the foreground. Until the roof was needed, the congregation of Grace had provided all the materials and labor for the building. The stones were brought from the demolition of the old cabins at the Black Sea Camp, cleaned and used again. The interior is now being built out. Much work is being done on the first floor with teams coming from Great Britian, Wales and the United States to help the Ukrainian workers. Much is yet to be done to complete the work in the next two years.

Men from six churches in Wales came to work at the Transition House in late May. Some of them had been there before last September and had gone home telling others of the work they were doing. They have helped to hang sheetrock, done ceiling work, tiling, plumbing, electrical work and the supplement of construction supplies.

The Ukrainian government has ruled that the heating plant for the Tranisiton House must be placed in an area outside the main building. This photo shows the foundations dug for the new heating building. Bricks have been bought to begin work on the foundation work. Bids have been let for the electrical, water and heating plant construction. It will take funds that are not yet available, so prayers are requested for this need.

Grace Church Picnic at Black Sea Camp

It is a wonderment having a church camp on the Black Sea with 80 to 100 yards of beach! On May 11, a national holiday in Ukraine, 300+ members of Grace Church went to the bazza and had a day of fellowship and fun. Three buses the size of the old Greyhounds were used as well as the four church vans and private cars.

Below are a few pictures from that day. In the morning there was singing and sharing. People divided into 8 groups with assigned versus from a passage of scripture. They discussed what faith, hope and love meant in their lives, came back to the whole group and shared (5 minutes) what they had discovered. Around 5pm everyone packed up and went home.

Peeling potatoes for 300 people.

This one is for Dave Bolt and the Media Team

Youth group meeting with Vadim Yakim, the Youth Pastor at Grace.

Small group breakout sessions.

Trying out the new stairs (see earlier Blog entry) to the upper camp area. This is the first time that Grace members had seen the new stairs.

Who forgot the volleyball net?

Sunday May 10, 2009

May 9 is the Ukrainian equivalent to Memorial Day. It is a time to honor the veterans of the "great wars." Everyone who can afford to goes on holiday for a long weekend. On Sunday night, however, the children's choir provided an hour and a half of music and drama devoted to honoring Mother's and Grandmother's who stayed home and cared for family while the men were away at war.

Beginning with this shot of the front of Grace Church, here are some pictures from Sunday's services:

The sign over the door reads: Christ is Risen!

This photo shows the proximity of the Children's Shelter to the front door of the church. The children are very much a part of the church family and are reared in the shadow of the sanctuary.

This is about one third of their Adult Choir. Being a holiday Sunday they were low in number. We are bringing back a short video of this anthem in hopes we can play it for you on a Wednesday night.

The next series of pictures show a display and shots of individual paintings done by 6 to 10 year olds in the Grace Sunday School program. They are done in water color and are on display in the foyer of the church with each child's name and age.

I wish we could upload all of them with pictures of the young artists. This is a great tool for Bible Stories to be shared with the younger children.

Sometimes those 2 hour church services can just tire a fellow out! This is the son of Andrew and Julia Bandura, younger brother of Pastor Igor Bandura.

Children's Choir presenting their program on Sunday night. These children stayed on stage for over 2 hours! They presented songs, solos, duets, ensembles and dramatic readings and short plays. Pastor Igor Bandura is seen on stage right.

The youngest children from the Shelter singing and giving their memorized parts in the program.

Black Sea Camp

Pastor Bandura, his wife Anya and their two youngest children, Emily age 4, and Timothy age 2, took us out to the Black Sea Camp to see the progress on the new shower house and the steps leading from the lower to the upper camp areas. The Walnut Hills Joshua Team who visited the camp in September 2008 can remember the climb up the hill.

The new steps were designed by a landscaper from Lancaster, PA. He and several of the young men who were raised in the Grace Shelter dug out the areas with shovels. Then using wheel barrows, buckets, shovels and hand tools, they completed what you will see in the following pictures. Anya's idea is to plant Hosta and other ground holding plants along the sides of the walkway when the hand rail is installed and a future "dream" is to have a wooden deck with benches half-way up the hill for a place to rest and to have wonderful views of the Black Sea.

This summer there will be between 700 and 800 youth and adults using the camp. One session will be for a ministry to the blind and sight impaired. This mission will pay only for the food that is eaten during the camp session and Grace will cover all the rest of the costs to provide an outreach to this segment of their community in need. For many it will be their first chance to have a "vacation" and to go to the beach.

Right now there are no more construction teams scheduled to come and work this summer. One is slated for September. What could each of us do if we came to work and help? There are various jobs from painting to planting, tiling to tearing down, helping to healing. Pray about what you could be doing to assist the work.

Enjoy the photos

This view allows you to see the height of the "hill" from the lower camp area up to the top level. The stairs are in a series with chat walkways between them. Care has to be taken for the drainage of rain down the side of the hill and the erosion of the soil. It was determined that this style of construction would hold better than poured concrete that had to be secured with rebar. You can see the space on each side of the stairs where Anya wishes to plant flowers and hosta.

Mr. Gow the master planner / landscaper who designed the stairs. He came with a team from SEND International to do the construction work this week. You can see one of the wheelbarrows in the picture that they have modified on the front to be able to carry it up the stairs when filled with dirt or chat. (Any volunteers?) Also in the picture are Anya (Ann) Bandura and the side of Pastor Igor Bandura. In the background are the concrete steps to some other cabins and construction debris from the new shower house.

Look closely at this picture and you can see Sergei and Misha carrying a wheelbarrow full of dirt up a section of the stairs to the upper area of the construction site!

View of construction method. You can see how they dug out the dirt to make the path wider for the stairs.

Sergei (seated) and Dima work to smooth the dirt and chat in each step. They are doing this with a piece of lumber, a shovel and their hands. Both young men grew up as orphans in the Grace Church Shelter. Sergei was conscripted into the Army at 18 and Dima went to the Art Institute. Now they are both 22 and working in their spare time to help the church. Dima also serves as a translator for English crews.

Close up of Sergei and Misha carrying the load of chat down the steps from the upper camp to dump into the steps. Note that Misha is not one of the younger men!

To the right is an exterior view of the new shower house under construction. The exterior will be covered with stucco when completed. The team from SEND International laid ceramic tile on the floors and walls of the men's and women's sides of the showers and of the toilet areas.

Construction area outside of sleeping cabin and across from the new shower house. Concrete steps in background lead up to another level of (yellow) sleeping cabins

John Proctor caught in sudden rain blown in from Black Sea, standing in front of the old kitchen shed used before the new cafeteria and kitchen were built.

Children's Shelter Holiday

Taking advantage of being out of school on a Monday holiday, we took some of the children from the Grace Baptist Shelter on a boat ride of the Odessa Harbor, to lunch at a Ukrainian cafeteria and then on to ice skating for the older children. Here are some pictures of the day.

These children are our newest "family". The eldest girl, Melanie, is the daughter of the Grace Church houseparents for the other five children. They range in age from 2 to 6. They were sent to us from a regional orphanage. In the background you can see the loading gantries in the Port of Odessa. The sculpture behind them depicts a mother and child watching the Black Sea for the return of her sailor husband.

John Proctor with Sasha, Dima (front) and Bogdan on the boat. Apartment buildings of downtown Odessa in background. The boys had a great time going from level to level on the boat watching the waves with Sasha in hot pursuit to keep them from going overboard.

Peter Dovbeya, Shelter Director and one of three house "fathers" holding Kolya. This little boy, now almost 5, did not speak for the first three years of his life. Through work at the Shelter and then with his adoptive parents (who also adopted his two older brothers and older sister), he now jabbers all the time. He is a loving child. His adoptive Father is in the background of the picture.

Rodick, 16, has been with us since he was six years old. He is helping to drive the van for Peter. He is such a great young man. Our prayer is that funds will be found to provide scholarships for the boys who wish to continue their education after high school. We also pray for the completion of the Transition House where the kids can go when they become 18. By Ukrainian law, they must leave the Church Shelter at that time. Some of them continue to work at the church which gives them a little extra time. Some of the are conscripted into the Army if they are not continuing school. Statistics for the girls is not as good. 70% will have a baby by the time they are 19, most leaving government orphanages will become prostitues if no one helps them find their way in life.

I am sorry but I cannot remember this little girl's name. She is almost 3 with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. She came to the Grace Shelter a year ago from a state agency. Her backpack was a little fuzzy dog that she kept pulling around and petting all the time. We can't tell you how well behaved these children were on the boat. It was a thrill to be with them even if it was a tad cold!

Three of our older girls on the boat ride. From left to right are Natasha, Victoria and Violetta. They will be leaving us within another 2 years so we are truly anxious to get the Tranistion House completed for them to live in with Peter and Lydia as houseparents. In the background between Vicka and Violetta is the profile of Alexie who purchases the food for the Shelter Kitchen and the Black Sea Camp.

Vanya (Ehvahn/John) resting from ice skating. This young boy, age 12, has a wonderful singing voice. Music lessons are an added value for the children when money can be found. Vanya sings in the church children's choir and does many of the solos for the group.

An attempt to get at least half of the group quiet on the ice without sliding all over each other. In the middle of the front row is Svetlana, who has worked at the Grace Church Shelter since it began. Her two daughters are on the second row to her right behind Bogdan, who appears to be biting her elbow but was actually trying to hold her upright!

Vova, Sasha and Bogdan race by the camera. Vova and Sasha are older brothers to little Kolya shown in the picture with Peter. (He's the little boy who didn't speak for three years.) These children endured much before being "rescued" by the Grace ministry. Bogdan is the little boy who was sold to the gypsies by his mother in exchange for drugs. A woman from Grace learned of this and brought him to the Shelter to save his life. He was 7 at the time.

This is Dennis. He is 16 now. When we first saw him he was six and so small he didn't even come over the top of the kitchen table. He had lost his 2 front teeth and had ears like barn doors. We fell in love with him when he came up to recite his Bible memory verses for us. Soon he'll have to leave the Shelter and find his way in life if funds cannot be found to complete the Transition House within the next 16 months.

Natasha teaching Vicka to skate on her own. Most of the kids caught on quickly having skated on the streets or on rollerblades. We had no accidents, but some sore body parts when the day was over.

Tere and Dan Hall

Many of you remember Dan, Tere, Philip and Elizabeth Hall while they were with us at Walnut Hills. We were blessed to share a meal at their home in Vienna, Austria on our connection to Odessa. Phillip will complete high school at the International School in Vienna next year. He plays on the varsity baseball team. Elizabeth is in the 8th grade and is on the traveling volleyball team. They will be stationed in Vienna through 2012 but will be back in Williamsburg for a visit in July of this year. They are looking forward to seeing each of you then.

Pictures from Grace Baptist Church

Here are a couple of pictures of the front of Grace Baptist Church. You can see the banners that were placed for Easter. The one on the left reads, "Christ is Risen". The one on the right reads "He is Risen Indeed." This is at the end of the Sunday morning service so you see the Choir leaving the podium. Note that the long white table set for the Lord's Supper. WHBC presented the cloth to Grace during the Joshua Team visit. They also serve the Lord's Supper on Sunday night for those who were not in the morning service. Instead of passing the plate and cup, congregants come forward as we do on Christmas Eve.

The screen on the right side of the church ceiling is to projec the words to the hymns and songs. Many hymns were never published in book form, or the books only contain the words and not the music scores. Because of the few hymnals available in the beginning of Perestroika, most churches use screens to project the songs.

Choir Trip to Belarussia

When we first arrived Pastor Bandura and his wife, Anya, were on a choir trip with the Youth Choir and Youth Minister, Vadim Yakim. The drive from Odessa to their destination was to take over 12 hours, so they decided to leave at 7:30 pm on Thursday night. Driving in teams they made the Ukraine border in good time only to be detained there for 4 hours. Upon crossing the border (a matter of 50 feet) they were detained on the other side for 2 hours. It seems their passports are not barcoded and so the border guards had to type, with one finger, each person's identification information and wait for the response from Kiev. Then, on the opposite side, they endured this again. So now you know why the first Russian word they taught John in 1990 was the word for Patience! The group returned home at 8pm on Monday after being on the road since 2:30am - and these are not super highways either. They were in great spirits.

While they were away John and I got the joy of taking 29 of the children from Grace Shelter and 8 adults out for the holiday. First we went on a boat tour of the Odessa Harbor, then we ate lunch at a Ukrainian cafeteria called the Zharky Parky. After lunch the 2 to 5 year olds went home to nap and we took the rest of the older kids to the ice skating rink for two hours. No...we didn't skate, but did take wonderful pictures we hope to upload now that the Internet connection is on in our apartment. We usually go to the water park to swim but it is too cold now for the pools to open. The amusement park is moving from one location to the other, so that was ruled out this year, too. However, we thought the Director of the Shelter was clever in coming up with something the children have not been able to do for quite a while and they had a great time.

Tonight we attended a Bible Study class. I think I understood about 20 words out of the hour since everyone spoke so fast. However, we had our English/Russian Bible with us and were able to find the text they were studying which was Hebrews Chapter 9. John "gave greetings" to the group of 42 from Walnut Hills Baptist Church and Dr. Neal. They all spoke well of the Joshua Team's visit last September and want everyone to come back to visit. At the end we all stood an prayed for each church.

Please be in prayer for our Brothers and Sisters here. The worldwide economic situation has hit them hard, too. They also have family in the US and several have told us that their family members have lost jobs and homes in the States, so that support has also impacted them.

Special note to John Thompson: On Sunday the choir sang, "In the Name of Jesus" and it was a fantastic arrangement from the music the Team brought last fall. The harmony and phrasing was perfect even though the words are much longer than ours! We wish we had recorded it for our choir to hear it sung in another language. It made us realize just how beautiful that piece of music is to the heart.

Stay tuned.......

News from Odessa

Greetings from Grace Baptist Church in Odessa, Ukriane. John and I arrived safely on May 1 and have been on the run ever since. We had a bit of a shock on the stop coming over when we received an email stating that Austrian Air had cancelled one of our (many) flights. As it turned out it was for the latter part of May and they rebooked us immediately. Nothing like being in the middle of an international flight and not knowing which leg of the journey just dropped from the itinerary. God is good. We did have one bag inspected at Customs this year in Odessa. It seems they are now questioning each passenger and looking in at least one bag. This is a change from years past. They did look in the bag containing the gifts for the Children's Shelter, but apparently deemed it now worth asking for any "donations" to get it through. Again...God is good