Monday, July 29, 2013

Adventures in Ukraine!

     It has been an interesting 9 days since David left for Ukraine.  He went to take part in the Third International Conference on the needs of children with disabilities presented in Kiev, Ukraine.  This is the first one I've missed and  Dave says the last.   He tells me he'll never do another one without me.  Nice to know I'm missed!!!
     The team from the states consisting of Johnny and Alesha Kelley, Cynthia Normandia and my husband David had quite a trip!  Dave tells me it was his worst flying experience and this was his 28th time!  Poor Johnny and Alesha, it was their first!  They were late flying out of Washington and missed their connecting flight in Frankfurt.  Johnny's power chair got damaged and they then missed 4 flights and had to stay the night in Frankfurt.  Now that part I'm glad I missed!
     After staying the night in Frankfurt they finally got to Kiev and were met by our dear friends Sasha and Olya Skripak.  Their first mission was to Znemenka to do some teaching there.      
I know the ladies there were grateful for the time the team made for them as most of them could not get to the conference in Kiev.  This picture is of Cindy Normandia teaching OT skills to these caregivers.

 

    

      The team then traveled back to Ukraine to prepare for the big day!
So many great translators who help us communicate and make us look good!    Not an easy job!  Almaz church does a great job in setting up the conferences every year.  Pastor Sasha and Olya work tirelessly to make these conferences a success.  This year we had 320 people attending including 80 volunteers!
 
These are people waiting in line to register for the conference.  They all get a schedule and check off the classes they want to attend.  At the end of the day they even get certificates of completion!
So many of our team this year were people living and working in Ukraine for the orphans!
The team is now in Zhytomyr where they gave a mini conference to the good folks from Mission to Ukraine.  Tomorrow they go to the lost boys of Romanov.  I found it a rough place to visit last year.  The boys there are from ages 5 to 25 all with some type of physical or mental disability.  Their lives are bleak but things are changing, little by little.  One of the things that promotes change are conferences like this.  We thank all of you who have prayed for us and given to our mission....To change the heart of a country.  God bless you!!!
 
 

1 comment:

  1. Well you know how I feel about flying..LOL Sorry to hear about the delays..Hope flights were ok otherwise..Looks like you had a successful conference! God Bless you all!

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