Pictures...just for fun

Early last year while looking for ministry opportunities for visiting World Racers I learned about the abandoned babies at our local children's hospital.  We were able to hook the Racers up with a regular gig of just going to the hospital and holding babies every day.  If you are there at the right time you usually get to feed them, and if there are diapers available then you can change them...otherwise they sit in it all day!  The babies are almost always under-stimulated and sometimes under-developed, at least in terms of building muscle and coordination that comes with being played with and challenged.  We probably all know about those studies that indicate how babies need to be held...and I can definitely see a difference between these kids who aren't cuddled and played with versus children I know who are growing up in loving families.

So, we go.  It's a ministry that's grown from something we do with "teams" when they are in town, to something several of us do on a weekly basis.  There are as many Ukrainians that go every week as there are us American missionaries.

Naturally we grow attached to the babies.  So much so that several months ago one of our young (college aged) Ukrainian volunteers decided to track down what happens once the kids leave the Children's Hospital. Some of them are returned to their families, some enter foster care or perhaps are adopted here in Ukraine (they aren't available for international adoption until after their 5th year and in accordance with a handful of other conditions).  If they don't find families, then they go to a sure-enough Baby Orphanage.  Our intrepid Ukrainian volunteer (I'll call her Anna...because that's her name) found out where and how we could go visit the children there.  Since then a growing group of us (a new volunteer almost every week here lately) has been making the almost 90 minute trip by bus or train about once a week to spend a few hours with a group of 2-3 year toddlers.  We love it.  You would too.  And you know what? None of this is in my "job description"; this all falls in the category of personal ministry...and it's the favorite thing I do.

Finally, another blog

Once again, I've been more than a month remiss in writing a blog...and so much has happened in the month!

To begin, a friend from the States was here all of August to hold babies and go to the baby orphanage with us.  To be honest, there really wasn't a whole lot going in August in terms of being here for a "mission trip".  Ukraine kind of shuts down in August.  Families go on extended vacation to the Sea and to other cool places.  A lot of my regular "contacts", the Ukrainians I work with and rely on to translate and get me in and out of jams, were on vacation leaving Amy and I to fend for ourselves.

In addition to that I spent the last week and a half of August near Stuttgart, Germany at a retreat/conference with many of the International Teams workers in Europe.  The conference itself wasn't quite restful enough to be a "retreat" and maybe not "meaty" enough to be the kind of conference that exploded my brain and sent me home telling everyone that I learned "so much"... but it was nice.  The highlight was getting to visit with some of the friends I made in Chicago back in 2011 during our initial Access Training with ITeams.  They are serving in England, Spain, Rome...and I got to meet workers in maybe 10 other countries.  It was exciting to learn about their ministries.

At the conclusion of the conference I rented a car and spent 3 days in the Alps.  I love mountains and I got to spend a few days not only being in the mountains of Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and France... but I got to DRIVE.  A Stickshift!  In the Alps!  I hit it perfectly- cool weather, NO CROWDS at all.  Just me and some of the finest mountain roads I've ever seen.

Another highlight was that my sweet friend Thuy from St Louis (originally from Long Beach, MS and formerly a kid in my youth group in Gulfport) was in Geneva on business and I was able to spend Sunday morning with her.  What a treat!

Finally, I returned home a couple weeks ago and I've been trying to get caught up on some rest and get back into a routine.  I'm trying to put more effort into language study.  I really want to whittle down my weekly schedule to just my obligations at church and language study...with at least a day a week either at the baby orphanage or the baby hospital and of course my IT obligations.

I have another blog in me...about going to the 2014 Winter Olympics but I think I'll wait a few days before I write it.