What We Do
When my family first came to Ukraine we thought we would be visiting orphanages each week. The first year of this trip we worked with a small mission organization. Instead of us visiting orphanage it was more like the orphans were visiting us.
In late December 2012, my father and two of my sisters went to a school for teens to pick up two girls who had visited us before. But when the came back they only came with one girl and two boys. Their names were Oleg, Vova and Nastia. Ever since that day Vova and Oleg kept coming to our house every weekend until spring. In spring, Oleg graduated. He has been living with us ever since. As for Vova, he left in July or August.
In the end of July 2013, we stopped working with the organization and moved into an apartment near the center of town. After that, more young men have been coming to live with us because they have no family.
Although mostly teenage boys have been coming to stay, there has been one girl named Diana who we met about two months ago. Diana does not come to our house every weekend but I think that when she does come she enjoys it a lot.
So far, I've written about what we do with orphans but we also do things at our church. Every Sunday we try to go to church. Although we barely understand a word the pastor says, we always sing songs in Ukrainian and English. Sometimes my dad preaches if there's someone who can translate, even though my dad is not actually a preacher.
At the church we attend, there is a young man in his twenties who is a Christian, is married, and has a baby. Andri and his little family come to our house frequently for Bible studies, singing, and coffee. I enjoy listening to the debates among Oleg and Andri about what the Bible says. I also like watching on their baby.
Other than that we live like normal people; going to the Bazaar and supermarket. We do school, play at the park, and celebrate holidays and birthdays.
I hope now you can understand more clearly of what we do here in Ukraine.
Karissa - age 11
