Heart for Orphans

Hi all! This is Nancy. The trip is going great and we can see the Lord going before us. Today started out with us all laughing. Some of the breakfast choices can be interesting. Today our choices were fish, "cutlet" or sausage (otherwise known as a hot dog). I just couldn't face all that first thing in the morning, so in my best Russian (with the aid of a Russian/English dictionary) I asked if they had oatmeal, or so I thought. The waiter looked at me strangely and walked away. When Alex arrived he fell apart laughing. He told me I asked if they had oats for horses. Well, needless to say, I have not heard the end of it. The horse analogies keep on coming :)

After our team devotions, Dima met us and we all drove out to Mel's House in the village about a half an hour away. It was so great to see the house completed - at long last! House parents Andrei and Alyona and all the boys have worked hard to clean up the grounds also. The house is on a hectare of land and it was all overgrown with lots of trash everywhere when we bought it last summer. In October when our family was here, it wasn't much better. It was under construction and a mess! But now the garden was neat and plowed, and the house was beautiful and homey. There is a grape arbor, a number of fruit trees and lots of flowers and vegetables starting to sprout. They have three pot-bellied pigs, a pet chicken, dog and several kittens. We helped with cooking, cleaning windows and general preparations for the dedication of Mel's House tomorrow. The boys had a great time playing UNO and soccer with our teenagers (and several of the adults!). Several of the villagers joined in also.

Tomorrow is a big day. We are expecting about 60-70 people at the dedication! Many are pastors from the area, friends from all over Ukraine and some of the local missionary community. It's supposed to be chilly, so I'm not sure where everyone will fit in the small house! But it should be fun!

After the dedication we plan to go to the orphanage and play games with the kids, and maybe do manicures with the girls. The Agape puppet ministry yesterday was GREAT!! It presents the gospel in such a fun way with music and lots of energy! The kids were all captivated. The orphanage teachers and staff loved it also.

So far, one of the highlights of the trip for me has been seeing two of the boys that we brought to the USA back in 2007 with the Old Russian Shoemaker. I was chopping vegetables at Joshua's House and looked up to see a familiar face. "Igor??" He said, "Miss Nancy??" He and his friend Sergei are living there now. We prayed for them back in 2007, and I wasn't sure what had happened to them. They came from an orphanage two hours away, and now here they were living in Joshua's House! Not only that, but last Sunday they committed their lives to Christ! Hallelujah!

Well, gotta go. It's late... blessings to all, and love from the H4O/WCC team!