"Unless you turn to God from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child, is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And any of you who welcomes a little child like this because you are mine, is welcoming me and caring for me"........Matthew 18:3-5 (LB)

This is the last photo for National Blog Posting Month. It's my favorite photo from the tennis tournament. I will be blogging again soon. We have a small team arriving today to help with the shopping and gift wrapping for eighty children's Christmas gifts! The holiday season starts this week in Kyiv!

Sleeping underground.

This boy never made it off the streets. He was charged with murder and is now serving time in prison. To the right of him you can see a hole in the ground which is where he and the other children lived.

Before I began to work with CrossRoads Foundation, I worked with street children in a local church's "soup kitchen." The group of kids I got to know over a three year period outgrew their "street kid" image and when they started getting older (sixteen is the legal age in Ukraine) they outgrew the ministry's program for street children. My friend Tolik and I felt called to continue to minister to them and spent a year on the streets meeting with them and helping them as best we could without a church or organization's support. This was a difficult but also a special time for me as God worked in our lives as well as in the kids lives as well. Many of these youths were living in an abandoned apartment and this child that Tolik is singing to in the photo, is a 2nd generation street child.

Due to either blogger or my internet connection, I cannot upload any photos to the blog today....sorry.....check back tomorrow!

One of my favorite little girls I used to visit in an orphanage.

I love the doll in this photo! I asked this little girl her doll's name and she said, "Dolly."

Reflections on the Tennis Tournament

Yesterday our committee got together to have a post tournament lunch and talk about our own perspectives on the tennis tournament. We poured over the media that covered the event, (newspapers and TV news) and laughed a lot about the most stressful moments that we lived through as we put everything together. We even talked (gulp) about if we wanted to do another tournament! The Ukrainian Tennis Club has already called and wanted to know the dates! The feedback from the participants was positive and they requested we do another tournament again as well!

For me personally, the best part of this event was not the fact that we raised money for our work with street children, or that we all had an enjoyable time together. For me, the best part of the event was seeing how God has worked in my life to place me in a group of people with the same vision and goals for helping street children.

Two years ago I sat alone on the streets at night with a group of street kids and wondered how in the world I could do anything for them. God had made it clear in my heart that this was to be my area of ministry but at the time I had no support from my church either in the US or in Ukraine to help these kids change their lives. A handful of faithful friends sent me some financial support and my friend and ministry partner Tolik and I would pool our money together to buy food and take it to a group of kids who lived in an abandoned apartment. I experienced with these children first hand how psychologically difficult their lives are as so many in society close their eyes and turn their backs on them. I understood that God wanted me to help these kids and help people in their community and outside of it understand them and encourage them to get involved in their lives and help them but for the life of me, I could not figure out how in the world I was to do this. It seemed every door was closed to me.

I waited on the Lord and tried to be faithful to this desire for a long time and when the timing was right, He brought me to a group of people in Kyiv who are working hard to help these children. God taught me many things during that difficult time, one of which is to always be faithful to him and wait on him.

To see the positive reactions from many people in the Kyiv community as they listen to a young man who lived on the streets and now is working and going to school was an earth shattering event that I never thought I would witness. I know it sounds dramatic. Maybe it is dramatic. I am just sharing my experiences. I know that the biggest impact for me was not raising money, but sharing with people that each of these children are worthy and need to be given the chance to fulfill a destiny in life that will not find them on the street as an adult.

Waiting for lunch to be served.

I love this photo because it looks like everything in the room is on a larger scale that the little girl and gives it an "Alice in Wonderland" feel to it.

Ping pong is a BIG DEAL at the rehabilitation center.

Another photo from last summer......

Photo by Cheryl Nemazie

The first "strokes" against hopelessness!

I will probably have to post each and every tennis tournament photo because looking at them make me so happy!

Future professional athlete!

Street Life in Ukraine

The under belly of street life in Ukraine is an evil and wondrous place. I have been watching a series on Ukrainian TV which has interviews with people who are selling their children, surrogate mothers, and teenage mothers. So much of what is happening is hearsay or cannot be accurately documented. It seems that the going rate for a baby is about $200. Where the babies go or what happens to them is unknown. The possibilities most likely include foreign adoption or stem cell research.

The blog, Orange Ukraine shares some links on the subjects of disabled children being used in the mining industry in Donetsk Oblast and the percentage of under aged Ukrainian trafficked girls. You can read this blog by clicking HERE.

(Note this post was edited 2/20/08.)

House Parent Training Conference Starts

Today I saw six people from our ministry, including one independent missionary off to the House Parent Training Conference that will be held the next few days at a sanitarium outside of Kyiv. Four more people will travel separately tomorrow and attend the next couple of days. This conference is put on by Safe Haven International and Straight Ahead ministries. They had a good number of people sign up and its great to see missionaries and national Christians who want to learn more about ministering to street children, orphans and at-risk children.

Getting the kids positioned to hit the first "stroke" to open the tournament.

Due to technical difficulties with either blogger or my server, I cannot post any photos today. Check back tomorrow!

Last summer, photographer Cheryl Nemazie visited us and shot some wonderful photos.......

Getting The Hug

National Blog Posting Month

November is National Blog Posting Month and in honor of making a commitment to post everyday, I decided that I would participate on this blog by sharing photographs. I will post photos from ChildRescue as well as photographs of street children that I worked with in the past.

Everyone involved with the Tennis Tournament is still on a fantastic "high" from the event! So here's some extra photos of the kids!

We invited the children to come and participate in the opening ceremony. We wanted them to visit the tournament and see what "big tennis" is like (They are avid ping pong fans which is called "little tennis" in Russian.)and hit the first "stroke against hopelessness." There was a miscommunication on the time they should have arrived, so Nikolai had to rush off to help get them to the courts. Illiya was finishing his testimony when they arrived and all eyes turned to the revolving door as they entered.

Here a hug is offered to Leisya who is not in the frame.