I would like to take an opportunity and share what an amazing year we had so far, and give a short update on the last Heart to Heart team trip to Ukraine in May, 2019. We had a wonderful team going to Ukraine this year: Tony Jenkins, who had travelled and ministered in Ukraine for over 20 years; children’s pastor at Cleveland Christian Fellowship (CCF) Daniel Hendy; Oksana Bryant and Benjamin Clark from CCF, TN; Sharon Campbell, Bea Kalkomey, Judy Smith and Alyssa Beard from Texas; pastor Albert Kitcher; and our faithful driver Vasilyi with his family from Ukraine. I am always touched by the dedication and commitment of all the team members, who sacrifice their time and finances to go oversees and minister at the orphanages, nursing homes, and wherever else God opens the doors for us to share His love. Thank you so much to my wonderful team!
Heart to Heart team at the local church in Ukraine.
Our team is visiting a family with many foster children.
During our trip we visited five orphanages: one of them housed developmentally delayed children, the other was for autistic and special needs children; two were for children from abused families who eventually would be placed to live with other family members, or stay to live at some orphanage long term until they turn 18. We had the honor of being at our “adopted” orphanage when they had a recognition for five graduating orphans who turned 18. We prepared special going away packages for the graduates with basic living supplies they would need once they moved to live independently. It was also a blessing to have children’s pastor Daniel Hendy with us. Kids loved Daniel’s magic tricks, Bible stories, and performance on a unicycle. Our team was busy with crafts, games, taking pictures with a Polaroid camera which the kids got to keep, and handing them presents. It was so touching to see kids smile and laugh, and to hear them tell that they would be waiting for us to come back the entire year.