Steven_

A small compilation of my trip to the Ukraine

Here for some of my friends my story about the trip to the Ukraine this August.

We went by coach to Budapest(Hungary) and then to the Ukrainian border. When we came there, we had to walk across the border. Otherwise it should take us many hours, because they would check the whole coach. On the other side of the border were small vans waiting for us, so we went to a small village near the city of Beregszasz. It is a small distance from the Hungarian an the Slovakian border. Most of the inhabitants are born Ukrainian, but they speak Hungarian and feel like they have the Hungarian nationality. That is one of the reasons the people have to live under hard circumstances. The other reason is that they only live of agriculture and there are no other businesses in that region.

We stayed in a good guesthouse near the school we had to work. We started every day with a breakfast with bread, juice, tea, and coffee. Then we went to the school(about 300 yards). There we split up and some went to work with the children(about 40 children every day) and the others went to renovate a building for after school programs.

First I will tell you something about the children programs. Every morning we started at 9 o’clock with singing. Followed by a Bible story and some drawing and creating in a theme. Meanwhile we gave them something to drink and with all the stuff we created we made the school more colorful. Every lunch we had “soup”(water with pasta and without vegetables) with bread and meat. Then at 1 o’clock we went back and did games with the children till 3 o’clock. The children really enjoyed it. Every game we introduced(we had only 1 translator) they enjoyed. They really did not care what they had to do and helped each other many times. That was an astonishing experience, because that is complete different from the Dutch children who all want to win themselves every game.

When we had time for ourselves, after 3 o’clock we went to see some other projects of the Eastern European Mission. They have some very good organized projects over there and it was great to see how they cooperated with the locals and helping so many people with money from Holland and Hungary. We also went behind the gates of some of the people who are supported with money to educate and feed their children. That was a shocking experience! I went to a woman who was send on the streets by her alcoholic husband, while she had to take care of her 6 children. Right now she has a house, but her life is still very hard. Since her last child she could not do any physical work anymore. 4 Months ago she went to Hungary to work as a seamstress, but she was swindled. After a month work she received no money and they stole all her papers. Right now she can not work because she has no papers and she has no money to pay for new papers(also count some money for the local official, because fraud is more rule then exception). We prayed for her, in Dutch, and I really felt a connection with this women. It was so difficult to see all the hope in her eyes and she was smiling all the time, while telling her story. She also spend some money on drinks and cookies while we were there. Living in such circumstances and still wanting to give something to your guests. That was such a shock for me, but this women believed everything had a reason and that God should help her. Of course we came not with empty hands, but then it is still very difficult to understand their culture of welcoming their guests.

The last evening we had a great meal with all the children and their parents at the school. We did a small play for them and played a game with them. When it was time to say goodbye the hardest part of our journey came. We knew we had money enough for them to renovate the existing building completely and to pay the complete interior, but the children would fall back in their misery. They had no toys, no hope, only a sandy field with 2 goals. Some of them were crying aloud while we had them in our hands and that was very hard, so I dropped some tears to at that moment.

The best lesson for me in the Ukraine was that we have to live more together in the Western world and not to become to independent. Humans are made to love and help each other and there are still many waiting for help. Not only in poor countries, but we also saw people with great gates, but horrible houses. What you see outside is maybe not what somebody feels. People could feel lonely or have something else on their minds. Try to involve other people in your live and into society so that their lives improve and that everybody could enjoy the love of others and do not feel lonely. Let the love of other people come for your daily television program, because receiving love from others gives you much more energy then sitting lazy on the couch watching the telly!

There is to much more to tell that happened, but maybe you could understand more of it while you see some of the pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maartenvanvulpen/sets/72157601670804156/

Questions and reactions are as always very welcome. I hope you to learned something of this and let your love shine!!!

Steven