Rainbow

This past week has been slower for us. Our Russian tutor has been sick and so we only had one lesson with her. It was nice to have a break because it gave us the chance to go back and review everything we have covered so far.

We had the opportunity to visit the Rainbow Orphanage last Tuesday. It is outside of the official city limits of Donetsk but is still considered a suburb of Donetsk.


It was interesting to see this area because it is quite different from Donetsk. Donetsk has a beautiful side with some modern buildings and nice restaurants, but this suburb was definitely poorer. The roads and buildings were the greatest indicators of this. We took two buses to get there. One that stayed on the main roads and then the other that took the side roads deeper into the suburb. The side roads were riddled with pot holes and it is actually quite humorous to watch all the traffic, our bus included, swerving everywhere to avoid the holes.

The Rainbow Orphanage we visited has children from six years old until graduation which is seventeen. The kids we visited with are in grades five and six. There was only a handful though when we went because the next day was the beginning of a two week holiday for them and many of them go to camps for that time. Their English was quite limited so Dema, who took us there, translated us as he shared a message and a song with them. Afterwards we practiced our Russian with them a little bit but we did not have the opportunity to spend too much time with them that day. We are wanting to join Dema in his visits to that orphanage on a weekly basis. He tells us many of them have a hard time adjusting to adult life when they graduate and so he wants to encourage them and show them love as they grow and prepare to graduate.

Right now Dema, along with some others are working on organizing a halfway house in Donetsk where newly graduated orphans can slowly adapt into adult life. This halfway house will be a place where they can learn life skills like money management, some trades and get continual encouragement to better themselves. There are many temptations at this phase in life and Dema has noticed that many orphans struggle to successfully adapt to adult life when they are left on their own. We are excited for that ministry to begin and ask that you will pray with us for the commissioning and success of this project.

Today in Chapel, Robert an American Pastor from Texas shared a message with everyone at UBI. Here is a picture of him speaking with Katya translating.


Right now Robert is here in Donetsk teaching a three week class. This is his eighth time coming to UBI to teach. The school here has two full time Ukrainian teachers while the rest of the classes are taught by visiting American teachers or by Jay Don, the director of the school.

I mention this because Robert said a statement in his message that made me think about faith and trust. He challenged the audience by asking if they have allowed their fears to be sustained by God. Meaning are we willing to trust God with our fears. Trusting that the God of the universe may ask us to deal with our fears but knowing we are in His hands when He does so. A good message I think.