The ABC Children

This week I bought pampers for the Baby Hospital and took pictures of some of the children. For those who have never bought pampers for more than 30 children at a time, I included a couple of pictures of my car with the pampers loaded. Please keep the children in your prayers that they will be healthy and that they will soon have forever families.

Church Family New Years Eve Party

Our Annual New Years Eve Party was Sunday evening December 30th. The Sunday School class enacted the Nativity Story for us to enjoy. We had a talent show, a great meal and played "Dirty Santa" (a perennial favorite here!). We had a great evening of fun, food and fellowship.

Singing with the Children

Today our Sunday School classes visited several elderly people in our neighborhood to sing carols and give them a bag of candy. The kids had a great time and the babushka's were grateful for the attention from the children.

Work is continuing at Sasha's Home. With each passing week it looks more like the welcoming environment that we envision for the precious children abandoned in Ukraine. The balconies are being tiled, the breezeway is almost entirely sheet rocked, the ceilings are having the crown moulding installed and then painted, and the bathrooms are being completed. It is truly amazing how this building is being transformed into a wonderful apartment community for the children. Please continue to pray for the project and our workers. Also remember that all donations are welcomed - and matched!

Tee Shirt Party with Kids

Today we had a party with our church children. We all decorated tee shirts to wear next week when we deliver presents to elderly people in our neighborhood. The kids made "dear shirts" using a tracing of their foot for the face and their hands for the antlers. They were also given bells for the nose. Enjoy the pictures.

New Classes and Visitors

We recently started two new classes with our church family in Gorlovka. The first is an adult class that meets on Wednesday night. The attendance has been good with around fifteen people coming each week. Lora served chili last week and everyone enjoyed both the meal and the time of study, prayer and fellowship. The second class is for children from around ten to fourteen years old. (4th through 8th grade). Sunday afternoon we had 16 kids attend the class. Some of them are also attending the worship assembly on Sunday.

Mark and Courtney are visiting in Gorlovka while they are adopting children from a nearby city. More about their story soon.

Final room at Baby Hospital

We finished the final room at the Baby Hospital this week. What a great group of workers volunteered from the church family to help with this project. Special thanks to Tanya, Olga, Lena, Luda, Lena, Tanya, Lora, Vica, and Victoria for all their hard work. The rooms are so warm and inviting that the nurses have commented that they would like to live in them! It is important to provide a wonderful place for our precious children to live so they know that they are greatly loved by Jesus and his people. Thanks for your help with supporting the Abandoned Babies and Children Program. Your sacrifices are touching many lives in Ukraine.

Another Room at the Baby Hospital

Our team tackled another room for the babies on Monday and Tuesday. We have one more that we plan to do next week. Enjoy the photos of our team of artists!

Working at the Baby Hospital

We have been working hard at the Baby Hospital for the past week. We had curtains made back in September and last week I hung new curtain rods in all the rooms (not as easy as it sounds!). Lora made all the necessary modifications so they hang to the floor in each room. In addition we purchased two new rugs for the playroom and a new bench seat. The rugs are larger than the old ones and the kids love the extra room to crawl and play on the plush carpet.
Monday a team from our church family worked cleaning off whitewash and preparing a room for painting. Tuesday we painted the room complete with Frogs and Dragonflies. The kids could not stop coming in to visit us while we were working (lots of staff members found reasons to wander in as well!). More pictures later, keep checking back...

Sasha's Home Photos

Today I took pictures at Sasha's Home. The balconies are completely blocked up and tied in to the roof, and the windows and doors have been installed in them. Same is true for the playroom (formerly envisioned as a solarium).

Please keep this project and the workers in your prayers.