Break time

This title has a double meaning. One, the post. Two, I'm going to take a break to let people catch up if they would like and to see how much interest there really is.

So, break time. The time between. This can be viewed as the time between activities, between groups, after the camp, the meals together, the night's rest. Break time is what you make of it. But the time between groups gave Michelle and I a second to breathe and to think, "what were we doing again?". I really got lost while playing. The kids are just like here: hard core players, ready to take the win! :D Makes me glad. While the groups arrived, we would try to remember faces and names. If the name was Tanya, Anya, Sergiy, or Sasha, you were likely to remember, as these are VERY popular names over in the Ukraine. Breaks weren't there to sit back and relax, but to do unplanned things, like talk to the kids, toss a frisby, prepare our thoughts, get materials, get to know each other, and so much more. I really learnt something there.

--Scott

(I'll still be checking, not sure how long a break though)

Shyness

This should be short as it is late at night and I'm tired. The kids and the towns people were relatively shy in our regards, not really daring to look at us in the eye or we in theirs. We weren't sure how to act or were expected to act. A few of the villagers were very glad to see us, so a little less shyness, but those were mostly from the Church. The children were very timid and did as told (except the little boys who wanted to play soccer). It was not noticeable to me, but even in the first day of camp, people simply flourished with forwardness and trying to play with you (mainly the kids) and grab a translator/interpreter. By the end of the week, I felt a kindred to them as to my youth group, Unashamed, that I have been attending for nearly seven years with people who went to kids club, Pioneers, with me, another three/four years. We felt, or at least, I did, felt like we had known each other for far longer than five simple little days. It felt like weeks, months, even years or friendship in some cases.

First Day of camp/Game

So, I'll let food drop for now, but I'll come back to it later.
One Monday, our first day of camp, we arrived late, by about 5 or ten minutes, the children did not seem to mind anyways, the perhaps 40 kids in a very large room (you would have thought 20). So it was alright, we got things ready and things went smoothly. As I was one of the two Games leaders, this is what I will talk about for the time being. The theme was on how God guides us and how he leads us. So, since God is our mighty shepherd and we are his simple minded sheep, we played a game of sheep and wolves. Not all the groups understood and the little boys only wanted to play soccer. But it was still played to the best of their knowledge. The rules were these:
--Version one: Wolf or Wolves=one or two people Sheep=everyone else. Wolves have soccer ball and try to kick it at the sheep, if a sheep is hit, it becomes a wolf. Last one standing idea.
--Version two: The same, but there is one Shepherd. The Shepherd could free the wolves into sheep. Which ever team had everyone on their side one (therefor everyone wins, except the Shepherd if the wolves win).

It was nice, but we quickly understood that a game that might seem simple to us was a little more complex, especially after being translated through people who didn't quite understand either. So we played a little then we played soccer or frisbee.

--Scott

Food -- Part Three --

So like, I like food... Whatever! XD

So, this one is more about lunch with the kids. Most of the kids came and ate with us at what they called the local Church, though it was not much; they are in the midst of building a new one by hand. Anyways, most of the kids cam and ate with us, and for a number of them, it was their only meal. when some dry food came around, some of the kids would start stuffing them away and other kids would join in making it a contest. It was funny to see, as they usually were smiling or teasing each other, but sad if you really thought about it... Also, what we ate was considered a feast to many in the village. Perhaps even to most. but to us, it was a satisfying meal, just enough to keep us very happy and from being hungry until the next meal.

--Scott

Food -- Part Two --

Alright. So here is part two. This is about Our AMAZING cook, Nina, and her family. This family allowed five of the Canadians and on interpreter to stay at their home. Nina herself was up at the crack of dawn, which was like 5-6 AM to make us breakfast. She then got her family fed and then a bit of house work? We were at the camp. but Shortly after, she was preparing lunch, and not for twenty people, but for the volunteers, our team, her family, the kids. This counted in at around, say 60 on the first day and 125 on the last. She had help from her daughters at some meals and some other volunteers, but she was the head chef. dishes washed, time to do something else and shortly afterwards, make supper... A long five day week it must have been! it was amazing to see such people giving their time to help people they barely know! God bless them. Of course, they were payed, but that goes without saying since they provided most of the food and the such.

God see to our needs

Sorry for not posting yesterday.

--Scott

Food -- Part one --

As the title clearly states, I love food. and that is why I will take a few posts to cover it. they will be short posts for the days I'm behind and/or tired.
I'm a teenage boy, and as goes without saying, I love to eat... I even ate allot for a teenager some days. This was partly due to an active life style and to a slightly higher metabolism. Lately, my metabolism has decreased to to a lack of physical activity in my life, but that's unimportant. Before leaving, I loved to eat ALL the time. I could seriously go to Timmy's and get a half dozen doughnuts and eat them all in one sitting, usually a half hour sitting though. So you get the point; I like to eat. I feel a snacking feeling often. I like to eat. Yet I was never hungry over there, over in the Ukraine. I was always satisfied and I was bouncy at every meal (usually meaning I have eaten to my content and that my body was dealing with the food :P ). I never had an urge to eat something from home, or to have a snack, except a couple of times when I saw full grapes, but they really weren't ready and that changed my mind :P God provided us with a healthy diet and a great cook. We did not get hungry or have to worry about it.

God is amazing! :D

--Scott

Self needs.

Life is so simple. Eat, sleep/rest, poop, pee, breath, drink (water), and socialize.

Eating is necessary to nourish your body.
Do you nourish your body?

Sleep and rest to re-cooperate lost energy, to let your body heal and do the under cover work.
Do you let your body go into self-help mode?

Excrement and urine are self explanatory; empty your body of your junk.
Hopefully you do this.

Breathing is important to get oxygen into your body and carbon-dioxide out. It helps get your body stocked up on energy so the cells can do their stuff.
Do you let your body do it's stuff?

Drinking water refills you cells with water, this permits them to stay full and keep there shape and strength.
Does you body have enough infrastructure?

Socializing is important to keep our sanity in place. It helps us keep in form and thinking straight. Allows you to feel cared for. It allows you to care for others.
Do you allow yourself to stay sane?

There is one more thing we need. A sense of direction. This is something I left out in the first line because the people in the village of Stepanovka do not have this. There does not seem to be a desire to be better than the rest, to better yourself, but to have a bit of fun whilst surviving. Some of the kids there don't often get food, but they get it. But they lack direction.
What is this sense of direction? It can be many things, whether to have lots of money, land, friends, kids, companies, food, muscle, beauty. Or it can be God. Which one comes out as the winner? When you die, do you keep your possessions? Do you think money can save you? Or friends? God is the one who wins all. He shall do as he wills. He loves everyone.

What else do we need to live? Did you really know you need other people to survive? Without other people, you are likely to go insane, to cave in, lose a point in life, suicide, or simply stop trying. But Above that, is a need for God. Without or with God, your body will die. But you chose whether or not your spirit lives on. You decide.

Check out this song if you want: "You Decide" by Fireflight.

A truth revealed

This is a very obvious thing once said, yet only truly believed once experienced: Family is determined by the ones who care, not by your blood. Yes I have a good family at home, yes we all care for each other, but we also live around each other, not WITH each other. We ask each other how your day went without fully expecting a full answer, we call each other to eat at the table, yet it is only the parents who generally talk. We check our Facebook, play on the Wii, fiddle with the phones, and yes, post blogs. Yet we are right there to support each other! we are right there to talk, play, and enjoy, yet we don't. Why? Laziness? Fear that someone might tick another off? Not enough time synchronized? Then what? More? Less? why do we tend to not fully live a family life, here in North America, out in the Ukraine, or anywhere in the world? Alright, there are good/near perfect families, especially on the surface, but how many? And what does it mean?

As the team went to the Ukraine, we went as fellow Church members that knew each others names... that's about all, seen Marina at youth, since she is a leader. Terry used to help with Awana (there isn't one this year). Mark and Michelle were friends that my family visited on rare occasions. Coleen was one of the members in the Church that liked to hug people. And I was the singer's and drummer's boy, so people knew me.

On the trip... no before that. at the meetings, we learnt to open up to each other more and more and learnt some of the others quirks and aptitudes. On the trip, we would, logically, watch the luggage as the rest of the team would go to the washroom, taking turns watching. We helped each other carry luggage. And we arrived.  We met some more of the team and we got closer to each other. We slept in the same room as some people we barely knew, what do you expect? My room mate, one of the Sergiys, helped me learnt Russian and would occasionally REFUSE to speak to me in English for a while as he spoke full blast Russian. It sure helped me as I was the furthest into the Russian among the Canadians. Mark was the big leader of the team, the father figure we turned to with a good deal of our questions, and he did his best, usually getting us just what was needed. Michelle was the mother figure, making sure we were alright, worrying just enough that it wasn't annoying. Coleen was the babushka, the grandmother of the group, she tended to make the ladies laugh without intending to and then say that they giggled like little girls and say "here they go again!". Terry was the one ready to lend a hand, but the more introvert sister of the family. Marina was the older, but not eldest sister. She helped out and kept us there and gave bits of advice, ready to tell you how she felt and fun. She was also my legal guardian. Sergiy was the older brother figure that helped us out, especially linguistically. Lyena-Sergiy were the funny couple (who is from outside of the family? who knows? :P) that were slightly removed from the group and stuck together, talking. Karina was our educated silent sister, serious and fun when an organized game was in place. Anya was the little sister that we all watched out for, even though she didn't need watching :P like the baby of the family. Gertien was the timid cousin that was a great hand and funny :D also very helpful with languages. Robert was our uncle figure ready to help us and wise with his years, yet so very capable.

We all spent time together, we supported each other, prayed for each other, laughed with each other, sang with each other, accepted help from others and so on. We were just a real family... now this was one week though... One month may have been different, but we still refer to some of each other by these names still.

Buildings

So, on the Saturday after our arrival, the team was taken to tour around Odessa. It was a nice tour, but it was easy to see that even in one of the major cities of the Ukraine, things were not going 100%. See, things there are viewed slightly different as here. When a corporation, in North America, wants to open up business, or a new family wants to move into the city, the answer is often buy a small building that may require a bit of work, so that it is cheaper on the initial cost, if not overall. In Odessa, if a building is in disrepair, why buy it and fix it? Why buy a lot in the middle of the city, tear the old building down and make a new one? So things are in disrepair. in some areas, one in two were abandoned or boarded up. This did, however, let us see a bit of what old Ukraine would have looked like. Also, the sculptures and art, and architecture there make North America look dull and boring. The statues in the squares, yes they have squares, look fantastic even when occasionally missing a bit. The squares are nice and pretty cool :D Over all, I'd say that Odessa is a much more beautiful city than any I have yet seen in North America.

--Scott

Planned schedule

Yeah, we had a planned schedule. It was relatively simple though. We got up and ate around 6:30 at Nina's, then went out to the Rec center for 7:00, perhaps they were both delayed by one hour... but I'm pretty sure it was for 7:00. We had our sessions... at one hour each, until 11:00 delay would make it 12:00, so I'm pretty sure we started at 7:00. Ate lunch with the kids... Free time, have supper when it was ready, I'm not sure when that was, because I was never waiting on supper. We were sometimes forced to go back to supper, because we were having a great time with something. It was fun. I really enjoyed the food, but that is for another time. we would then sing, after breakfast as well, and then hang out and talk and joke in both Russian and English. Thank God for the great translators :D We would then head out, get ready, and eventually go to bed. that was the planned schedule, not too full :D

Hope

Hope. What is hope? Is hope a feeling that freedom is possible? Is hope trusting that something CAN but might not happen? Is hope a feeling that we simply feel inside of us that we simply can't describe? I as an individual, believe hope is putting trust into someone or something, even when one knows one is putting it in something undeserved or unlikely. Hope is something to strive for, to aim towards, to try to accomplish.

So, now that you see more my point of view on Hope, you may understand better what I mean when I say that this trip brought hope to the kids in the village.

When we arrived, we saw a few children and teens, but very few. We didn't get to speak to any of them except one, who rode with us and offered us all bracelets that say "I am against violence" (in Russian "ya proti nacilstva"). However, aside from this one, the other seemed very quiet. During our first day of camp, the kids were less interested, and there were only a few there; we had around 42 children and teens total. These children were calmer, quieter, perhaps even evaluating us, like I am sure I do to new people in my environment. But many simply seemed to lack smiles, to lack that glimmer. Except during soccer. The boys had hope there: hope that they would win. More than hope, a drive. By the end of the week, I can guarantee that many of the attendees of the camp, numbering about 100 by the end, had hope. Hope for many things: for more fun, hope to see us again soon, hope to have a nice time with us after camp, but also hope in salvation. Terry confirms over 40 (45 IF I remember correctly) gave their lives to God during her sessions of drama and music.

Anyways. My thoughts are slightly scattered here, sorry if it is hard to understand my line of thought.

I also want to remind everyone that my posts are all my opinions and do NOT represent the feelings from all members or from World Hope Canada or World Hope Ukraine either. Just clarifying before there are any confusions.

--Scott

Plans

This will be simple. Yes there was lots of effort going into planning and organizing, but was it really worth it? I'm not sure, and here is why: Almost everything we planned was changed, postponed, canceled, replaced. However, without the planning, would we have felt prepared at all? Would we have been ready? Who knows, aside from God?

So this is one of my debate posts. You can comment on it, or simply discuss with yourself.

--Scott

Fundraising

Well, this one might be boring to some, and informative to others. Therefore, I shall post with as much accuracy as possible while omitting any unnecessary information.

So it all started really slow, members sending out letters to family and friends about raising support to send the team. By this point, we had just come down to eight or so members. So we were raising slowly. and money came in by twenties and fifties... Very nice and all, but considering we had over $21 000 as a goal, we were not 100% sure how things were going to go. We KNEW we weren't going anywhere at that rate. Then our good Terry started her fundraising. and ended her part in like a month or two. We each had an individual goal of $2 900. So what she did was amazing. She had asked at her work place, held public fundraisers at work, informed friends in advance, and really kept the ball rolling with a few shared events with the other ladies such as a fashion show, a bake sale I think, and a few other things. So she helped the team pull together and helped us pull our fundraisers together. We had a car-wash planned, but it never happened due to a lack of time and the goal having been met. We had a face-painting fundraiser on Canada day, give as you please idea. We had money coming in from family and friends and some people we barely recognized their faces. We had some other fundraisers, but I do not remember all the details. I received a pledge that I had to work off at 20$ an hour (still not done yet :O ). So on, so forth. We ended up with something like $20 000 (which was $2 000 over since our goal had become 18 000 when two members had to drop out).

Sorry it was a bit longer than expected, but God provides, PERIOD.

Climate

Short post: The plants and weather: If you are reading this and are from southern Canada or Northern United-States, you will have a very simple picture to draw: Take the plants we have, and voila. A few changes, near the southern Ukraine since it is close to the Black sea. Therefore the weather is more like Northern United-States. There are a few apple trees, walnut trees, full sized grape vines (not the wimpy little bitter things we get around Ottawa), pear trees, so-on so-forth. The weather, is like here, seasonal and therefore goes through "fazes" of rain, cloudy, dry, a bit of snow, and so-forth. Real simple picture to paint isn't it? Have fun :P

--Scott

Hope House first impression

My first impression walking into Hope House was that the place was a well kept building with some work to be done perhaps in a few places, but better off then many of the neighboring houses. I was also surprised at how many people could comfortably live in such a small looking building (much less small when inside). I also saw few of the girls as it appears many were out for various reasons when we arrived and others were helping in the gardens and the such. They also seemed shy and reserved, and amazingly polite. I felt useless as I was not physically permitted to do anything to help :P Not even bring my dishes over to the sink on the first day :D So that was my first impression, I will write more in another further post. Trying to keep this short ;)

My money misfortune XD

So this is what happened for me to lose $100. I had traded 5 twenties for one hundred dollar bill with a fellow team mate. As usual, I put the big cash on the outside of the smaller cash. I tended the hundred for my desert and got my proper change, then went to buy the knife, 4,50 in Euros. Thinking I had tended a 20 and so would logically have a 5 Euro bill left, I went to hand that, saw it was a fifty Euro and handed some american instead. I went and explained what I thought had happened to a new cashier, there must have been a shift change, and traded the 50 Euro for a five. What ever, all is well... I didn't even notice until a few hours later that I had made this mistake whilst already out of the country.


There you have it, simple and brief.


--Scott

The trip out

This will hopefully be a shorter post.


The trip to the Ukraine was 25 hours from my door to the Hope House door. I got picked up by a fellow team mate and her hubby and head to the airport to await the others before checking in as a team. We waited for the rest of the team, who arrived a slight bit later than we, some later than others... Just as we were about to check in, one member of the team remembered they had forgotten their passport, had misplaced it whilst trying to file a leave or something to the Canadian Embassy. Luckily one of her friends had been there when she had forgotten it and it was a simple matter of calling her up to have it brought over. We still had about an hour to spare before our flight to Montreal. The flight went smoothly, a couple of turbulence, but that's all in the fun ;) We arrived in Montreal, and two of us had to get our carry-on from the belly of the plane, as they made a mistake placing them. We later learnt that our next flight, to Munich, was delayed by a decent amount... almost an hour? not exactly sure. But no worries, we had a four hour layover time in Munich anyways, so no stress :D Once in Munich, we had time, so we shopped in the airport and got a meal and I got a knife. Yes, they were selling knives in the airport, and they were perfectly allowed in ones carry-on. I also lost about 100$ American over in that airport due to my miscalculations. ( <-- in the next post )Then we were out of Munich on to Kiev. Kiev is a much smaller airport, has a bit less organization and the service wasn't very good, as the people were snappy and short tempered it seemed. And they did not accept American currency in the airport. We also had to get our luggage rechecked as we were now using an in-country flight. So a few more hours wait and we got to leave for Odessa, where we got our luggage, and were promptly picked up. We traveled for about another hour perhaps and then got to Hope House. Over all, a great bonding time for the team. 


Thanks for reading.