Our administrator Emily visited Ukraine in June. Here’s a note from her about her time with the Last Bell staff and kids!
Dear friends,
I wish I could have taken you all to Ukraine with me, so that you could see what I saw.
I had about nine days in-country, bookended by the many hours of flights and airports that are required for an overseas trip. I spent several of those days with our faithful Last Bell staff and the young people they serve.
In fact, I’d hardly stepped off the plane before I was swept along with Andrey to the home of Marina Shepeluk. You might know Marina from her beautiful, traditional Ukrainian artwork (she painted the pictures we used in our Christmas mailing a few years ago).
Marina and her husband and two small children are moving from their tiny apartment into another in the same building, two floors up.
Oksana Pankyeyev with Marina and her youngest girl, shortly after she was born in February
While Andrey helped Marina’s husband move their washing machine up the flights of steps, Marina, her daughter Lena, and I entertained Marina’s lively 4-month-old Solomiya. We sat in the tiny room that functions as livingroom, everyone’s bedrooms, and dining room. It was barely large enough to hold two beds, a crib, and a small table. But they do have their own apartment, and thanks to Last Bell, Marina has “extended family” to come help with everyday tasks like hauling a washer upstairs!
Over the course of several days, I met with many members of the staff over lunch, coffee, or, in one case, a very late dinner at a restaurant in Global, the Zhytomyr mall. (Through the open door to the parking lot, Luba and Vasya and I, and our young translator, could hear someone spinning donuts. On our way out to Vasya’s car later, we saw the same person still spinning donuts in a comically small, beat-up, yellow Russian Lada.) We talked about the young people they work with and some of the challenges they face.
Three of our staff members sporting their new Last Bell staff t-shirts at a retreat a few days after my visit
Because of Last Bell and my nannying experience with two children adopted from Russia, I’ve developed an interest in trauma and infant/childhood development. Many of the books I’ve read on the subject haven’t been translated, so the staff and I talked a lot about the material from those books, and from a conference I attended in the spring called Empowered to Connect. For those who are interested, the books I most highly recommend include Wounded Children, Healing Homes; Building the Bonds of Attachment; and The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. I used The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis as a reference throughout the trip.
Our staff asked a lot of good questions such as, “How can I motivate someone to plan for the future?” Many of the behaviors and habits we see are directly linked to our kids’ difficult past, including the many learning disabilities that can result from neglect or abuse in childhood. It takes a lot of patient work to convince our kids that when they take the steps to plan for the future, something good can actually happen.
I got to attend one Stop the Cycle meeting – definitely a highlight!
You may have read two recent blogs written by Yulia Sagaidachnaya (here and here), one of our young moms. At the meeting, she gave me a hug and said, “Thank you for seeing this in me, that I have this [writing] ability.” It means a lot that people across the world are reading her words.
Yulia is sitting at the table at the far right corner. There were many other young moms I knew there — what a gift to see their faces after so many years!
We must have had at least 30 people in the I Am Mom kitchen before the meeting started. It was crowded with moms sitting, eating, talking, some with kids on their laps, or handing off bread with sausage as kids circulated through the kitchen and out to play. It felt like a home – just a big one! Several older Shelter kids and even one residential Shelter kid were there to babysit.
Oksana introduced around a new mom that day: the sister of Inga Stefan, whom we have written about before. She was shy at first, but settled in, smiling, after a little while.
I was also able to attend Anya Hrobust’s medical school graduation ceremony. Anya is one of our oldest Shelter kids and has been in medical school for six years now! She will have two internships this coming year – one in Kyiv and one in Zhytomyr.
The lovely graduate, after the ceremony
The ceremony had one element you’d see anywhere in America – lots of speeches! But in classic Ukrainian style, there was also a small talent show, featuring break dancing, salsa dancing, an accordion player, and even a singer/guitar player who had been on Ukraine’s Got Talent.
But the best part of the ceremony was the vows. Five young people stood in a row on stage and read each part of the oath, and the graduates shouted out their responses from below. (We couldn’t even see them because we were in the balcony.) At the end they all shouted together, “We swear! We swear! We swear!”
Anya and the other graduates are below, making their vows.
What an amazing experience, to hear one of our kids, along with her colleagues, swearing to heal and protect those she will serve in the coming years.
I will be thinking about what I saw and heard for many months to come. Thanks for praying for our hardworking staff, and for our many kids! I can tell you for certain that your prayers and your support ARE making a difference. Last Bell is a vital, living community and a safe place for orphanage graduates of all ages in our city.
Grace & peace,
Emily
PS — We are still looking for people to be part of our simple staff prayer/encouragement group. If you’d like to know more, please email or call me: emily@lastbell.org / 978-412-5321. Thanks!
Update on Camps & Car Fund
Thanks so much to everyone who has given to fund our summer camp retreats and the ministry van! In June a donor put us over the “line” between camp funding and van funding. So our camps are now FULLY FUNDED! And our total raised is $19,926, which means $8,926 can go toward a ministry van. That just leaves $8074 for the van – we’re over halfway there!
Thanks again to everyone who has contributed. We will update about the camp retreats after they have all taken place, and we’ll continue to update you about the van fund. |
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