Wednesday, 7-20-11

            Today was our last day at the specialized school and Stebnik. At the school, we gave out shoes and socks and painted toenails for girls. Their faces were glowing when they tried on their new shoes. Every kid loves new shoes, but I’m sure these kids appreciate it so much more. I am not as distraught to leave these kids as much as I am in other places because I know that here they are well taken care of, and at home they are cared for. I thank God for that reassurance.

            At Stebnik, we had even more kids than yesterday; Bogdan was there to collect the names and telephone numbers of kids who came in order to invite them in the fall to church and to a kids program that they plan to start. It was a little more chaotic than yesterday because of the number of kids, and I even watched as one boy tried to hide a soccer ball in a tree to retrieve later for himself, but some team members mentioned that it made it easier to deal with the kids in their groups with the knowledge of what kind of backgrounds these kids come from. They are obviously troubled, and these are the kids who need to be shown God’s love the most.

            This evening, we went to Stepan and Tanya’s house for tea and dessert—it was so much fun hanging out with them again. I am so looking forward to staying with them in a couple of weeks when I return to Borislav. We had devotion there at the house, led by Jim. He led from the book of Nehemiah, which he says is basically just a story of a mission trip, encouraging us all to read it and take lessons from Nehemiah. It was such a great night of fellowship with old friends.

Painting Olya's toenails

Cutie--some kids shy away from having their picture taken, but this boy would just smile so sweetly and let me take his picture anytime. He wrote "I love you" on the sidewalk with chalk.