Summer Update (part 2)

The girls we referred to in the last post (see below) - their stepfather who had lived with them also has died of complications from alcoholism just this past Friday.   Please pray for the girls, they have had quite a lot of loss and upheaval in their lives. 

We visited them at their new home at the Ark and they were very pleased with their new home as all three girls live in the same room with a separate shower and toilet.   They miss their mother, home and friends of course, but the environment for them is much better.

Those of you who have visited Kiev know Sasha, who along with her brother Sergei, has been a regular of our center for several years.   Her mother is also very sick in the hospital, with not a good prospect of survival.   Sasha is very upset and would appreciate the prayers of her friends abroad.

Summer Update!!

Helen and I are back from vacation in Norway and it is time to update this neglected blog.  The above picture is from Skåtøy, one of the little islands (7.4km long) in the fjord near Helen's hometown of Kragerø, where we had a nice relaxing summer vacation, riding bicycles, swimming and seeing friends.  There was even a fence painting project as well.

The Summer before vacation was busy and tragic for three of our youngest children-at-risk, regulars at our center.  The mother of these three girls, ages 8, 10, and 13 died of complications of alcoholism.   These three girls, along with their 1.5 year old brother, grandmother and uncle lived in a one room apartment.   After the mother died, Ukrainian social services took the girls as neither the grandmother, nor the uncle, nor any of three adult sisters wanted to take responsibility for them.   The 1.5 year old brother went straight into a toddler's orphanage. The father(s) of the girls whereabouts are unknown,  so there was no-one to take them.  Social services were thinking they had no choice but to split the girls up into different state orphanages with no one to assume guardianship. But there is a good side to this story!  

Many of you know the Ark, a Christian Rehabilitation Center run by two Americans, Jane Hyatt and Barbara Klaiber, with whom we have a close relationship.  We got in touch with them and after negotiations with Social Services, the girls are now residing at the Ark.   The guardianship question still has to be resolved, but for now, the girls are living together, in a great environment.  Please pray for them and for the guardianship question.  Also, pray for the younger brother and that the girls can keep in touch with him.