Looking to the Future

Greetings from Ukraine!

Anniversary
In January 10 years ago we started working with street children here in Kiev, Ukraine. Amazing how fast 10 years have passed! We started 10 years ago with serving soup and playing with children living on the street. We did it twice a week. Today we are working every day and we also have a center where we can invite street children and families at risk. We can invite them to a great fellowship and a safe environment.

We started working with street children in a park downtown Kiev, from there we moved to one of the Subway stations in the outskirt of Kiev, After a year we moved from the park to a rented basement in one of the apartment buildings in the same area, before we again had to move outside and continue working in a park before we were able - with help from Methodist Churches in US and Norway - to buy the first floor of a apartment building for our work.

Since then, we have expended our work to include families at risk and we have opened a new UMC congregation. Every day we have 15 -25 children, youth and mothers coming to our center and every Sunday we have about 25 people coming to the worship service.

We are thankful to God for what He has done here in Kiev and to each of you for being willing to listen to His call to support the work – in many different ways - we are doing here in Kiev.

Valeri and Vova
Today I want to share with you 2 stories from our work here in Kiev and what’s happen when we are met with love rather than rudeness.

First I want to let you meet Valeri. He is 19 years old now, but we have known him since he was 10. He has lived on the street since he was 6-7 years old. Since, before we met him, he has been sniffing glue and we can see and feel the result of many years on glue.

One day Bill and I went from our center to the bus stop together with Valeri. After a couple of minutes he told us at we walked too slowly, he wanted to go faster. He said goodbye and he “ran” to the bus stop. The trolleybuses do not come to often, so he had to stand at the bus stop for several minutes waiting for the bus. The result was that Bill and I came on the same bus as Valeri. Valeri did not see us even we saw him. The conductor came, Valeri refused to pay for the ticket and start arguing with the conductor. She left him and she came to us, we bought three tickets and gave one to Valeri. He said thank you, but the conductor got mad at us and told us we do not do any good buying a ticket for him – he is bad, he is terrible and does not deserve anything good.

She did not know that we knew Valeri, she has never seen Valeri watering the flowers, serving food, praying, giving me a big hug or carrying my bag back from the store. She has never met Valeri when someone has met him with loving and caring way.

She has only met Valeri when he has been met with hash words, when people are rude to him, when people hit him.

We have seen how people can change when they are met with love, with care instead of angry words.

Vova is another of the young men we have get to know through the work at our center. Vova is about 20 years old, we have known him for many years also. Vova has lost his parents and grandparents many years ago. Our center became his family.

Vova is in prison now. One morning he called us and start telling us about the life in prison. He was sharing room with 70 other prisoners and only 50 of them were able to sleep at the same time. We talked about this for a while – than Vova came with his real message – do not forget me!

For Vova, it is important to know that someone out there rememberss him, remembers him while he is inside the prison – to send him food, clothes, but also that we will be there when one day he finishes his term in prison. For him to survive, for him to have a hope for a better life, he has to know we are there for him. There is no reason to try to behave good, to try to study – if there are no people who care for him.

Our center is a safe harbor and a place to develop skills and give hope for the future.

New possibilities
In the beginning of our work here in Kiev, we worked with street children. After 8 years we were asked to also reach out to families at risk. We said yes to do that, and we have now contact with 5-7 families. We have an afterschool program, we have a computer class, mother’s groups, a project to teach people how to develop work skills through a micro-business and other activities for those who come to our center. We have also looked into the possibility to start a new children’s group every morning.

Since January we have been working with the preparation for open a new ministry at our center. We have started with two kids and hope to be about 10 pre school children in September. We are exacted about the possibility for new ministry.

The biggest change in our ministry is that another GBGM missionary will take Bill’s and my position in Kiev from September 1. Last Summer Bill was asked by the Bishop for Northern Europe and Baltic to be the interim District Superintendant for Lithuania for 6 months. During that time, the bishop asked him to be the new DS from the Summer of 2011. Both of us said, yes we are willing to move to Lithuania, if we can find another missionary to take over the responsibilities we have in Kiev. We know that God loves the program and want the program to continue.

Bill and I were not to convinced that we were able to find one who would like to this ministry – and without that person in place, we were not going to say yes to the question from the bishop. We started to pray - God help us to see what is right, what we are going to do and if you want us to say yes to the call from the bishop, send us a person who can be responsible for the center as well as the church.

God has a plan, he sent a GBGM missionary to Kiev who is a UMS pastor, who speaks Russian very well and has worked as a pastor in a church in Moscow, which also had a center connected to the church as we have. The center was for student and refugees. When you believe in prayer, I don’t think we can receive a more clear answer from God.

We are moving to Lithuania September 1st. Bill as DS and I will working in the churches in Lithuania with diaconal issues and also be helping and mentor for children’s and family centers in Lithuania. The new missionary John Calhoun is already in Kiev starting to work 50% together with Bill and me.

We are excited about the new possibilities and thankful to God for what he has done through the center the last 10 years. For all of you who have supported the work, we pray that you will continue to support us and the center in Kiev.

May God bless you as He has blessed us through each one of you!

Bill and Helen Byholt Lovelace