March 2005

From Jimmy:
"Hello everyone,
Thank you, thank you for your support on my recent trip to Ukraine. I'm happy to report that everything I had planned and dreamed of completing - happened. Thank you to my family and friends for your support and prayers.

I am excited to tell everyone that it was a successful trip, however, this was a much more disheartening trip than my trip at Christmas. I accomplished everything I set out to do.... purchased a much needed Autoclave machine used for sterilizing, 30 kid-size tables, a huge pile of toys, books, puzzles, baby rattles, coloring and painting supplies, and also big box of fresh fruit. I am very happy about all of that. But I think it was seeing all the HIV/Aids children on this visit that really shook me the most. They have 19 children at this orphanage that are infected with HIV. 19 of them!!! I can't get the images out of my head of their beautiful innocent little faces.....knowing they have such a very, very slim chance of ever being adopted.....that this terrible disease that they have, because of no fault of their own, will eventually kill them......isolated from all the other children..... When I first entered the house with the HIV children, one of the little boys, maybe 2 or 3 years old, looked up, saw me, and ran across the room and hugged my leg. And it was a big hug. The kind of hug that a child gives his father that's been away on business for a week. The kind of hug that I used to give my Dad when he came home from being away on business for a week….. The little boy would not let go..... the same way that I would not want to let go of my Dad's leg, either..... The lump in my throat grew.....one of the orphanage workers eventually pried the little boy away from me..... I had to turn away to hide my tears.

The orphanage doctor who was giving Natasha and I the tour then said, "Come see, come see" She wanted to show us where they put the washing machine we purchased during my Christmas trip. The buckets and small tubs that this washing machine replaced were still sitting next to it. Their excitement over that really warmed my heart. With my tears now dried up, we continued the tour of the HIV house to another room where the infants were. There were maybe 6 or 7 babies just waking up from a nap in this room. A room that had no color, no mobiles, no rainbows painted on the walls....just cold steel baby cribs.... This time it was my interpreter Natasha that was breaking down. With my arm around her, we thanked the good doctor for the tour and headed back to our taxi. It was a quiet ride back to the city. Natasha and I were both very moved by this visit. It was Natasha that broke the silence when she turned to me and asked, "Why Jimmy? Why does this have to happen to these children?" I searched for an answer to comfort her, but there was nothing.

I started out saying that this was a successful trip. And it was. I set some goals with Natasha and we accomplished everything we set out to do. I keep reminding myself this. But our eyes were opened a little more on this trip. Opened to all the brokenness that is in this world.

We are truly blessed to live in this country.

Never will I forget this.

Jimmy
Photos are of the Green Forest Orphanage located about 20 miles outside the city of Kharkov, Ukraine. Pictures of the many buildings that make up this orphanage, pictures of what I call the “healthy” children and pictures of the HIV infected children that live separate from the other children. Some pics of their bathroom. And of the washing machine that brought a smile to every worker there. Picture of Natasha and the Assistant to the orphanage director holding the Autoclave receipt. A photo of Natasha at the shop where we had the tables built. And finally a picture of some of the toys that we delivered.