UKRAINE HEROES

SATURDAY 10 JULY
A team of heroes arrived in Kiev weary, hot but ready to serve with the Charity, 'Hope Now' at a week long Football Camp for children aged 8-16 years old at Kompas Park, the charity's developing centre near Cherkassy. A smooth flight was followed by a roller-coaster ride in the minibus driven by M, Hope Now's representative in Ukraine. Not only were pot holes skillfully avoided but there was also breathtaking overtaking, full use of the braking system and pin-point accurate steering wheel adjustment. These 'real' computer games have nothing on the real thing!

M is a hero. He is personally involved in lifting kids out of poverty and despair and with his wife have 'adopted' children and given them a glimpse of the biblical vision, success, properity, hope and a future. They care for 7 children - as well as their own and the stories of hope in those kids lives is inspiring.

Being a hero in your own home, that is something to reach for.

SUNDAY 11 JULY
A visit to First Baptist Church in Cherkassy was an experinece for the whole team! In temperatures above 30C sitting on hard chairs, 2 sermons, unpronouncable words and no interpreter made the over 2 hour service a very interesting time! What do you do when you can't participate? Well I look around and I saw faithfulness in the faces of the congregation. As I remembered something of the Ukraine story, that it is less than 20 years since they emerged from the cover of communism, that God was pronounced dead by the oppressive regime, here were people who are still praising God and singing His name. Heroes every one of them.

MONDAY 12 JULY
The camp started today and we were flung into the arena of translation. Football is it's own language but interpreting the rules of the game as we refereed the matches caused some consternation among the Ukrainian leaders. As S, the leader of the camp, gave his first talk to the children we suddenly had a 'big bird' arrive in the story of Daniel. It took us a while to realise that this was not a subversion of the biblical text but a mistranslation of a word that even now we have no idea what it was meant to be! Lost in translation became a theme of the week as words can be translated but the emotion of the original speaker and the translator bore no resemblance to how it was being spoken! But this didn't take away from the passion of S who desires to see kids lives changed and no matter the words, it was clear he was going to be a hero that week.

TUESDAY 13 JULY
A was one of the helpers on the camp. he spoke good english and had a great relationship with the children in his team. But a few years ago he was livng in a cemetary with his alcoholic mother, begging from the mourners for enough to survive. Rescued by VJ, the founder of Hope Now, taken in as his son, A is now thinking about a future. What if the potential in each child, whatever their circumstances, could be released by people who care? It's wrapped up in them just waiting for someone to see it.

WEDNESDAY 14 JULY
Kompas Park could not operate without a leader. A heads up the camp all year and she has done and is doing an amazing job. A young woman in her 20's she has passion, drive, commitment, focus and skill and has made it all available to God! That's a combination that will see Kompas Park continue to grow and develop. One hero can make it possible for many heroes to emerge.

THURSDAY 15 JULY
It was TC's birthday today and after a long, hot day, the UK and Ukrainian leaders sat around a birthday cake and spoke words of encouragement into T's life. It was a surreal experience but it joined our hearts and made us friends. God has a plan that is better than anything we can plan, it's got to be worth reaching out for it and giving his plan a go for the future. Who would have believed that one day we would be doing this? Only God!

FRIDAY 16 JULY
This morning at the end of the week, I got to pray with P, a Ukrainian leader. he prayed for me in Ukrainian and I prayed for him in English. Neither of us understood a word, but the great interpretor fixed the words in each of our hearts and we felt the warmth of the Holy Spirit joining us together, taking down the 'wall of hostility' (Ephesians 2:14) It was a humbling moment, a heroic moment, a defining moment that was all about the Kingdom and nothing else.

SATURDAY 17 JULY
As we went through the final ceremony with awards, as I looked out at the children we had served, had fun with, encouraged and loved and as I looked at our team, our brilliant, committed, passionate team, I suddenly realised that one day, we might be standing together again in the new Kingdom, the new heaven and new earth, when the Kingdom has come. It is amazing to think that something we did, tried to say, could have changed the eternal destiny of someone that week! That's being a hero, that's creating more heroes. Thank God for the team. It was an awesome experience and God was in that place - and we knew it!