What a wild ride!

January 2013 is here and almost gone. December and 2012 has passed us by. YouthReach International volunteer teams have completed another successful year of  reaching out to orphans in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. 


Photos from 2012 camps: https://plus.google.com/photos/101363171234003143720/albums/5835203216451629905?authkey=CLKow9f3x6XZPQ

Last summer in Simferopol I was very excited to participate in a summit meeting. Representatives from groups, orgs, agencies, as well as foster parents, and church leaders there to discuss ways we can come together to better serve, orphans, system graduates, trade school students, and street kids in Simferopol, Ukraine. During our mission trip/winter camp in December 2012 we met again. There were many great suggestions on ways to collaborate and network.

 Marizza (center left) and Nastya (far right)
are YouthReach mentors shown here
with two of our orphan graduates,
Andrei (far left) and Sasha (center right)
who attend a local trade school.

One morning during our December trip, I had breakfast with Dima Malashko of Saving Orphans Souls and Crimea Without Orphans. Over omelets, we discussed ways to reach out especially to young men who have aged out of the orphanage system. Most are in trade schools. These trade schools teach menial skills to teens and college-aged adults. The dormitories are often co-ed, unsupervised, and very violent. Drunkenness is common. I hear often of beatings, rape, even murder.

I look forward to meeting with Dima again to see how we can connect various local ministries to fill this gap.

One particular event which stands out in my mind from our December trip was our visit to the Gvardeskii village orphanage. Gvardeskii village lies outside of Simferopol by about 40 minutes drive. It’s a very poor facility. At one time the facility was the focus of our trips. However we lost access due to reorganization, administrative turnover at the facility. In December, we took the opportunity to travel by bus to visit and explore future possibilities.

Arthur Kazaryan, Igor
Kholopov and I.

Along with us was a young man named Igor Kholopov. Igor grew up at Gvardeskii. I am certain he has many dark memories of life there. He had not returned since graduating 2-3 years before. However, because his brothers and sisters in Christ were with him he mustered the courage to go. I was surprised to see his joy at seeing one of his favorite caretakers. We also saw several children we all remembered from years past.

I’ll be returning to Simferopol in June and leading a team that is proving to be the largest team we’ve had in several years. Haley Harrell, Jordyn Harry, Michael Clinger, Casey Catignani, and Claire Pennington will join with our 12-3-1 mentors to host camp in Simferopol.

Our goal is to serve the orphans at Detskyi Dom and Gagarin School for Girls. We hope to visit Gvardeskii again and meet the director. We also hope to plan a side trip to Feodosia to visit Maria (Masha) Yermachenkova, one of our mentors, and the orphanage she now works in as a caretaker.

Please be in in constant prayer over our team. This week, team members are raising the funds for deposits needed to sign up by January 25. The following week we will begin full-fledged funding campaigns and  bi-weekly preparations.

Soon I’ll be sending an email with a calendar so that you can volunteer to be in prayer over a specific week as we raise funds, prepare, pack, travel, work, and return home. Keep you eyes open.

God is doing great things in Simferopol. Grab a hold and hang on! It’s a wild ride. We need your prayerful partnership and financial support. Please join with us. Bookmark and share the url link to our team homepage with family and friends.

Our team web page:
http://www.youthreach.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=1051800&lis=0&kntae1051800=26771FC7B98D402F923D7EECEF314F38&team=5352899

Peace and grace,

Joel Butts
Volunteer,/Team Leader
TeamSim - a YouthReach International mission team partner

“What is essential is invisible to the eyes”