Journey Home

The return journey from the Crimea to Kiev at the end of the camp did not go as originally planned.

It started off just as planned, we had a nice little visit to Fiodocia where we all had lunch.
The problems started however when we got to Simferpopl. Two days before the our departure from the Hope Centre, a fire sparked a series of explosions at a military munitions depot near Novobogdanovka in South East Ukraine. The blasts were so severe that trains on the Simferopol to Kiev railroad were affected, either cancelled, re-routed or delayed.
When the we arrived at Simferopol station, we found all the platforms swamped with passengers wait for their trains. When the train did not arrive – nor was there any information of a revised departure time – the decision was taken to hire 3 minibuses and drive through the night to Kiev. We kinda had to do this because we all had flight to catch and couldn't risk the possible delay.
The minibuses left Simferopol at 11:00 pm on Monday night. We drove, and stopped and drove and stopped and drove until we stopped for breakfast. This was at a random little cafe somewhere.

We almuncheded through our bread and bananas. Well I say all- Timothy decided that bread wasn't quite good enough and he high-jacked a handy fire and made himself toast.


After several more hours of driving we finally arrived at Kiev at about 1:00 pm on Tuesday.
When we arrived in Kiev we found out that as far as anyone could tell the train hadn't got to Kiev- having probably not even left Simferopol.
Once in Kiev we all arrived at thairportrt hotel and all jumped in the shower- grimacing at thdisgustingng colour of the water that came off!

Once we were all a mite cleaner we headed off into Kiev to explore. We saw a street market that was so long most of us didn't quite make it to the end in time for the meeting time.
Eventually we all made it through the market and we headed off to see the 'Blue church'.
It is a huge Ukrainian Orthodox church with more guilding on than anything I've ever seen before.



Once back at the hotel we had a final team meeting to round up the trip. Then it was time for bed. Well almost. Some of the girls decided that it was pampering time, so spent a happy hour or so giving each other massages and face masks- the works.



5:00 am saw the final goodbye to the Americans. The brits got a bit more of a lie in before it our turn to head off to the airport.
We waved goodbye to sunny Ukraine and said hello to a dark and rainEnglandnd.
And there it was gone- a whole two weeks. However there is not the smallest chance that any of us will forget our time in Ukraine. It impacted us alimmenselyly and I for one can say that I miss iimmenselyly and can't wait for next summer.

Home

Well we have all arrived safely (in fact we arrived safely on wednesday).
The 'return journey' entry will be posted soon- I promise.

To anyone who is still checking for updates, I am currently updating, tidying adding photos etc. I'll let you know when I have finished (so you know to go back and re-read for extra little bits).

Day 10

Day… well I‘m not really sure... well today is the last day of camp (big sniff) so it muct be day 10 already.
Today the international team got a lay in!!! We were so excited. Our day started with devotions at 7:20 rather than 7- a whole twenty minutes extra in bed. The other change to the morning was that there were no morning exercises. Instead the first activity was breakfast- we had the cake with chocolate sauce and condensed milk on, and a slice of salami each.
The bible lesson was taken by Rachel and Timothy and was titled ‘A New Creation’. We went all futuristic with a ‘new creation machine’. Put one thing in and a new creation comes out the other end. At the end of the bible lesson the international team went around and prayed with all the kids. I think we managed to pray for all the kids, their helpers and counsellors as well. The kids then went on to pray in their wards and the international team pounced on the interpreters. This was a powerful time with God speaking prophecies and giving pictures to each one of the interpreters. Interestingly some of them are not Christian so I’d imagine they found it a bit strange, however seeds have been planted through the camps and we really pray that God will work through them and show himself o them soon. Please keep them in your prayers.

The closing ceremony was… long. We ended up being over an hour late for dinner. However it was fun as well. Simon and Naomi (yes that is Naomi under all that hair- her own hair I should add) lead it and between them they worked through all the things that happened at camp. So we had the interpreters doing a skit on the joys of the beach. The councillors and helpers told us what bedtime was like in the different wards (it was hilarious). Some of the kids from the orphanage did a couple of drama/dance routines. Impressively Simon managed to improvise the music for these dramatic moments on the spot with instructions stretching as far as “Play something slow” and “Get quicker”. It was impressive, Simon wasn’t bad either!
Some of the kids from Kerch had their parents come along (as did the mother of our girl from Irkutsk in Russia). The joy of the camp and just the general atmosphere really seemed to work in them, just as it had in the kids throughout the camp. One mother was in tears. Isn’t it amazing what God can do through silly sketches.

Day 9

Saturday's afternoon was stations. We had Beat the goalie, Baloon Stampeed (pictured), Musical statues. Musical statues lead to a impromtuded dance-a-rama. A great time to be very silly with the kids.This evening we had craft, where the kids made God’s eyes. Wool round two lolly sticks in a cross shape. Then at about 8 we had a time of song before at about 8:30 the bonfire was lit. In the middle of the playground there is a large star with a hole in the middle, in which a big bonfire was put. The kids were then given time to say their thankyous and to say what they thought of the camp. It was so sweet, many of the people there had tears in their eyes. Finally before bed we had a slide show. Naomi had collected up everyone’s photos and put together a lovely slide show. The kids were cheering and laughing and ‘aaahhhhing’. Then it was bed.

Day 8

Today we have had the regular morning activites. Bible study and the beach.

The beach bums lay in the sun,
Some of the other beach people played Uno.
Those with a bit of energy were tug boats (beautifully demonstrated in the photo by Mr Jim).

The afternoon's activites was interest groups. The entire evening of though was taken up with the craft. A whole evening I hear you say, well today's craft was a rather special- it was a craft competition. The kids were all given a paper plate, some card and then paints, wool, pens etc and they had to make whatever they could think of. The results (chosen by craft master Ruth) will be announced at the closing ceremony.

Day 7

While we were out in Kerch yesterday, the kids were preparing for our ‘Talent show’, which was put on Today. Basically this was each ward putting on a skit of one of the parables that Jesus told.
We had the Good Samaritan, the Sower, The 10 Virgins, the vineyard owner (employing people all through the day) and the Prodigal Son.

The latter was put on by Bards for Jesus, we were great, if I do say so myself. We had a herd of pigs with piggy noses and the most beautiful bunch of ‘loose women’ ever!!!!
The Talent show was a really nice point where the majority of it wasn’t translated. Although this meant that at times we didn’t always follow, at least the kids got an un-interrupted show.
This evening we played a game. Now the game is called Biffer. There were 8 stations each with different challenges and things to do- Frisbee golf, jump rope, water ballon chucking and more. All the kids had to complete the tasks in pairs, holding hand as they searched for each station. In between stations were our wondering biffers and doctors. The biffers were all equipped with socks filled with flour, which when they strike a child, leave a nice white flour mark. Once hit by a biffer a pair has to sit still until a doctor comes to ‘bandage’ to biff. It was great fun- lots of screaming laughing and running around.After Biffer was craft- a pretty door hanger. This one was a hit with the international team as well who all held up the clearing up process by sitting down and making their own when the kids had done.

Day 6

I must warn you, I (Sarah) did not write the following entry…

Day 6

Today I (Timothy) was soooo tired! I couldn’t do my exercises with the boys because my knee hurts…you see I cut it on the first day and then thumped the middle of it the next day and I can relate to people who have been knee-capped. Lots of us have had different injuries. Please pray protection and healing for us and our bits. We are having lots of opportunities to pray for healing!

Breakfast was spam (dog meat) fritters with chocolate and yoghurt cake. My girls (those who I serve) loved it and so did most of us. I embarrassed the girls by encouraging them to clean the plate by using their fingers; they were not amused!

The bible lesson was great! We have some wonderful Russian songs with crazy actions. I don’t really understand the songs but there is always a real feeling of the presence of God. Even though I sing words which I don’t understand I know that I am worshiping God!

Simon did the talk and we did a drama of the king who had a banquet and his guests didn’t want to come. I was the king and I got very sad because no one came! Simon used it to follow on and to invite the children to God’s banquet. He did a great illustration to help the kids hand over their lives, their fears, and their hurts to Jesus. God really moved powerfully in the lesson and a lot of kids and some of the kid’s helpers responded.

I didn’t go to the beach but I was really inspired by reading about Ezra and Nehemiah. If you want to be challenged about God moving powerfully and getting a job done read those books.

Lunch was one of our favourites! Meat and Potatoes with, yes we had it again, cucumber and tomato! The soup was noodles which was fine and chicken skin which was not!

David joins blog writing. Following our meeting we headed off into the wilds of Kerch. Our first stop was an underground quarry where ten thousand Russians had kept a rear-guard during the great patriotic war (WW2). 10,000 in, 7 out. None the less, the one mad baboushka (grandmother) who was an ‘eye-witness’ was there to tell us all about it. She was an old lady who wandered about, trying to give her account of the events, which must have been before her time. Bless her. We preferred our guide (though the baboushka was more entertaining- with her stroking of Shola!) The quarry, like most of Kerch, was made of limestone. It was a boiling hot day, so we all had jumpers on in the quarry! 10 degrees is quite a shock after 35. A long tour, including a very friendly rat, and several mass graves, coupled with guide plus translator equals long time in cold place.

We came out, and went to the ‘toilet’, Ukrainian style. Intrigued? …

We call it the squat-pot, and according to Simon, you ‘Stand to Deliver’.
Explanation is required. Lovely tiling on the floor and walls, and a teardrop hole in the centre of the floor. Beneath the tear is THE PIT. There was good lighting in the pit, and all was visible, with no toilet paper in sight! It was fine , as long as you didn’t look down. All you Brits, be thankful for Thomas Krappe, for the flushing toilet.

After our intrepid adventure and our ice creams (14 for under £2), we went to a hill overlooking Kerch, with a war memorial, made, of course, of limestone. The minibuses came with a guide, who added very little, but did take up time very well. We went down a MAHUSSIVE (massive and huge) staircase, of limestone down to an ancient church, made from…limestone. After a long talk about the church from the minibus guide, it was shut, and we didn’t have to go in. We walked into the centre of town, and were told kindly by our guide that it was ‘the centre of town’. There was a large griffin, holding the keys to the city, and it would protect them. This statue, was made of l*m*s*o*e (can you guess what it is yet?). Across the back-streets/slums/rubbish dump, we found our restaurant. A door in the wall. Do you have still water? No. Diet coke? No.
Having said that, there was air conditioning, and it was a welcome relief from the humidity outside. After some lovely pizzas, and some sort of pudding, we headed back to the camp. The kids were watching Narnia in Russian when we got back. We (David and I) both had to leave, after the dubbing cracked us up. If only we had a sound-clip for you.

So that is us for today, thank you very much for reading.

From a cynical pair, Timothy and David.

Day 5

Today, as well as the normal activities of the bible lesson and the beach we had interest groups. We had basket ball, board games, friendship bracelets and football practice.

The football practice was getting ready for our football competition. We had kids from another camp-Camp Chaika come and pay us a visit. Camp Chaika can only have 30 kids at max so they were a small group. However the game was a good one with both teams playing really well. Hope center won in the end- 3-2 or something like that. To be honest I had two little children hanging off my arms trying to take pictures with my camera so I wasn’t paying too much attention, the commentary was of course all in Russian!

Day 4

Ok start with a prayer request update.Yesterday I told you that David Clarke hadn’t been very well. Well this morning we discovered that our prayers have been answered, he is now much better than he was. His temperature has gone and the only worry the doctor has is that his blood pressure is still quite low. So thank you very much for all your prayers, and please keep praying that his blood pressure would rise and he would be 100% really soon. When we told the kids at breakfast they all cheered and clapped. It was so sweet.

They continued to be sweet as they became the shepherds flock in the lost sheep parable- beautifully told by Judith Clarke. The talk was on the father heart of God. She told us how God knows everything about us and really cares what happens to us. That if we are hurt it hurts God too. Happily David felt well enough to sit with us and we were all very glad to see him up and about- ish. We also got to sing our Russian songs again. The actions however meant that in the sweltering, humid weather we had the sweat running off us- nice.The weather meant that we were all desperate to get off to the sea, which had an interesting twist today- waves. Now this normally doesn’t make much difference to most people, but when you are only a few feet tall as some of the youngest kids are, one of those waves can go right over you with ease. Many of them we clinging on to arms or necks of the adults as the big waves came, but they loved it. Lunch was soup (as normal- It’s always some kind of soup with lunch) and then chopped cabbage and carrot with chicken.

Today was the day that our sponsors will want to hear about- we gave out the camp t-shirts. These are lovely white t-shirts with a logo of a person on and the words Ukraine 2006. They are really nice t-shirts and there were enough for all of the children and all of the adults at the camp as well.

We started by lining them all up from smallest...
to biggest...
in one long line along the play ground. Once each person had their t-shirt we all went and changed into them and gathered for photos. I think those with digital cameras managed to take about 20 photos each!! The kids were thrilled and they all looked so cute all matching.







Oh yeah, us adults all looked cute too :)

Day 3

I thought we would start with our prayer requests. The youngest member of our international team is currently really quite unwell. Please pray for David Clarke as he has a very high fever. The camp doctor has seen him and has given him some medicine to try to get the fever down and reckoned that it was probably sun stroke- through could possibly be a couple of other things.Secondly one of our little boys broke his arm at the beach today. His name is Dima and today is his birthday- not a nice present. So please pray that he would be free from pain and that his arm would heal quickly. Simon has just got back and told us that he has suffered a double break just above his wrist. He however is fine (all things considered) and keeps asking when he can come back to camp- bless.And finally just generally for the health and well being of all the people on the camp.
Today started off with the international team bible study and devotional time, where we encouraged and shared God’s word together. Then we moved straight into the exercise time. Our attempt to get the new world record for getting the kids out of bed failed slightly and we had to start with only about half of them. The older kids, who in past mornings have said they couldn’t hear the wake up music, we woken up with a rousing trumpet call and energetic hand clapping right into the nice echoy foyer of their dorm!! It got them out of bed all right- if only to see what was going on.Breakfast was stewed vegetables covered in cheese accompanied by hard boiled eggs (well at least the eggs were not covered in chocolate).Today’s bible talk was lead by Sarah and Shirley and was titled ‘The Bible’. We had a ‘simple’ exercise to start. The kids were told to stand up and not smile. However with the help of the international team they all failed miserably! This led into forms of communication and God’s ways of talking- the specific one being The Bible!!After the service the international team spilt up. Some people went down to the beach and did normal beachy things. The others went and tried out a local church in Kerch.

Interview with Shola-
How was church?
“Church was good, very different, and very interesting considering that language was a barrier (so it was meant to be)”
Where was the church?
“It was somewhere in Kerch and it looked like some sort of cinema type building. I couldn’t read what was said though, so I don’t know.”
Did you understand what was being said?
“Yes and no. Because when we got into church the song they were singing was one I could identify with so I was just singing the English version (our God reigns). Then the service started with an offering and the explanation of why we have to give and the likes. And because we had a translator we got the key words. And because I was sitting next to the translator I had to relay the words to the others so some explanation was ‘lost in translation’. It was funny as well because some times the translator couldn’t keep up, so we had to play fill in the blanks”
So what happened in the service?
“The preacher man went up and introduced us [the international team] to the church, so we felt even more at home, and he preached about… Matthew… No Luke- from the Bible. Let me get my Bible”
Shola runs to get her bible
“Well he used lots of passages from like acts 2 1:6, Ephesians. Oh hear it is all along. Luke chapter 3 verse 7-9. this was the main one he used”
So carry on with the service
During the preaching we had to stop two times to do the praise and worship. And some of the songs we could identify in English. I have to say that by the end of the third praise and worship, when the preacher man started again, some of the members of the congregation were very happy to be seated again and just dropped off”
Including members of our team?
“[laughs] Oh yeah. Well, I guess because there was a delay in getting the translation they just… They were nodding in the spirit- getting their own translation [laughs]”
How did the service conclude?
“[laughs] This is good. I turned around and saw half of the congregation (the ones who were not sleeping) with their bibles in their hands or on their shoulders and people running out the door… well walking out of the door. I thought maybe we were going to have some time in small groups, or it was an announcement for certain people to leave or something. Only to find out from our translator that it was the end of the service. It was a great end. I felt like tapping the people sleeping and saying ‘Home time’ Once everyone had got back from church and the beach it was time for lunch- battered fish with boiled new potatoes.

After ‘nap time’ it was snacks as usual and then we had ‘interest groups’. This is basically where we set up a load of activities and the kids get to pick one (or more if they want to change around). We had football, volleyball, basketball, another trip to the beach, manicures, board games and skoobydoos. These were really fun (we are going to do them again today), the girls came back with beautiful nails, and boys came back hot and sweaty and the little kids came back with skoobydoo strings wrapped round their wrists where they hadn’t learnt to do them properly. But it was all good fun.Dinner was buckwheat and a… burger (for want of a better word to describe a round and very flat piece of meat). Most of the team also downed generous portions of tomato ketchup with this meal. If you have never had buckwheat, well Tim Clarke summed it up fairly well when he said, “It’s like half cooked rice”. It’s a bizarre thing.After dinner was our Sunday service. This was the only service during the entire week which has been or will be geared towards the adults rather then the children. So none of our songs had actions (bit sad about that really) and we had a good old worship in English and Russian. We sang Come now is the time and we switched languages half way through. We had Bible readings and a fab talk by pastor Vlad. Hopefully the older kids appreciated it as well as the adults. It really must be quite hard for them when our talks are all aimed at the younger children.Crafts followed and once again Ruth came out trumps. The kids loved it and it took them the full hour to do it which was good. They were making little angles or bugs which were 3D off a piece of paper. You will see what I mean when we get pictures up.Then bedtime stories for the kids. Because David was so ill and we had had various other people feeling unwell or getting hurt, most wards had a ready made subject to tell stories around- the healing power of Jesus. Many of us got some good prayer time out of it as well.Before going to bed many of the adults (international team, helpers, Ukrainian staff) gathered around to pray for David, whose temperature at that point had started to go up again. It was an amazing time. We prayed Ukrainian style- all at one. We had people praying in English, Russian, heavenly tongues, song and others quietly supporting us. It was, to use a very American phrase, awesome. But the word really describes it well.

Day 2

Nice and early start today- about 6:45. This was because morning devotions began at 7!!! The kids were got up with some… lovely music. Actually yesterday I rather detested the music- it was just very annoying (not the best morning person!! Lol). Once I heard it after being awake for a half hour before I found I could dance along and enjoy it like the rest of them.Morning exercise- so good and so much fun, but made breakfast feel like it should be lunch. I guess that then makes the rather bizarre dishes fit better. Today’s was sausage meat, frankfurter style, and some sweet dumpling thing covered in custard and chocolate.Next came the first of our series of Bible talks. It was lead by Tim Clarke and was titled “Are you listening” which is going to be our running theme for the entire camp. It was so good and the kids really enjoyed getting involved. We also got to learn some Russian songs. OK maybe I should say that we got to hear some Russian songs. They had actions too though so we didn’t feel like complete lemons standing there doing nothing.After Bible studies was our second beach trip. So we had more running, shouting, and throwing- balls and kids. This last one proved not so good as one little girl managed to land on Judith Clarke. So please remember her and her pour headache. Despite this the beach trip was a success and was quickly followed by an equally successful dinner of chicken and… mash!!! We like mash :)In the afternoon (after our nap- yes us, the kids carried on playing) we had the Bible presentation ceremony. Each child was presented with a Bible, in Russian. Either a picture “my first Bible” or a copy of the New Testament. Graham (one of the American interns) did a great talk on the importance of the Bible. We then went with our wards and put their names in the Bibles and told them a few of our favourite stories.After the Bible ceremony we all had to get ready for the opening ceremony. We decorated the stage with flags of all the nationalities represented (and there were quite a few) and we all dressed up in silly outfits.


The international team sang ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’ it was very silly but still quite a lot of fun. Each of the wards came up with their own name and a poster with that name on (just as we did).


We had:

1. Friends
2. BMW (the first letters of god can do everything- in Russian)
3. Hamsters
4. Smiles

• Bards for Jesus

The final task for the kids was crafts, which we did after dinner (large meatballs and mash). They were making friendship books which everyone could write a message in.
After bedtime stories we (the international team) were all invited to the birthday party of one of the guys who has been working at previous camps- Ruslan. It was hilarious as we all had to be quite due to sleeping children but kept wanting to clap and cheer for him. We were like a pack of naughty school children!

PS. Happy anniversary to Avril and Ian Hooper with lots of love from Rachel

Day 1

Today started with music blasted out from the sound system to wake everyone else up- it worked. Showers and getting dressed were cut short by the call to breakfast, which turned out to consist of spaghetti with cheese on and marshmallows!!! Not what you might normally expect for breakfast but it was good food. Then the kids all had to go to the doctors so we hung around drawing pretty chalk pictures on the paths and making balloon animals and shapes for everyone. We also had a balloon for Timothy who was very brave. He managed to trip up and graze his knee so went to see the doctor. She cleaned it up and sprayed some random green stuff on it, so he ended up with a green sun shape on his knee- rather entertaining. The balloons were fantastic as we got to meet the kids and have a bit of a chat with then, try out our Russian and bug the translators for new words. Then it was ‘stations’ where we had four activities stationed in different places and the kids rotated round, 15/20 minutes at each station. We had races, sit down volleyball, human mazes and human paper scissor stone (or man, woman and gorilla as it ended up). Lunch was soup, meatballs and mash. Then we had a team meeting and our only real stretch of free time- sleep time for most of the group as it turned out!

After our lovely (and much appreciated) rest time it was snack time. We worked out that natural yoghurt might have been the closest thing to the drink we were given. However we were really not sure. We also got chocolate covered biscuits- all good.After snacks it was a quick change into beach gear and off to see this famous ‘hill of death’. Well all I can say for it is that it’s not hard to get down- gravity is your friend in that respect. However getting down safely and in one piece proved slightly more difficult. The kids of course had no problems at all, they were skipping down like little mountain goats!We were sorry to see that the hill itself wasn’t the only danger around. The route down to the sea was littered with rubbish. The track was covered with broken glass and we passed a not insubstantial pile of rubbish. So please pray for the safety of the kids, that we will not be treating any cuts from all the glass. The view from the top of the hill though is worth a mention- It is stunning.

On the beach we have a set of ropes with floats on which are put out to give us a swimming area. And then the kids all take turns in the water. Each different age group was allowed in twice and the members of the international team rotated between the sea (where you get jumped on, splashed and generally used as a climbing frame) and a ball game on the beach with is a similar idea to volleyball, except it is played in a circle and if you are the last one to hit it to the ground then you have to sit in the middle.After about an hour/hour and a half we traipsed back up the hill- I was just a little puffed by the time I got to the top!Showers were followed by dinner- rice and meat of some sort and very welcome it was too after all the exercise.The evening activity was a formal introduction of all the team to the kids. We all had to stand up and say our name, where we were from and then our favourite food or colour. Impressively some of the team managed bits of theirs in Russian. Then final the bit we had all been longing and wishing for since we met the first child- the making of name badges for everyone. So between the translators and us we helped the kids (and each other) to write everyone’s name in both Russian and English.In the hour or so before the kids bedtime the international team managed to come up with a name (Bards for Jesus- chosen because of the large number of musicians in the group and the word bard translates almost identically into Russian), a poster and a song and dance routine (I’m sure we will tell you all about that tomorrow). Finally we had a good old worship session before heading off to our different wards to do bedtime stories. Each ward has a different age group in, ranging from 4 to 19- yes we thought that was a big range as well. We originally said 7–14 but if they sent 4 and 19 year old kids all the way from Belarus what can you do? And they are split up into 4 wards- 4 being the little ‘uns and 1 the big ‘uns. Tonight’s bed time stories were just a get to know the kids. We asked them things about themselves and let them ask some questions. This is one of the best times to have a good chat with the kids and really get to know them (or so we have been reliably informed. I have to say after this I can see that it could well be the case).Once all the kids had been settled and put to bed we were free to go to bed, or party the night away (quietly) depending on your energy level.

Journey & arrival

Well we have officially arrived. For any of you worried that we were caught up in all the hullabaloo in Heathrow- no we missed it by a day. We only found out about it when we got to the camp.

So the journey.

Our first stop where we all met up was Heathrow. Despite finding out that the luggage policy that we had been told about wasn’t going to come into practice until the 7th October (meaning that we had to pay for the crate of t-shirts to be taken as excess baggage) checking was straightforward and uneventful. Unfortunately though at Heathrow we had to say goodbye to Cherith who decided that the trip wasn’t the right thing for her to be doing. However the rest of us found the American members of the team, stocked up on chocolate in WHSmiths, boarded, found our seats and settled down for our flight. 3 hours later we arrived in Kiev- the capital of Ukraine. Once in Kiev we were met by Igor, a Ukrainian who works for Global Action in Ukraine. He, along with his ten year old son Dominic, got us into a minibus and then gave us a tour of Kiev town centre. We stopped after a bit and had coffee (koфe) and cheese cake. You might think this would be a simple task, especially when you have a native speaker with you- no such luck. We were a large group with lots of different orders and the waitress kept bringing out the wrong number of each thing. So we all swapped and changed orders about five times to make sure that everyone had something.
Next was off to Freedom Square where a political rally was going on.

Now this might sound quite exciting but the Ukrainian political situation has been so turbulent these last few months that the average Ukrainian has completely lost interest. They were all interested in the football though. It appeared that Kiev were playing a big match so there were football fans out in the masses. Wading though them we managed to see freedom square itself and the shopping centre, which has been built behind and beneath the square. Then dinner. Now dinner was in a self service restaurant, we however had no idea how many options there were, what everything was and with there being 14 of us Igor was struggling to answer all the questions along the line. So we pointed and picked, and then picked again when we realised there was more appealing stuff further along the line. Finally after a game of balance three trays on a small round table we sat down to eat. It wasn’t half bad either- well most people thought it was OK, there were a couple of trips back up the line to replace a few items.
After dinner it was back into the minibus and off the station. I have never in my life seen such a grand station. It was beautiful, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and moulding along the ceiling. Beautiful as it was the escalators weren’t working so we had to lug our cases up the grand staircases into the VIP room. I have no idea what you do to get into the VIP room, but Igor sorted it out for us and it meant we had comfy seats to sit while we waited. The station was an… experience for may of the team who got their first taste of ‘the squatty loo’ For any of you lucky enough not to know what this is, well it a toilet consisting of a hole in the ground over which you ‘squat’. It’s an interesting position to try and hold for any length of time, especially as you are also tying to keep clothing off the floor and out of your way! OK enough grossing you all out and back to the story.
Our train left Kiev at 10:49, so about half an hour before this we were allowed to board. Oh I should mention that at this point Igor had left us. Thankfully though we were joined by Andrea who is an Austrian who speaks fantastic English and has been living in Kiev for the past… year I think, so has pretty good Russian as well. So Andrea sorted out our rooms, the hiring of sheets and the checking of tickets. Once the novelty of staring out the carriage windows ran out (well it was dark by this time so there was next to nothing to see) we all started the long process of queuing for the single toilet. Finally we got to bed.
Although many of the team got up earlier, some of us were woken up by a random blast of Ukrainian radio coming through the sound system. Ukrainian radio is funny. We heard English, French and songs in either Russian or Ukrainian (the two languages are very similar and to a our ears sounded identical). The rest of the train journey was spent practicing bible talks, and crafts, sleeping and learning Russian.
We were met off the train by Simon, who helped us dump our stuff in the minibuses and they took us for lunch- in McDonalds. So we had team members carrying out 16 double cheeseburgers and 16 lots of fries. It didn’t take long for it all to disappear.
The minibus journey was our final leg. It took us about 4 hours with a stop off at a mountain spring and also at the Kerch sign
Finally though we had arrived at the hope Center (well Americans set it up so technically speaking I should write it ‘er’ not ’re’).
For me this was a bit over whelming, 85 of the kids were already there, as were the Ukrainian staff, interpreters and the interns so we had a lot of new stuff and a lot of new people all in one go. Those who had been before though had a great time saying hi to those that had been there last year and exploring for changes.
Dinner was chicken and mashed potato- a very normal and yummy dish. Finally we had a brief team meeting before heading off for a very welcome sleep.

Trip information

What is the trip about?

This mission is part of Global Action's 'Touch the world' program. We will be going to the Hope Centre in southern Ukraine for two weeks.

The Hope Centre is an old pioneers camp which Global Action managed to buy. Now each summer a series of two week camps are run at the centre for orphaned and disadvantatged kids between the ages of 6 and 16. Our camp is the last camp of the summer- camp 5.
Global action is a christian organisation so as well as providing a holiday for the kids we will also be sharing the gospel with them.

Where are we going?

Ukraine is in eastern europe- right next to Russia.

To get there the team are all meeting up in London where we will then fly to Kiev which is the capital of Ukraine. From Kiev we will take an over night train right down to the bottom of the country. It is then a minibus ride to Kerch and the Hope Camp.

Who is going

The international team going on this trip includes:
UK- London
Simon James-Morse
Ruth James-Morse
Kirsty Buchanan
Tim Clarke
Judith Clarke
Sarah Clarke
David Clarke
Timothy Waitt
Rachel Waitt
Olusola Dada
UK- Manchester
Emma Forbes
UK- Northern Ireland
Cherith Rodgers
Emily Petheram
USA
Kristine McMillan
Carolyn Chambers

What will we be doing?

We will be playing games, reading stories, doing craft worshops, having a daily bible talk, singing songs and generally giving the kids a good time. If you want to see a copy of our preposed program click here.