Ukraine Mission Trip w/ Street Kids (Help Support)

Ukraine 2005Summer Camp for Street KidsДорогие друзья (Dear friends),Plan: Привет! (Hi!)  Four of us from Calvary Chapel of Escondido (Rick and Kelly Kierstead, Yolanda Diehl, and Greg Gordon), plan on attending a 2 week summer camp for street kids the weeks of Saturday, June 18th to Friday, July 1st.  Rick and Kelly have previously gone to the 2004 winter and summer camp.  Yolanda went to the 2004 summer camp with Rick and Kelly, and this will be Greg’s first time to minister to these Ukrainian kids.  Building relationships with these kids is one of the biggest parts of the camp, and it means a lot to them to see the same team members return to spend time with them.  There’s also a big need for men to have an interest in being a part of this camp and being able to go, as most of the kids who attend the camp are boys.  Our hope and prayer is that God would provide for all of us to be able to go to this summer’s camp.  We strongly believe that where God guides, He provides. Purpose: What we’ll be doing at the camp is spending lots of time with the kids at meals, during music and Bible story times, playing indoor and outdoor games, including their favorite game, football (soccer), making crafts, and other activities.  Really, the purpose of this camp is to get these street kids away from their bad environments and living situations to a loving, Christian environment where they have a chance to be cared for and treated like normal children.  A lot of these kids struggle with drug and alcohol addiction (glue and Vodka) or suffer from developmental and emotional issues due to broken families, dangerous living situations, or poor care from their “guardians”.  These kids look forward to these camps all year and it allows them an opportunity to give their lives to Christ so God can deliver them from their destructive and dangerous lifestyles, and for them to be encouraged to live up to their God given potential.Preparation: Rick and Kelly already know how to speak a bit of Russian which really helps in getting to know the kids, building relationships with them during the 2 weeks, and in sharing God with them.  Yolanda took a semester of Russian in the fall after the summer camp and has continued learning on her own through different resources.  Greg has also started studying Russian to hopefully be able to speak to the kids a little bit.  Greg and Yolanda really have a heart to be able to share the Scriptures in Russian to the kids and possibly even provide them with their own Russian Bibles.  Yolanda was able to provide all the kids with Russian New Testaments from the Gideons last summer, which was the first time they were given Bibles at these camps, and hopes to be able to bring another supply this time.  We all trust that God will prepare our hearts to answer the calling to minister to these kids and to be used by God in each one of their lives.Provision: What we need to raise financial support for mainly is the cost for airfare, which is expensive this year, the cheapest costing about $1,500 per person.  Other costs include camp and various application fees.  If you feel led to send a donation in support of this camp to these street children, don’t feel like you alone have to help cover the entire cost for our trip!  Every little bit counts and would be greatly appreciated!  If you feel led to send financial support, simply mail money or check to Calvary Chapel of Escondido, 1675 Seven Oakes Road, Escondido, CA  92026 (make check payable to: Calvary Chapel of Escondido, memo: Rick, Kelly, Yolanda, Greg or Ukraine).  We also covet your prayers, however the Holy Spirit would lead you.  Большое спасибо!  (Thank you very much!)Рик, Келли, Ёланда и ГрегRick, Kelly, Yolanda and Greg Matthew 9:37-38: "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

Oh my goodness! I'm about to cry with tears of joy! GREG - you did such a good job with this! If the kids only knew they were up on a website for the whole world to see! Man... this is awesome! :-) I am glad that we can do this and get people praying for these kids. I am going to get some pictures of individual kids with backgrounds on the site so people can download them and pray for kids individually as the Spirit leads while we are ministering to them. I know God is going to do amazing things through us, letting these children feel the touch of Jesus Christ through us! I hope to get more pictures of the kids last year and also get an 3 page brochere of the information in the first post. Please start praying for us now.. I would love for people to also Commit to praying for Me, Yolanda, and others on the team daily while we are in the Ukraine.Please ask any questions you have and I am sure me or Yolanda can help answer them. I am learning much and excited about getting to know their culture and language more before I go.

Thank you very much. Kelly will be looking for confirmation from the Lord within the week. I trust God will make it clear.Thank you for posting this Yolanda. I have been praying about this and will continue to do so. I was speaking to kelly for abit also and who knows what the Lord will do, this could be the Lord opening doors for some and closing doors for others. Also this could be the Lord saying be faithful and wait for another opportunity to serve in Ukranian or Russian country. I am praying in that regard and am open to go seperately to an Calvary Chapel in Belarussa or Ukraine to serve and intern for a few weeks. Also another possible opportunity would be to go to Scotland to minister with a brother who might be going to open air preach. Please keep these things in prayer and let the Lord guide the plans. I do believe its great to plan and expect but at the same time only the Lord knows what is ultimately going to work out.

Here is a prayer request that Yolanda sent out to abunch of contacts she has,.. I am going to post it on this site here also so you can pray appropriately:Subject: Ukraine Trip Prayer RequestDate: April 7, 2005 11:33:08 PDTAs you all probably know, I was really looking forward to returning to Kiev, Ukraine this summer for a mission trip to a 2 week summer camp for street kids.  I felt I got confirmation about returning while being in Ukraine last year.  I started learning Russian and did other things to prepare to return.  But due to high costs in airfare, our Mission Coordinator, Kelly, is seriously considering canceling the trip for those interested in going on the trip from America.  She feels it would be a better use of funds to pay for the Byelorussians and Ukrainians to go to the camp, instead of having us Americans pay almost $2,000 to fly over there and pay for other camp costs.  I guess it doesn’t matter who ministers to the kids, as long as they get ministered to, but once again, I feel very strongly that I’m supposed to go there those two weeks.  My friend, Greg, has also felt that he has gotten confirmation and has gone forward in applying for the trip and raising support through his website www.sermonindex.net.  So either we’re really not supposed to go, and we need to pray for God’s peace about it and confirmation, or we need to have faith that God would provide reasonable airfare for those of us from our church planning on going (myself, Greg, Kelly and possibly Rick), and anyone else from the US.  I have faith.  I doubted God’s provision last year, and He totally amazed me with His faithfulness.  So why should this year be any different?  Shouldn’t I remember His ability to work miracles and provide and trust Him with more faith than I had last year?So please pray for Kelly, that God would give her the faith, confirmation, discernment and wisdom she needs to make the right decision and be a good steward of the support that comes in or we have for this trip.  If the Lord wills, please pray for God to perform a miracle concerning the airfare (preferably $1,000 or less).  And Greg and I need confirmation as well since we’re excited about going and have felt that God was leading us to go this summer.  If our minds need to change, then pray that God would faithfully do that.  But I’m sending this email with hope and faith that we will still be able to go this summer.Thank you for your time and I would covet your prayers in this matter.  God bless.Yolanda  

So God really spoke to me and ministered to me yesterday in prayer. I'm glad He led me to consider those things. And still I came out of that time confident and encouraged about going. That God would take care of the situation and provide. However things work out, God's encouragement and direction is right there.Do keep in prayer about this brothers and sisters. I do know God has called Yolanda to go there so as God leads I might try and even support her and myself not go if it comes down to that. It is going to be exciting to see what the Lord confirms. I am still open to what the Lord is doing. I have a few other possibilities one being scotland inwhich the Lord would definetly need to confirm. Also there might be an interesting 1 or 2 week road trip to Utah to witness to the mormons in Salt Lake city and other locations. Thanks for the prayers and support, may the Lamb that was slain recieve the glory due to His name.

This is fantastic! I will pray that God will meet ALL needs for this trip and lift it up in prayer in our church. I will also e-mail a copy of the prayer to my pastor and see if he would forward it to his contacts.My pastors (my in laws) have a orphanage in Africa which i would one day love to go to and support. My husband and i feel we are being called into the ministry particularly with the youth, so this mission feels close to my heart.I pray GOD will make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing, come to you all in abundance, so that you are always and under all circumstances possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation.In His love, Geraldine

It was very encouraging to me that you wanted to come and be a part of this ministry. I hope, if God was indeed leading you to go to this camp, that your excitement wouldn't be robbed due to circumstances. Hold on to the faith, hope and love that's from God above.Yolanda I am still excited about this opportunity and do want to go. I know God will work it out if its His will. There are lots of great things that are going to come out of all of this. I have been praying much about this and really have a peace about it. If we are being like Jesus and find our purpose in glorifying God in our surrender daily it does not matter our circumstances or even where God calls us. We can glorify Him in our situation just as well and I do want to be able to do this. All the support that anyone sends for the mission trip will be either used for me to go or for me to support another person like Yolanda to go to Ukraine. I also want to try and get bibles for the children to have, they don't have as many bibles as we do in North America, what a precious thing the scripture would be to them.

I have revised the front page post with the help of Yolanda for reference here is the old first post:Ukraine 2005Summer Camp Mission Trip for Street KidsJune 17th - July 1st / Kiev, UkraineOverviewMyself and 3 others (Yolanda, Rick, Kelly) from Calvary Chapel of Escondido are planning to go on a mission trip to Kiev, Ukraine from June 17th to July 1st, 2005 (2 weeks). We will be God-willing going to assist with a summer camp for street kids. This summer camp will take some kids out of their dangerous and depressing environments and give all of us involved the opportunity to show them God's love and give them some sort of hope. We will be spending lots of time with them at meals, during music and Bible story times, playing indoor and outdoor games, including their favorite game, football (soccer), and making crafts.I believe God has confirmed it to me to go and I am quite excited at ministering in another country, particularly in an european slavic country. There will be many opportunities to be a part of this, including praying for an individual child in which a photo and information about their background will be supplied.The need financially for each person will be $1,800 that covers room, board, airfare, transportation in Ukraine, visa and application fees. It would be great to have support raised for myself and any excess would go towards the rest of the team to be able to go.Why There Are Street Children• Parents abandon the child when they are no longer able to feed and provide for them.• Parents temporarily give their children to an orphanage when they can't take care of them, which the children run away from due to poor care or abuse.• One, or both, parents are in prison.• Both parents are alcoholics.• The child flees from life at home due to emotional, physical, sexual or substance abuse.?The Life of Street Children They're not hard to find, begging, playing, drinking or loitering in the main squares, subways, or other visible places. The ages of street children living independently can range from 4 to 18. Once they become homeless they have to find ways to survive, which often means illegal employment such as searching for bottles, cleaning kiosks, carrying cargo, running drugs, and becoming involved in prostitution or pornography. The ages of young women being sold into prostitution is 15-20. They tend to live in stairwells, under buildings and bridges, and in the sewers. Sometimes they will crowd in abandoned flats or ones used by prostitutes and drug dealers. They often live in small gangs or groups which provide some protection against some crime and other gangs, but even within these groups, life can be brutal.Chemical dependency and abuse is widespread. These children will inhale household supplies that they can buy cheaply or steal, including shoe polish, glue, and paint thinner. Given the widespread problem of alcoholism and how easy it is to get it, they quickly learn to abuse alcohol and cigarettes to cope with the harshness of the streets. Not only are they frequently addicted to substances, they become addicted to street life. These children are very vulnerable and often emotionally damaged. If they've been on the street for more then a year, it's hard to rehabilitate them back to society. At age 16 or 17, they become very fatalistic about their future. Yet when asked, most children - even those who have been on the street for a long time- will respond that they would like to live a "normal" life which they view as being with their own parents (if they have stopped being abusive) or in a foster home. Unfortunately, if they remain on the streets, life is short-lived for these children. Many become seriously ill and die. Some freeze to death in the winter, are beaten to death, or die from drug misuse and overdose. Sexually-transmitted diseases also kill children as well as prostitution crime and accidents. Thank you for your consideration and time to be involved prayerfully and financially.In Him,Greg Gordon\tJames 1:28 - Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.If you want to help cover part of the cost of $1,800 then simply send in an financial contribution send a cheque made out to: Calvary Chapel Escondido with an memo labeled: Greg Ukraine to the following mailing address: SermonIndex306-N West El Norte Pkwy #137Escondido, CA 92026, USAGod has been doing some great things in the last week. I know He is going to show Himself faithful. I do encourage you to pray about supporting this mission and I will be posting some prayer cards and other things to help people to pray for us and these children. I have also gotten an pdf brochere for the missiontrip which you can download on the first post of this thread. If there are any ukranians or belarussians that read this thread please reply also, I would love to correspond and hear what God is doing in your country.