Newsletter Fall 2004                                                    Helen and Bill Lovelace

Ukraine has been in the news, almost at the center of the world’s attention! It was an exciting three weeks as we have seen the events of the “orange revolution”  as some have called the peaceful but vigorous demonstrations over whether the current administration rigged the election for their candidate, Victor Yanokovich and stole the election from Victor Yushenko, the opposition candidate.

On one level, it seems Ukraine is at a historical crossroads, choosing whether to continue on the path to a democratic society, or to settle for a more authoritarian, controlled society which is more interested in holding power than the development of the nation.  But other forces underlie today’s conflict which are old as Ukraine itself, that of language and culture.   If one looks at the map at the way Ukraine voted, those who speak primarily Ukrainian or Ukrainian and Russian equally well voted for the Yushenko, the opposition candidate.  Those who speak Russian almost exclusively, the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, voted for the current administration’s candidate.  While the war of words paints the choice as one between a democratic opposition candidate and a corrupt, soviet style administration candidate, it seems the use of language and the fear of a losing one’s cultural identity played an equally important role. 

We have churches on both regions of the country and people on both sides of the argument.  Our Western churches ask “How can those in the East vote for such corruption?”  But our churches in the East and South are afraid that if the opposition candidate, Yushenko, gets in power, then they will be forced to use Ukrainian and all the Russian newspapers and TV stations will disappear.   The solution is not a simple one: how can Ukraine, under the present circumstances, pursue a path to eliminate corruption and cronyism without appearing to be waging a cultural war against the Russian speaking populace?  Please pray that the rerun of the election on Dec 26th will occur peacefully, justice will prevail and the country will not be divided.

Street Children Ministry

Our homeless children were also caught up in the demonstrations.  Though not too politically aware, they had a great time wearing orange armbands (the color of the opposition candidate), pressing Helen to wear them and taking advantage of the free food being given out to the demonstrators.  But however the election finally turns out on Dec. 26th, they will still be homeless. 

We see our work with the children as a bridge between life on the streets and a stable family environment through Christian ministry.  It is very difficult for homeless children who have been on the streets for more than a year to go straight into a classical orphanage style institution.  They instantly move from a life of chaos to an almost militarily regimented life.  The common result in Ukraine’s understaffed and overworked orphanages is that the children escape back to the streets.  Our drop-in day center, open from 10:00-17:00 six days a week begins to build structure into their lives.  They have to show up at a certain time if they want breakfast or lunch, they cannot sniff glue and smoke cigarettes on the premises and there are certain activities they must participate in if they wish to stay all day, but there are no prerequisites for getting food, good clothing and medical care. Prayer, Bible study and other Christian education is part of the daily program.   Gradually, the children begin to change and many come to us asking if we could find them a place to live off the streets.

Quick fixes and instant success stories are exception, not the rule.  As usual, real change takes time and effort.  When I (Bill) visited the center last week, a eight year old little boy with a big smile on his face met me.  In surprise and with a little sadness, I said “Vadim, you are back!”  He nodded enthusiastically and ran to sit on Helen’s lap.  We first met Vadim when he was 5..   He lived under a bridge with his alcoholic mother and 11 year old sister.  From time to time they would show up as family when our ministry was feeding children outside near a soccer stadium. 

 A year later when we had opened our day center, Vadim and his sister showed up again, but this time without their mother.  It turned out that the two had an older sister, 17, also homeless.   Vadim’s mother had been put in prison for sexually abusing the older sister (and perhaps the other siblings?  Vadim and his sister were silent about that).  We asked about their father and they told us he had found work in Moscow and only returns home twice a year.  Where is home, we asked.  A village near Kiev.  The older sister reportedly got married and with no one to care for Vadim and his sister, they lived on the streets for the next year, occasionally showing up at the center.   In September of this year, after a long absence, Vadim appeared at the center led by some older homeless boys.  Vadim is an attractive child and the older children like to use the younger ones to beg as they get more money that way.   Vadim had been at a summer camp for homeless children run by a privately run orphanage in Kiev, but had been convinced to run away from there, again by older boys who wanted him to beg for them.  He realized he had made a mistake, but could not find his way back to the camp. He did remember, however, our center. We contacted the orphanage and they came to get him.   After a week, though, they brought him back to us and said, “Vadim has tried to run away again and since we have a limited number of beds, we can’t spend time on those who do not want to be with us.  Maybe a little more time on the streets will convince him.”

It seemed this “tough love” was a little too tough for one so young, but in general, this orphanage is much better than the state ones, so I try not to judge.   We don’t have the facilities or funds to have an emergency night shelter, but this was one of the times when I sorely wished we had one.  We encouraged Vadim and the boys with him to come back to see us regularly, but Vadim continued his pattern of only occasional visits to our center, sometimes with his sister, sometimes with some of our regular boys.  Then we heard one of our workers had seen him at a Pentecostal church with a woman and we hoped he had gone back to the orphanage as they take their children to church.   So when Vadim showed up last week at the center, it was sad to realize he was back  on the streets.   We will continue to work with the orphanages and city authorities to find a place for Vadim and the other children we work with.

Some variation of Vadim’s story can be repeated 50 times over with our other children.  They have been abused, neglected and forced to fend for themselves.  Alcoholism of one or both of the parents is almost always a factor in these family tragedies. Happy endings are not always seen. We thank God, however, that you give us the privilege to be able to bring some hope and real solutions into these children’s lives, carrying out the biblical mandate to “care for the widows and orphans in their distress and keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1.27)

This week, Helen and I were able to visit three of the children who, through the efforts of our center, have been placed in a Christian orphanage after coming to our center these last two years.  These three are some of the best behaved children they have at the orphanage, workers tell us.   All three had similar stories to Vadim’s, but unconditional love, care and patience shown to them in Christ’s name have helped them break the street child cycle.   We give thanks to God for these three successes and view the other cases like Vadim’s as future success stories waiting to happen.  “Lord, if my brother sins against me,  how often should I forgive, as many as seven times?  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seven times seventy.”(Matt. 18:21-22)  We cannot give up on these children who have suffered so much when they make wrong choices. We would not give up on our own children and God does not give up on us.

District News

Two churches have been added into our district.   One is in Poltava, a city three hours to the east of Kiev and site of a famous battle where Charles XII of Sweden was defeated by Peter the Great of Russia in the first decade of the 18^th century, marking the beginning of the end of the expansion of the Swedish empire. You didn’t know there was a Swedish empire? Those Swedes were tough back then. This church is pastored by Victor Zaporozhets, a member of the Kerch church who accepted a call into ministry.  The other church is in the city of Krasnoarmeysk (which means Red Army), a small town close to the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.  The Poltova church has just been registered under Ukrainian law and the Krasnoarmeysk church will register this summer if all goes as planned. 

Two churches are completing building projects.   The Lugansk church bought a building last March with a gift from the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City and have completed the renovation  this fall.   The church started using the building to worship in October.   In Chernivtsi, the purchase of land and the beginning of construction on a building was financed by the church members themselves in 2000.   Also through a gift from Church of the Resurrection last March, the church has been able to complete the first floor of the building this fall.  As soon as utilities are connected, the church will be able to use the building as a worship center.

The United Methodist Church in Uzhgorod has started a renovation of the church basement which will become the fellowship hall of the church.  Immediate plans include opening a soup kitchen for the poor and starting a ministry to homeless children in Uzhgorod.   The Uzhgorod UMC has already assisted two interdenominational organizations in work with the homeless in Uzhgorod and plans now to initiate a ministry of their own.

At the last pastor’s meeting, our pastors decided to use the Alpha Course, a well known evangelism method created by an Anglican Church in London and implement it district wide in all of our churches.   Several churches have already started the Alpha Course and have reported good results.   Three of the current leaders in the leadership team of the Lviv Student Ministry started attending as a result of the Alpha Course.  The use of the Alpha Course is an emphasis of our Annual Conference which is focusing on church growth and lay education this quadrennium.

Home Assignment

We finally have a firm date for our home assignment which is July 1^st, 2005.  We are scheduled to be home, both in the US and Norway for at least 6 months, visiting all of you who have supported us so faithfully over the years.  As the time grows closer we will be arranging specific dates when we can come and visit your church. 

One event that could interrupt this schedule is the Northern European Central Conference to be held in February 9-13, 2005.   Delegates from Nordic Episcopal area and our Eurasia Episcopal  area will be electing a new bishop for Eurasia and I (Bill), am one of the candidates.  In the event I were elected, I would cease to be a GBGM missionary and would have to cancel the home assignment.   There are eight other candidates and no “favorite” has appeared, so please don’t count us out for a visit in 2005, we will in all likelihood be seeing you!  Please pray for the election and for the best possible candidate to be selected for the job.

The work we do couldn’t be done without the faithful support you provide.  If you or your church would like to give to specific projects and not just our regular missionary support here are the Advance Special numbers you should use so that all the money will go to the project indicated.   Overhead expenses are already taken care of by your local church’s conference apportionments. :

Bibles and Discipleship Resources: Advance Special number 014052-6. This fund is used to buy Bibles, Sunday School Literature and other Christian literature for use in our churches.

New Church Start-up and Ministries Advance Special number 014053-7.  This fund is to help in the planting of new churches and evangelism ministries in Ukraine.

Street Children Ministry  Advance Special number 014054-8.

Make your check payable to ADVANCE GCFA. Write the name of the project and the Advance code number on the check. Send your check to Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068.  United Methodists may make the check out to your local church and give it to the church treasurer, writing the Advance number and project name on the check

May God bless you as He has blessed us through you!  Have  a wonderful Advent season as we anticipate again the birth of our Savior, through whom all of our work and ministry is possible.

Merry Christmas!

Bill and Helen Lovelace