Ukrainian Flashbacks...

I realized the other day that it has been just over a year since I visited Ukraine and spent time with orphans in Crimea. It seems like just yesterday was jumping rope and playing hand slap games with the kids! In honor of reflecting back on the experience a year later, I thought I would post a reflection I wrote the August after the trip. So, here is what I wrote:
In my time at Malone College, I have learned a lot about the painful, broken state of the world. My eyes have been opened to racism, gender discrimination, extreme poverty, modern slavery, homelessness, unjust international debt, intimate partner violence, and unfair trade practices. Often a friend and I joke that our education has ruined our lives and maybe ignorance about the pain in the world is better. But we end up coming back to the idea that God knows and cares about the pain and suffering in the world, and we must know and care because God does. I have spent nights awake in my bed on campus overwhelmed by the pain in the world and wondering how to “change the world.”
After three years of learning and seeing the broken state of the world, I boarded a plain with 10 other Malone students and alumni and traveled to Simferopol, Ukraine. After two flights and a train ride, we spent time playing with orphans at four different orphanages. One day we got the privilege of taking about 15 of the children to Yalta, a resort town on the Black Sea. We went to the zoo, McDonald’s, and a castle! It was a day filled with fun, laughter, pictures, and excitement. That day was amazing, but the kids we were with face great odds in surviving till their 25th birthdays. Many of the children who may have already been abused, neglected, or abandoned will face drug abuse, prostitution, and homelessness their futures. On the boat ride to the castle, I sat with my arm around an eleven year old girl named Liza and couldn’t help but feel mixed emotions. I wanted to save these kids and make their lives better, but I knew all I could do at that moment was to be present in the midst of their suffering. As I looked over the kids on the boat, I prayed, “Lord, please come make it right soon!” That prayer made me feel at peace. By taking those children to Yalta, I was not saving the world, but I knew God was in the process of saving the world. Going to Ukraine made me long for the day God would come make us all and the world whole, healing all pain and suffering.
My prayer that day flows from something else I have been learning at Malone College. Because not only have I learned about the pain and suffering in the world, but I have also learned about God’s faithfulness. God is faithful and will make the world whole again! May we be faithful in caring for the orphans of the world and of Simferopol, Ukraine as we wait for the healing God will bring!