Try and stay focused...

The plan this morning was to be in the inspector’s office at 10 a.m. to hear more information about the sister of our boys. Let’s call her ‘girl k’ for short. Plans here don’t always materialize so when our facilitator picked us up, we found out that the SDA office had no power (literally no lights-no phone-so they were closed) So, even if we were at the inspector's office, they would not receive information from the SDA. This is "bureau speak" for we will sit here and look at each other for a while. After praying, we, along with our facilitator believed it best to drive out to talk with the private orphanage where ‘girl k’ has been staying. You can do this because it is not a government school, but there is more.

This place was on the outskirts of right bank Kiev, kind of like Clanton except snowier (Just to give you a visual). The people were great there and very helpful. We were able to pray with them and have lunch with them, but there was only one problem. ‘Girl k’ was temporarily sent to a state run orphanage yesterday. State run orphanage... Do you know what this means???? Yes, more official documents required before seeing her now. O.k. let’s find a notary in the city, that has a relationship with the SDA, that is working today late in the afternoon, and has written referral requests before. This would narrow the field… let’s see from about 5 million people down to 2 ladies in their bathrobes in their apartment (this was her off day from work), which is being renovated. I know this is hard to believe, but truth is stranger than fiction, and always more interesting. I wanted to post photos, but it just wouldn’t be right. We finally got the bathrobe stamp of approval, and raced across town toward the SDA building which now had power and phones providentially late in the day. We had 15 minutes to get a signature from a translator and then get it to the SDA office before it closed. We made it with a few seconds to spare!

We did find some details about ‘girl k’. She was found basically on the street at age 6, and was removed from the parents at that time. This would’ve meant that our boy, little ‘k’ would’ve only been 3 years old at the time and big ‘k’ was only 8. Sometime later, our boys(her brothers) were put in another orphanage in the city and the parent’s rights were terminated. We actually saw a picture of her today. One of the people from the private orphanage, a lady named L., is going voluntarily tonight to talk to girl ‘k’ to give her a night to think about what we will be meeting with her about tomorrow (we are supposed to get a referral letter tomorrow morning around 10 a.m. and then we will go talk with her). So, all this to
say… be in prayer for His glory to be displayed, for us to have wisdom, and for girl ‘k’ as we see her and begin to build connections with her. Also pray for the boys, since they have no knowledge of our adventures today. We are thankful for each of you and for your prayers on our behalf. Thanks to all who have encouraged us with comments and emails.

Blessings,
Chris, Vickie and Kole

1 Thessalonians 2:8 “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”