January
2008 Report
We arrived in Kiev, Ukraine on January 9, 2008.
Worked on the Ministry Center until we left for Crimea on Monday,
January 14th. We arrived in Simferopol on Tuesday by
train. Geralyn Keller met us at the train station. Bruce and Geralyn
Keller are in the process of adopting their 2nd child.
Geralyn and Misha are having some good quality time together as they
wait until they can depart for the United States. It was wonderful
to visit with Geralyn and see Misha’s beautiful smile.
Galya, who works for Life2Orphans and who has
also ministered with The Least of These also met us at the train
station. We were able to give her a suitcase full of baby clothes
that will be used to help unwed mothers and also be used as an
inroad to an orphanage for babies with Autism.
After a wonderful visit with everyone, David
Hallowell, a missionary in Simferopol arrived with a van and we
traveled with him to meet with the Foster Family who lives in a
village in the Belogorsk Region. Galya blessed the Foster Family by
donating money so that we could bring from America underwear, socks
and T-shirts for the Foster Family who have 11 foster children.
We had some wonderful fellowship playing and
singing with the children. They recited several Psalms that they
had memorized. After spending time visiting and in prayer we
traveled to Belogorsk to spend the time with two families whom we
have had the pleasure of ministering with for the past 3 years.
Plans were worked on for the April outreaches. It was a great time
of fellowship.
Foster
Family
The next morning we were on a bus headed to
Kerch. We stayed with Vika and Inna who are missionaries with The
Least of These in Kerch. God has blessed their ministry to the
children in Kerch. Wednesday afternoon and night we were able to be
with Vika and Inna at the big Internot. We sang songs, played and
prayed with 5 different groups of children. It is impossible to
communicate the deep relationships that have been made with these
precious children. I am convinced that many of these children have
made life changing decisions to serve Jesus.
Kerch
On Thursday morning we had a meeting with
Pastor Sergey Frolov, Pastor Sergey Homenko, Andre Shpigunov, Vika,
Vitalik, Sherrel and me to work on the plans for the fruit ministry
in Kerch. This year we have changed the fruit project to the two
weeks before Easter from Christmas time. We will have a program with
puppet skits sharing the Easter story. Then we will give a bag of
fruit to each child from the three Orphanages in Kerch. This year we
have also added almost 3,000 children from the kindergartens in the
public schools in Kerch. Can you imagine having Christian programs
in all these kindergartens!!!
Vika and Inna blessed us so much with their
wonderful hospitality. They are an incredible blessing to all of
Kerch.
Sherrel, Vitalik and I caught the 12:50 PM
train from Kerch arriving back in Kiev at 11:20 this morning.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
God bless,
Rich Richmond
