Some of you may have seen the buzz about "Giving Tuesday", which is today. You know, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and now Giving Tuesday. I think the timing is poor because it should have been the week BEFORE everyone spent all their money over the weekend. :-) Anyway, I have a special little project I'm asking you to help me with.
You may remember a couple weekends ago, I was privileged to travel to Krivoy Rog to visit our friend, Max. Max's ministry continues whether he has guests or not, and I wouldn't have it any other way! I was able to tag along on one of his ministry visits out to a village to visit this family. If you click over, you'll see this family has 12 children and sadly, the single mom is an alcoholic. The youngest boy prefers to sleep with the dog as he has no bed and it's warmer out there...Max, his team, and I brought lots of blankets, some clothes, and food when we went out. We met the mom and 4 of the kids. Here's some pictures.
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I asked Max how he found out about this family. He said the mom had contacted Social Services for help. They have nothing to offer her, so SS called Max as they do almost everyday. Thankfully, not every case is this needy.
This family literally has nothing. Nothing at all. And winter is coming. The kids need protection from the cold. The winter in that part of Ukraine is about like ours in Wisconsin...cold! Unfortunately, Max didn't have any coats or boots in his inventory of donations. His ministry doesn't have the funds to buy them right now either. So, that's where YOU AND ME (and Pat and Sarah too)! Pat has just safely arrived in Kyiv (YAY!!!) and with him, he has several hats that Sarah (and I'm assuming Rachel too!) made for the girls in the family, as well as most of the boys too! What she didn't have time to make, they bought. They also purchased gloves and mittens for the whole family. Awesome!
Now, onto coats and boots. If you have a few extra dollars after the weekend :-), and if you want to help keep these kids warm this winter and protected from the cold, please feel free to send me a "personal gift" through paypal to my email - deut4.9@gmail.com. By making it a personal gift, no fees will be taken out. It would be fair to say that if no one helps, which I understand and would be ok, I'm still going to buy coats and boots. In fact, I bought 8 coats today at a second hand store I found. 8 coats for 700 grivna = $85. Yay me! I still need coats for the 7 yo twin girls and possibly the big boys. I'm using the cash we had reserved for an expediting fee but thankfully we did not need to use it. We are putting that money towards Sarah's ticket to come back with me on the 2nd trip. (She's excited and so am I!) The money for the coats and boots will just come out of our family's account. So, if you want to help, great! If not, that's fine too. I understand. I'm not sure I'm going to find much for 2nd hand boots. I was glancing at prices at the market today, and new boots worth anything will be at least $25-$30/pair. That will add up. I will probably give Max a call and see if he talk to the vendor and get a good deal for me. :-) He's good at that sort of thing...really good.
Thanks so much for your consideration. Either way, I would appreciate your prayers for this family, and esp for the mom. Pray for the Light of Jesus to penetrate her heart!
You may remember a couple weekends ago, I was privileged to travel to Krivoy Rog to visit our friend, Max. Max's ministry continues whether he has guests or not, and I wouldn't have it any other way! I was able to tag along on one of his ministry visits out to a village to visit this family. If you click over, you'll see this family has 12 children and sadly, the single mom is an alcoholic. The youngest boy prefers to sleep with the dog as he has no bed and it's warmer out there...Max, his team, and I brought lots of blankets, some clothes, and food when we went out. We met the mom and 4 of the kids. Here's some pictures.
Max is gathering up some of the blankets we took to the family. These are blankets from us, that a very special lady named Betty sewed together for Max! This is half of Max's storage area - many tubs from our church. :-) It's very well organized and everything is labeled.
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Max with 3 of the kids
The room these 3 were hanging out was very warm, thankfully, as it was heated from a wood stove in the next room. But at night, it gets cold when no wood is added. The smell in this room was like nothing I had ever smelt before. It was all I could do to not gag and leave. :-( Max and his team hope to take a few of the kids at a time and give them baths and wash their hair. Their hair felt like straw. Totally heartbreaking.
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Max insisted I join in too. :-) The kids are obviously not as thrilled to have me there. LOL They LOVE Max though...most kids do.
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Since they are in a village, they have a bit of land to grow veggies thankfully and they have chickens and goats.
A man helping her had planted winter carrots that day and garlic was planted too.
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The dog house...where the little 4 yo boy sleeps with the dog :-(
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A brick addition has been started for more bedrooms. The windows need glass, and obviously a roof would be great too! Someday Max wants to contrast this photo with one of him looking out the window of glass with a roof over his head. He's a visionary! The rest of the house is built from clay.
I asked Max how he found out about this family. He said the mom had contacted Social Services for help. They have nothing to offer her, so SS called Max as they do almost everyday. Thankfully, not every case is this needy.
This family literally has nothing. Nothing at all. And winter is coming. The kids need protection from the cold. The winter in that part of Ukraine is about like ours in Wisconsin...cold! Unfortunately, Max didn't have any coats or boots in his inventory of donations. His ministry doesn't have the funds to buy them right now either. So, that's where YOU AND ME (and Pat and Sarah too)! Pat has just safely arrived in Kyiv (YAY!!!) and with him, he has several hats that Sarah (and I'm assuming Rachel too!) made for the girls in the family, as well as most of the boys too! What she didn't have time to make, they bought. They also purchased gloves and mittens for the whole family. Awesome!
Now, onto coats and boots. If you have a few extra dollars after the weekend :-), and if you want to help keep these kids warm this winter and protected from the cold, please feel free to send me a "personal gift" through paypal to my email - deut4.9@gmail.com. By making it a personal gift, no fees will be taken out. It would be fair to say that if no one helps, which I understand and would be ok, I'm still going to buy coats and boots. In fact, I bought 8 coats today at a second hand store I found. 8 coats for 700 grivna = $85. Yay me! I still need coats for the 7 yo twin girls and possibly the big boys. I'm using the cash we had reserved for an expediting fee but thankfully we did not need to use it. We are putting that money towards Sarah's ticket to come back with me on the 2nd trip. (She's excited and so am I!) The money for the coats and boots will just come out of our family's account. So, if you want to help, great! If not, that's fine too. I understand. I'm not sure I'm going to find much for 2nd hand boots. I was glancing at prices at the market today, and new boots worth anything will be at least $25-$30/pair. That will add up. I will probably give Max a call and see if he talk to the vendor and get a good deal for me. :-) He's good at that sort of thing...really good.
Thanks so much for your consideration. Either way, I would appreciate your prayers for this family, and esp for the mom. Pray for the Light of Jesus to penetrate her heart!
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