Last week was week three of this visit.  It was also moving week.

I relocated from the home of American friends where everything is in English to the home of Ukrainian friends where nothing is in English.  It gets pretty creepy quiet when there are three people in the home and only two can talk to each other.  I have a translator with me during the day.  That's fine.  But minor things like a change in the schedule for the following day may be difficult to figure out.

And, I wasn't the only one moving last week.  I'll explain in the following reports.

Don't grow weary.
Charles

Meet eight year old Lola.  Lola just moved in with one of the Pilgrim staff members.  Luba already has two teenaged girls living with her.  Lola will add a whole new level of excitement to that home.  When I met her, she immediately demonstrated her skill at doing the splits and turning a cartwheel.  Then she made some really strange arm  motions that I couldn't understand.  She wanted to ride on my shoulders.  This was all within five minutes.

Lola's mom died in childbirth, and her dad lives in Kiev, about 500 miles away.  She was living with her grandmother, but grandma's health is not good so Lola was headed to an orphanage.  Last week Lola moved in with Aunt Luba.

Many of you will recognize Hussein.  He has been faithfully visiting the abandoned baby ward of a local hospital for eight and a half years.  Through his tireless efforts and the prayers and financial support of his many friends, that hospital has made tremendous improvements.  It is impossible to explain the change that he's seen there.

Hussein will be moving, too.  He is investigating other hospitals that need his special gifts and will soon become a regular at another local hospital.  He will still visit his old hospital once or twice a week, but most of his efforts will shift to another hospital with abandoned babies who need to be held and cared for.