This June I will be heading back to the Ukraine with a team of five. I will be joining Dave Daulton from a Father's Heart whom I teamed up with this January to present the First International Conference on the Needs of Children with Disabilities. Also joining us will be Stephen Ford, an attorney and past president of a local Down Syndrome Association, Dan Peters, a Board Memeber and Rachel Haas, a student. I will be be demonstrating and teaching therapy techniques for the children at Vorzel. Stephen will be meeting with Sergey Kurianov to work out details for a possible 'sister organization' relationship with the Ukraine Down Syndrome Assocaition. Dan will be Head Engineer for building and installing playground equipment on the concrete slab at Groupa House 5. We have so much more planned this trip as well. We will be visiting Pastor Volodymyr Kostyshyn, ('Vlad'), who works with a Church outreach ministry for children with special needs in Ternopil. He traveled 9 hours by train to attend our conference! He and his wife have a son who is severely disabled like my Jillian, and we were able to provide his ministry with 2 wheelchairs and 3 gait trainers our last trip which were given to needy families. There is such a need for equipment. I am accepting donations of equipment, along with money to cover the cost of shipping. Please contact me for more details and information where you can send a tax free donation to help defer our costs. I currently have a stander, a treadmill and at least one walker! We will be traveling by train and spend two days at Vlad's church and therapy center to see what they are accomplishing and how we can best serve their ministry with the children with disabilities. In the fall we'd like to bring a therapy team to work with their staff.
We will also be meeting with Sergey Kurianov, the President of the Ukriane Down Syndrome Association, along with several Board Members and Association Members. (More on that later.)
We also will be traveling to Znamenka, a level Four Orphanage and a visit with Oksana Vodyanitska, the Director of the Special Needs Ministry of Mission to Ukraine, a Christian Ministry operated in Zhitomir. They minister to children with special needs and their families through a number of programs. We met Oksana at the conference and she took us aside to thank us for the presentations, saying tearfully, "We having been praying for something like this for ten years!" We will also visit the Romaniv orpahnage, a Level Three orpahnage for boys ages 5 to 16 or older with special needs, They were hidden from view for years, but Mission to Ukraine literally found them and has been working with them for about a year. The boys benefit greatly from this intervention, but need more services and equipment, so we are doing a 'recon' while there to see precisely how we can help them on future mission trips. For more information on the Romaniv orphanage or Mission to Ukraine, see their website at http://www.missiontoukraine.com/.
We are hoping to have enough funds raised to help with new sewage lines under Building #1 in Vorzel. The lines were installed in the 50's, and have totally deteriorated, under the building and are dumping RAW sewage under the building which houses some of the most involved children! We also have plans to start work on 2 new therapy rooms, and a new bathroom to replace the kitchen that burnt down last year!
So we have lots of ambitions for this trip this June. We are seeking your prayers and financial support for this trip to cover our costs of travel, fod, housing and interpreters. Please consider sending us a donation and committing to pray for us on this trip. Please feel free to email me with any questions or more information. And don't forget, you are welcome to join us! Thank you and God Bless you for your support!
Sandie
sanflan@ptd.net
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