Trip Debrief
SALT Serve Trip: Serving Ukrainian Orphans with Disabilities (Germany | June 30 - July10, 2023)
Our team, from the Washington DC area, was comprised of Linda Bunk, Kerri Perdew (a Special Education Teacher), Lannette Rice (Linda’s sister) and her two daughters Ruth and Vika. Vika was adopted at a young age from a Ukrainian orphanage. She could really relate to the children we went to serve in a unique way. We came as representatives of a non-profit organization called SALT Ukraine to partner with another non-profit, Wings of Faith. SALT Ukraine is an organization that exist to train pastors to plant healthy biblical churches that will then serve their communities. Wings of Faith is an organization led by Zoriana Vuiv that exists to bring access to the special needs community. Access to education, access to therapy services, and access to God’s Word. First and foremost, we are followers of Jesus Christ who desire to come alongside locals to partner with them and teach them how to plan activities centered around children, teenagers, and young adults that help them access God’s Word and as a result learn about the ways God has made them to be a part of the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12, God talks about the body and how we are made of many members. We believe it is important to adapt activities and use various teaching methods to help people with special needs access God’s Word.
DAY 1: Praise the Lord for providing two caregivers that joined into activities with us. Praise the Lord one of them speaks English very well so I was able to explain some of the Bible craft to her so she could translate it. The adults with disabilities had so much fun with all the activities. Pray that we continue to have involved caregivers as we move to different rooms of children each day. Pray for an English speaker for each day so that we can clearly communicate the gospel.
DAY 2: Our prayer today was that the staff and children would know God’s love for them. John 13:35 says “By this all will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” We enjoyed our time with 10 teenage girls (4 were away at school). We made the wordless gospel bracelets with each teenager. Even though the staff today didn’t speak much English we know that God’s Word is powerful as we gave them verses in Ukrainian that correspond to each color to read. Praise the Lord for how He has unified this team of 5 as we each took on various roles to love those around us. The teenagers exhibited joy and laughter as we played with a parachute/beach balls and did a painting craft with them. Many of these teenagers do not do many activities typically during the day so it was our privilege to play with these precious ones made in God’s image. We ended our afternoon by taking three teenagers for a walk in wheel chairs. While they do not have the ability to communicate with words we watched as they would extend their bodies and smile when the sun touched them. May these precious ones know just how much the Son loves them. Please pray for tomorrow that we will have the opportunity to clearly communicate the gospel as our friend (an English speaker) will be joining us!
DAY 3: Praise the Lord for Linda who got up 2 hours early to go pick up Anya. Anya is a former coworker of Zoriana’s, a believer, and a great translator. Anya was able to explain the gospel using the different colored beads. The teenagers repeated phrases and answered simple questions as she explained how God wants a relationship with them. Anya sang a song with the teenagers while playing with pop tubes. The teenagers were full of smiles as we interacted with them using play doh. Praise the Lord for a teacher who was recently hired for this group of teenagers. She has good training from Lviv and is a believer! She created a visual schedule for the teenagers and is doing daily lessons with them. Many of them are learning to eat by themselves! We took this group outside and had fun with the parachute. The teacher made the comment that it’s so important for adults to have fun for their own emotional well-being. And that is exactly what was happening as they pushed their wheel chairs under the parachute so the teenagers could experience how it feels and the colors. In the afternoon we had the privilege of taking some boys for a walk. They would laugh or smile every time their face hit the sun. We ended this amazing day at Zoriana’s house sharing more stories of what God has done in this past year here. We join them in praising the Lord for all new staff and positive changes that have been occurring here for these children and adults that are image bearers of the King of kings. May the Lord go before us tomorrow and prepare hearts as we share His word.
DAY 4: On our last day in Ursberg, Germany, our prayer was: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12 We spent our time with some teenagers and adults who are wheel chair bound and intellectually disabled. We brought the sticker crafts that says “Jesus love me for me” around to each individual and with a caregiver or the teacher we helped them put stickers on a hand to represent how Jesus made them unique. At the same time we used pop tubes to play with the other teenagers who were waiting. We then helped the staff take all of the teenagers/adults outside. Another room of all young men joined us (most of our interactions have been with girls). We threw beach balls with some of them. We also went around to each teen or adult with the teacher and helped them to have a new experience (water beads). Some of them really loved touching them as they smiled. The caregivers put some of the teens on to the trampoline for a while. We got out the parachute and had a lot of fun getting some physical therapy as the young men would try to shake the beach balls off. Our love for the Lord increased as we spent time with these precious ones. We spent some time talking with the director (praise the Lord for our Ukrainian friend who was a phone call away-we had translation). We got the opportunity to explain that we came because we serve an amazing God who loves these children. We ended our afternoon by taking two teenagers for a walk. We pray that through our interactions and activities these children, teens, adults, and staff would all know the love that God has for them. We pray for future trips to continue this relationship that we have built here. We pray for the staff to have endurance and that they would know God’s love and then pour out His love to the children in their care.
WOF FUN DAY: Our team drove through the mountains to spend time with Ukrainian families whose children attended Wings of Faith preschool in Rivne, Ukraine. Erin Roundtree, one of MBC’s workers, joined us with her daughter. Kiril also came to see us. He is a Ukrainian young adult who has sung with us in previous camps in Ukraine (him and his grandmother currently live in Germany). Erin has been a huge help to these families who are learning a new language and culture as they adjust to living in Germany for the past year and half. We all met up at a park that has a trail going up a hill and through the woods which involves four senses. We walked through the park barefoot over mulch, small rocks, bigger smooth rocks, sand, and dirt/mud. We enjoyed different experiences. We smelled or touched something and had to guess what it was. The children had so much fun walking around barefoot and doing activities throughout the path. After the 1.5 mile trek, we all had a picnic together before heading our separate ways. The families were so grateful and excited to see families faces (Kerri and Linda) and meet some new faces Lannette, Ruth, Vika). We all really enjoyed doing something new in Germany together. We pray that the Lord would continue to provide for their needs (learning German, getting jobs, etc.)
Photos: Ruth Rice
