Last week I had an opportunity to take part in a program our friends from a local church carried at a village called Korshachin. It is a small village 40 minutes outside of Sumy. They had been attending to the children for a few years now, & I’d been very curious to join them for their next trip. All I knew – was that there are about 30 kids that are all attending one school in the village, & that the director of the school is very open.
First impression about the village – is its devastated infrastructure. Abandoned farms & crooked small houses are “complimented” by weeds on the sides of a very bad road… Seeing this picture you know what to expect from meeting the local kids – wrong size clothing & distanced behavior. & as soon as you’re out of the car – you see that you were absolutely right about the clothing, but just as absolutely wrong about the behavior. The material need there is huge. On a pretty chill day some kids wore slippers, some wore jackets that must had been worn by their parents… Their clothes are all ridiculous & old & torn… & at the same time – those were some of the most open & friendly children I’d ever met.
We carried our program, doing games, songs & a short movie. Later, as the children were watching the movie, some of us went outside & hid 55 small plastic bags all over the school territory. The kids had to break into two teams & find all the bags that contained some candy & small bit of the Easter story printed on a piece of paper. Later they all had to put together the story in the proper order & tell it as they know it. It was really amusing to watch.
I made friends with a new boy that nobody knew. He looks like he’s 4, but I was told he is 6. He had a torn & fixed, torn & fixed (repeat that ten more times) dirty jacket, & a fresh scratch on his face. It took me over half an hour to get a word out of him, but after that he told me that his name was Andrii, told me about his family & what he likes to do.
It was heartbreaking to think that our small few-hour long activity was such a bright & big gig in the eyes of these children. At the end we gave them each a bag with some fruit & they all went home. Having met some of the parents – it is even more heartbreaking to think what their homes are like. The scarcity the people of that village live in is pretty serious. & all of it – no jobs, no decent income & very poor cultural education of these families – is what these children are surrounded by.
But the greater need is still – the redemption that the Only Son of God can offer.
