What If?

It seems that some people seem to have a natural gift of compassion for those with special needs.  One of the first friends of mine to ever adopt was Linda Crawford.  This was back in 1990 and she intentionally sought out children with significant needs.  I could not understand it.  Since then I have met others like Linda, as well as those who minister to these unique individuals in other ways:  special education, Special Olympics, etc.  For whatever reason, those with such unique needs and abilities were never on my radar. 

That began to change a few months ago.  Marianna Peipon told me about the lack of facilities for children in Ukraine with HIV.  Most of the regular orphanages do not want them since such stigma is still attached to those in Ukraine who are HIV positive.  I heard of someone who was fostering a lot of these children, taking them to a village near the border of Ukraine, teaching them another language, and preparing them to work in a factory that was being built in a nearby country.  Marianna told me of the children she ministers to weekly in Kyiv who have been abandoned in the hospital simply because they are HIV positive.

Taryn Kilpatrick told me about her visit this past summer to the only Level 4 special needs orphanage in the Lugansk Region of Ukraine.  She told me about Lucia, an 11 year old girl who has no use of her legs but is otherwise healthy.  And about Vitalik, who was born with no legs and has spent the 19 years of his life institutionalized but is now learning to read. 

And then I visited Lucia and Vitalik and the other hundred or so children that live in K4.  I delivered  disposable diapers because their budget does not provide for them.  I gave Vitalik a Jesus Storybook Bible.  I laughed with Lucia as she looked at each picture I took of her.  I looked into the smiling eyes of Andrey, bedridden, alone and delighted by visitors.  I held hands with Sergey whose sensory issues seem to overwhelm him.  Were conditions at K4 deplorable as some describe such orphanages in Ukraine?  No, they were not.  Instead what I observed at K4 was a system that once worked well for the purpose it was designed to serve.  What I saw were professionals who were doing the best they could with the knowledge that they have.  And I saw children made in the image of God who know nothing of His grace.

 

I left Ukraine with a God-given compassion for these children.  I also left Ukraine with dreams.  Big dreams.  What if we could continue to provide diapers on a monthly basis, long past our 6 month goal?  What if we could return to K4 in the summer and conduct a “mini-camp”, 2 hours each morning for 3 days where we make crafts, sing songs, and teach these children of the God who made them, and loves them.  What if we could coordinate, with our Ukrainian partners, a conference for caregivers of special needs children in the Lugansk region of Ukraine, made up of medical professionals from both the US and Ukraine?  What if we could somehow coordinate medical care for some of the children with medically correctable issues like cleft palates, or crossed eyes?  What if we could help establish a Christian orphanage for children with HIV who are otherwise shunned by their society?  What if we could have a part in transforming the mindset of Ukrainians that says those with disabilities are worthless, ignorant, and destined for little more than existing.  What if we can truly bring grace to Ukraine?  What if?