Featured Image: Towels, toothbrushes, soap and disinfectant sanitizer in the bathroom of 6-9-year-olds living in an emergency in-take shelter in Kherson.
There are some experiences in life that you never get use to seeing. Such experiences I live again and again every time I go into an orphanage in a foreign nation. Many of the children know nothing but pain and sorrow. Laughter and smiles are foreign to them. They develop self-preservation skills and many have no realistic grasp of real life. And, the saddest fact is that most will never know the experiences of real life. Too many are forced into adult living and never live through the childhood years. Instead of eyes beaming with smiles and joy radiating in their every word or gesture, these stare emptily as if you are not really present. Hurt and harm are much more frequent than hugs and affirmations of personal value.
Their past is painful. Their present is numbed existence. Their future is without hope.
You really do not want to know their true story. You would not believe their histories.
Their brief lives have been lived in rejection. They have always had to scavenge the leftovers that parents threw to them. Alcohol, drugs, immorality, criminal behaviors and emotional instability terrorize their young lives. Tragically this past establishes a pattern that will sadly be repeated but with an even greater degeneracy (Ezekiel 16:44-45). The physical and emotional cruelty suffered by these children from parental irresponsibility has wounded them deeply and scarred them for a lifetime. Some will possibly rise above the trauma etched into their mind’s memory museum, but even then, the hurts are still acute.
These are a name on a piece of removable tape that identifies a cabinet with one of their only possessions—a tattered, faded towel hanging in the communal bathroom. They can select a toothbrush that is in several holders but it is not “theirs” and was probably used by several others. This toothbrush like everything else in the building belongs to the room.
These children learn early how to survive.
As I was given a tour of the facility I was led out through a hallway that had hooks for coats, scarves, and other items. Rows of shoes were neatly lined up on shelving close to the floor.
And then I saw an object that seized my attention.
In the midst hung a little girl’s backpack that had been a part of shipment. It had beautiful princesses on it with the English word “Smile!” in big bright letters.
How ironic that such a message hung prominently in a place that cared for those whose smiles were lost so long ago! There are times when I see the smiles on the faces of some of the children. Their innocence emerges for an instant as I smile at them or give them a hug, or let them sit with me. And at those moments, as I am leaving, I look back and see the smiles one last time.
Thank you for your interest, concerns and prayers!
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
(Kherson, Ukraine)
Towels, toothbrushes, soap and disinfectant sanitizer in the bathroom of 6-9-year-olds living in an emergency in-take shelter in Kherson 
The children’s playground 
Activity room 
A sleeping room 
A coloring sheet from a 16 yr old who colored “my dreams” 
A “SMILE” backpack from a shipment from Christians in the U.S.
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