Feature Photo: the first activity of the Galaxy Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation of the children of war. See John’s comments below. PLEASE NOTE: ALL PHOTOS HAVE BEEN APPROVED FOR MY PUBLISHING ONLY.
The past few days have been filled with activity. We left Ivano-Frankivsk for Lviv on Monday and have been at various meetings in various locations in the Region. Other factors added to the “blur” of the past days. First, someone tried to logon my MSN email and their attempt froze my emails. MSN knew I had been logging on from eastern Europe and instantly red flagged the account until I could give a code from my device in Ukraine—impossible! Thankfully Johnny got MSN up but the kachelman.com is not working on my laptop but is working on my phone. Second, in the midst of the blocked email irritation, I was hit with a “24-hour-virus” that kept me in bed all day Tuesday! Thankfully no one else has come down with it. I was aching, wallowing in the bed and hurting all over and just wanted to sleep. After sleeping all day, I thought I would not sleep at night, but I slept the night through. No appetite but I am trying to eat carefully. Third, tonight, I was at a restaurant and asked if they had chicken broth. The waiter said they did not have just chicken broth by itself but they did have a chicken soup cooked in fish broth. The other soup option was borsch. I ordered borsch. My bowl came and it was topped with a mussel on the half-shell. I dipped my spoon in a saw that it had “salo” (pork fatback) cubed, corn, potatoes, some kind of green shredded stuff, onions, and other unidentifiable ingredients. I ate it. So maybe I am on the road to recovery with that chicken cooked in fish broth soup!
Activities here have been constant. I have met with several groups regarding our rehabilitation objectives and all are very cooperative. All are very positive about the spiritual need that we can help address. Tomorrow, I go to Transcarpathia and then back to Ivano-Frankivsk for the Lord’s Day assemblies!
John Durham on the Galaxy Center
Drs Gary Jerkins and Ron Swang have been involved in various Ukraine efforts. Gary has been coming to Ukraine as long as I have. Ron is renown for his setting up the dental clinic in Starry Lysets! John came with me and established the Church in Shacktarsk. He has also been working with Gary and Ron for many years. The “Sea Star Kids” began many years ago to help orphans go to the Black Sea for a summer break. They then began offering scholarships for the orphans to attend universities.
I had expressed to Gary the urgency of helping rehabilitate the children of war and their families. Gary began enlisting professional in psychology, psychiatry, and counselling (From Vanderbilt Hospital and the Nashville, TN area). He has put together an amazing professional team. They came last October and conducted a needs seminar with the professionals throughout Ukraine. A number I talked to from Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lusk, Lviv, Odesa, and many other locations were interested. The available number quickly filled. Resulting from this a facility was rented and remodeled. We have five medical physicians who are coordinating this unit. Once we have this unit up and running, then we will spread out into other Regions so professional services can be available to all. It is exciting to see how Gary, Ron and John are melding the Church into this work. Earlier the Galaxy Center building was offered to the Church to use but when Gif looked it over, it just was not large enough to accommodate the numbers that are assembling each Sunday!
John came prepared to supervise the first activity for the children. He set up the “Teddy Bear Hospital” where our physicians and other medically trained people could interact with the children and let them help “doctor” the bears. John was enthusiastically pumped with the success of this first action. Much more will come and expect to see reports on the success of this first Center and then its spread throughout the nation!
Please continue praying for our efforts!
John L. Kachelman, Jr, Ukraine Missions, Dalraida Church of Christ, P.O. Box 3085, Montgomery, AL 36109
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