Love...

I seriously cannot believe our True Love Grad Retreat has already come and gone. Being back in Ukraine has been a whirlwind but it has been a good one. Our retreat started off with us having to kick out 3 kids because they were smoking pot in their room. They must really think we are dumb to smoke it in their room. You could smell it from down the hall. This was after we had literally just had the rule talk which we intentionally stated NO POT. There is always an adventure :) But once that was done things went smoothly. We were at a new location and it was good, but we all decided that we like our usual place better. 

Seeing as it was so close to Valentine's Day our discussion topics were, What is Love?, Love and Relationships, and Sex and HIV/AIDS. We were thrilled to be able to bring back our speaker Vova who had recently moved across the country. The kids could not have been more happy to see him. He truly has a gift of speaking to kids and engaging them in conversation. He was very direct about the topics and spoke to them with honestly but also provoked them to think about what he was saying. After the last talk, a few of the girls went up to him and thanked him for his directness. Sex is something these kids know a lot about in one way or another but have probably not had anyone share the good and bad that comes with it. Or even just care enough to have an honest conversation about it.

We then surprised them with a Valentine's Day themed party. There was fun snacks and drinks, a photo booth that was a big hit, and a Wii dance competition. The night was packed with laughter and fellowship. I think everyone thought the retreat was over too fast. I could see how satan was trying to mess things up for us starting with us still being at home and having to change our tickets. Then of course the whole pot issue. But God is bigger than all of that and I know He greatly used this weekend. Our goal was to make the kids feel so very loved but us and God and I think they did. Thank you so much to all of you who supported in some way. You really can not know how thankful we are for you. 

Vova and some of the boys

Beautiful Lila

Candy Grams

Our awesome camp group