Gift Donors Needed

Dear UOO Supporters, we have a great blessing opportunity! Paul & Vicki will be traveling to Ukraine soon on their adoption trip. Please keep them in your prayers. They will be visiting the 2010 camp kids. We would like to send along a gallon Ziploc bag for each of the campers. You will be amazed at how much you can fit into a gallon Ziploc! Ideas are: clothing (rolled up), mittens, scarf, hat, jewelry, small toys, hair stuff, etc. It is nice to send some small items that they can share with their friends in the orphanage: candy (that won’t melt), stickers, Oriental trading toys, etc. Please include a note to the camper and a photo of your family. We need to have the Ziploc bags by Thursday, September 30th. Kids that still need a sponsor are: Sasha, Alyona and Sasha. Please email Kari if you would like to sponsor one of the kids at: kariv90@comcast.net

Limited Edition UOO T-Shirts Still Available

We still have several T-Shirts available.  Proudly wear them to support our cause, and you’ll look good while doing it!  They are a great way to remember Camp 2010 and to look forward to Camp 2011!

$14.00 plus shipping/handling.

Limited sized – please email kstoesz@aol.com to check on availability.  We have blue or white.

Scrapbooking and Gerrek’s reflections

After a few days of not seeing the kids, I finally got to meet up with them and spend just a little more time with them before they left.  The kids were finishing up with breakfast, and  the moment Vlad saw me, he grabbed my hand and ran me downstairs to the scrapbooking basement.  Each of the kids had an area all to themselves with an empty scrapbook, their name, a ton of pictures, and three hours to make a perfect scrapbook.  There was a frenzy for the colorful pages, stickers, scissors, and glue for the first hour.  All the kids and their helpers got down to business filling their book with memories from the past three weeks.  After the kids got the hang of how to do the work, they were flying around the room getting all their things in line.  I saw kids pulling their helpers, helpers pulling their kids, kids showing the other kids, and pictures being exchanged for keepsakes.  Vlad loved the Spiderman, car, and animal stickers.  He cut out photos, pasted them all over the page, and covered it with stickers.  All the kids let their artistic juices flow and kept busy for hours.  At the one hour mark, books were started, and memories were being cherished.  At the two hour mark, the kids were about ready to be finished with their books (Vlad was counting pages and putting only one or two pictures to a page as opposed to the seven or ten on the first half of the book) and running amok in the Roge house.  As the kids began to finish their books, they showed everybody how well they had done; They all were such proud kiddos!  Anna looked like a professional scrapbooker as she was working!  The kids got all fed and pushed into cars that would be soon en route to the airport.  I gave my last good byes, hugs, and high fives as I wasn’t going to the airport to see them off.  The fact that I wouldn’t see some of those children again didn’t hit me until I saw the pictures of their last stop in Colorado, DIA.  These kids made great friendships, made some families realize their calling to adopt, and most importantly, they truly found God during their trip with the help of all the people who donated their time, money, and resources.  As sad as I was to say good bye to these kids, I was happy that they accepted Jesus as their Savior, and I am already asking how I can help for next year and a whole new set of lives to change.  I took away more than just friendships, pictures, and memories from this camp.  I found a whole new way to show God’s love, a new serving heart, and a realization that the world is harsh and needs as much help as anybody can give.

-Gerrek Zwickle

Updates from Julia

I love you too! God is GOOD! We are safely home. Everything is good, we were exactly on time on the second plane. Children miss you all!!!!!! I saw tears in Sasha’s eyes when he was telling Good bye to Jim. He told me that he misses people.

On the plane me and Alyona were talking and she wanted to except Jesus, so we prayed. And SHE WAS A REALLY GOOD GIRL during the trip. And for me was very nice to talk to her about God and to find out what she is thinking about Him. She asked: so God is daddy to everybody, to you, to Natasha, to Sasha and other, right? And when we were going through the bumping zone some people were really scary, and she asked: everything will be fine? I said: yes, God is holding us. She said: is he under the plane holding us, I said: no, He sent His Angels, who are caring this plane, so everything will be Ok. And she started smile and was excited about our jumps. I love to see children’s faith. Sometimes it looks naive, but I am sure that God wants from us that we will trust His word so sincerely like children do. When I said God is in control she easy believed it and didn’t try to check.
– Julia Sergienko