Butterflies, Bugs and Beautiful New Friends

July 7th

Today started with a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. The Butterfly Pavilion held so many incredible creatures…beautiful butterflies, tarantulas, spiders, bugs of all kinds, starfish, and much more. We were told the Wings of Tropics area had over 1,200 butterflies fluttering, flitting, and flying around. What a beautiful scene it was to see the children’s faces as a butterfly landed on their shoulder. It was amazing to see their eyes as they searched for butterflies and other creatures. One of my favorite moments, was watching Vlad accompanied by my sister, Stephanie eagerly wait in line at the chance to hold Rosie, their friendly Chilean Rose Hair tarantula. Both Anna and I could not see anything friendly about Rosie.

As I watched the children’s faces I was struck by the symbolism. Some people say that when a butterfly lands on you it means good luck. My thoughts wondered to what blessing would come to these children after camp. Some cultures view Butterflies as a symbol of rebirth into a new life after being inside a cocoon for a period of time. I was praying that this would be a time of rebirth for many of these children that we would see a new life and new hope after camp.

I want to say a special thank you to Choice City Christian Camp from Fort Collins. We really enjoyed touring around the Pavilion and the Nature Tour with Choice City Christian Camp. Thank you Choice City Christian Camp for allowing us to join your group on this journey. We truly enjoyed spending time with all of you. A fun moment was listening to Oksana teach some of the Choice City crew how to count in Russian. I learned that the Russian word for “butterfly”, бабочка (bábochka), also means “bow tie”.

Our evening was graciously hosted by South Gate Church. The children enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Lasagna, bread, cookies and more. I left feeling that we had made some new friends. We really enjoyed chatting, basketball, foosball, playing with toys, and much more. The evening ended with many group pictures and hugs. It was a very special time of fellowship. Thank you so much South Gate Church for opening your church and your hearts to us.

– Brenda Laughlin

Rockets and Rodeo!

After living and working in Ukraine, I knew what to expect working with orphans. I had visited enough orphanages in Ukraine to know the conditions and the atmosphere the children live in. While the orphan kids always loved visits from foreigners, their exposure to the possibility of life outside the orphanage was never encouraged, nor recommended.

UOO has brought an entirely new perspective to the process of loving orphans. This is a wonderful paradigm shift from traditional outreach to orphans! Meet the needs of not only the orphanage, but expose orphans to the outside world, giving them hope and purpose for their lives!

The kids showed up HUNGRY! It was exciting to watch their eyes light up as they each received their own Rooftop Rodeo water bottle, and filled their plates with everything yummy (even if Clarke made some of them eat green beans). Dinner was a hit and the kids ate a lot! (Especially Vlad, he’s a hungry growing boy). It was interesting to watch how over a simple meal, you could communicate through the language barriers with smiles and nods of agreement. II could see wonder all over the kid’s faces.

We often take the simple thing of enjoying our favorite snack or food for granted. It’s something so simple, and non-important in our lives. However, to these kids, the ability to enjoy their favorites of the dinner menu was great to watch. They went back as much as they want (or in Vlad’s case, until the beef was all gone).

The rodeo was interesting to say the least. We started off with a few “grumpy” campers while we waited for things to kick-off, but as soon as the horses came out, their faces lit up! Soon the “grumpy” campers were smiling and laughing as the cowboys were bucked off their horse. It was great to be the “fly on the wall”, taking in the experience through the camper’s eyes. There was such an innocent wonder in their faces.

If there was ever an easier thing to do than to love an orphan, I don’t know what that would be. Actions certainly speak louder than words. A hug, a friendly high-five, and a smile go a long way in their world. I’m still in wonder of their awe – their exposure to life outside the orphanage –their hope for something better than that which they have always known. The knowledge of hope is powerful.

- Kelly Schwalbert

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Rockets

Today, the the kids built rockets at the Stoetz house. This was a very hectic event, as building rockets has many steps. Nearly all the kids had a helper, but none the less, they all wanted to do it themselves. After an hour of miscommunications, missing pieces, and a few burns, we had ten rockets decorated and ready to fly. All the kids packed into three vehicles, and we drove to the baseball fields at Berthoud High School. First, Valera loaded up his rocket, and the crowd chanted “Three…Two…One…Blast Off!” He hit the little yellow button and watched with wonder and amazement as his rocket flew so high he could barely see it. He ran off into right field to try and catch it. One by one, each of the kids repeated the process, Three, two, one, go catch their rocket. Some of the rockets came down with a parachute, some of them without, and one even crash landed on a Mercedes. (The unsuspecting woman reading innocently in the car at the time was not very happy) This was a first for the kids, but most of the adults had done it before. In reflection, all of us remembered the time when we were in their shoes, lighting off our rockets for the first time. After all the engines were depleted, we loaded into the vehicles and learned the Ukranian word for candy on the way home (Which I have already forgotten).

Rooftop Rodeo

Another hectic thirty minutes at home, and the crew was off again. This time to Estes Park for their Rooftop Rodeo.

After an hour in an incredibly loud van scouring the mountains for elk or deer, we reached one of the local parks in Estes. All of the kids saw a youth soccer team practicing off to the side, and once they realized there was no soccer ball for them, there were more than a few unhappy moments. They got over it rather quickly and ran all around the park enjoying the swings, slide, and merry-go-round. We met for food, and all of them were hungry. Little Vlad ate three plates of beef, beans, watermelons, cornbread, and brownies! This was a meal where I saw no complaints, though not everybody used the barbecue sauce on the side. The kids found a boy at the park with a soccer ball and played “Ukraine Style” as Kris put it (on a tennis court surrounded by a chain link fence).

We filed in pairs up the street and around the corner, once one child was up Clarke’s shoulders, three more followed suit, Valera was tugging on my shirt not even thirty seconds later to be picked up. Through the crowds of people, we found the perfect seats, and the rodeo began. Most of the kids were mystified by the horse riding, as they did it earlier this trip, and they were full of laughter when the cowboys got bucked off the horse of the kids fell while mutton busting. Towards the middle of the show, some of them found more interest in cameras than the rodeo. I have fifty new pictures on my camera phone, I can tell what about seven of them actually are, four of those being close ups of my face! The bull riding ended the show with a bang, and we walked through a light drizzle back to the cars, with Valera once again on my shoulders. The kids were surely immersed in American culture at it’s finest during the rodeo!

As the day came to an end, I began to reflect. These kids are just that. Kids. There is no difference between these kids and yours at home. They are full of curiosity, they have favorites, they have dislikes, they are full of wonder and amazement, they have personalities. All these kids want is love, affection, and somewhere to fit in. I held hands with some of them, I held some of them on my lap, I rubbed some of their backs, I gave a few piggy-back rides, I talked to them (in English), and in return for my love toward them, I got a great big smile, a hug, a high five, but most of all, I got love back from them. That’s all that American kids need, and these kids are the exact same.

On a personal note, I want to thank Isaac and his wife for the rockets and all they put into this afternoon, Kelly for a great dinner and the rodeo tickets, and Kari for her help with their dentist appointments, and all the chaperones that helped today. Everyone was great to meet and awesome with the kids. Clarke and Kris, enjoy your day off tomorrow because you deserve it after taking in eleven kids and three translators for this camp. May God continue blessing UOO with great volunteers and donations for the kids!

God’s Blessings!

~Gerrek Zwickle

Airport Day, Bowling and Bonfire

Airport Day

Every kid loves airplanes … it doesn’t matter what country they’re from or whether they’re a boy or girl. Something about flying sparks the imagination, unleashes dreams, and makes you think anything is possible. Today the children went to the Fort Collins-Loveland airport to take their first ride in a small airplane and you should have seen the looks of excitement on their faces first as they crawled all over the airplanes.

Then came the flying! Everybody got to fly for about 20 minutes. They couldn’t wait and were actually sad and disappointed if they weren’t the next one going up. It took a couple hours to get everyone up .. a pilot, a translator, and two kids each trip … but eventually everyone got to go. When they returned, they were talking a mile a minute and all smiles. Even better, no one got air sick!

Sasha said his favorite part was when the pilot went up and down … it tickled his stomach. Anya loved seeing all the beautiful lakes. The awesome flight instructors at Leading Edge Flight Training donated the airplanes and their time, but were having so much fun, they didn’t want to stop.

Toward the end, 9News came out and did a story about the kids and their day flying. Check out the video below … really well done!

It was just a short flight in a small airplane at a small airport. But maybe as the children saw the world pass by down below they could see their own lives from a different perspective too and sense that God has big plans for their lives. I know that I felt that watching them.

–Eric Shanfelt

Bonfire at the Stoesz Home

The day ended with a bonfire and I had so much fun! I got to play games like tether ball, 500 and soccer. Then we went to the camp fire and sang some songs. My favorite song was “oh no never let go”. Then afterwards we got to make s’mores. I had two and I watched some fireworks when I was sitting on the bench. Afterwards we sang some more songs and Pastor Kim did a lesson. She made the lesson about how God loves us and will never let go of us. I got to jump on the tramp and watch some more fireworks that were far away. And then everybody went away and I went to bed, and that was the fun day I had around the fire.

–Natalie Stoesz

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(EDITOR’S NOTE: Huck brought his guitar, played, and everyone sangs awesome worship songs around the bonfire.)

Kris and Clark, thanks for including us tonight. We felt very welcome and were truly blessed by all the kids’ smiles…and I loved the songs Natasha and the others sang, what a treat! Kim, thanks for the well told story…a simple but powerful message. Thanks again for letting us be a part of the festivities this evening.

–Huck

4th of July Fun

Today we had an incredibly moving experience at Grace Place in the Park.  Over 50 believers were baptized in front of a thousand supporters!  Our Orphans shared in the celebration which included water guns, swimming in the river, lots of food, cotton candy, and popsicles! The weather was awesome … not too hot or cold!  Valera ran as fast as he could, devouring food and attention so he could bounce it back with his huge smile and constant chattering.  We managed to gather up the troops from all of the fun in time to head over to the Daniels home for some horse back riding. The kids loved feeling like a cowboys! Now we are waiting for the rain to pass for some fireworks!

–Clark Stoesz

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Fourth of July happily fell on a beautiful Sunday morning this year, leaving us to start our day at church. What a blessing it was to not only celebrate our national freedom but our freedom through Christ as well. The children all attended children’s church while the adults enjoyed the pastors sermon. Church was held in the park so we got to enjoy the fresh air and the whole congregation that is normally split into several services. After the service was coming to an end it became time for lots of baptisms. All the children who attended church joined us for the first portion of the baptism service. They all sang a song they learned in class and then sat down and watched some of the children get baptized themselves. After enjoying the rest of the service, and watching the adult baptisms, we all joined up to enjoy a church wide lunch in the park. We enjoyed lots of grilled items and were left to watch the children play. The park included water sprayers, lots of climbing material, and a part of the river which was developed for summer swimming. Fully clothed, all of the UOO children got soaked playing in the sprayers and the river. It was as great way for them too cool off and get wet. It was such a joy to watch them enjoy such a great playground and freely swim in the river.

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed taking the children on horse rides. All were so curious and excited about being on the animals for the very first time. As the children rotated through riding the horses, they enjoyed running around and burning of some energy. They were checking out the new area and watching friends enjoy their rides. After rides, all who were there, enjoyed a refreshing afternoon snack.

– Taura Kula