Makariv, Here we come!

21 March 2007


We brought Mercy Truck to the Makariv orphanage for a special outreach last week. Makariv is located roughly an hour and a half west of Kyiv. The orphanage in Makariv is a small with fewer than 50 children, but it is special to us. The YWAM Key of Hope ministry has been partnered with this orphanage for years however, to me personally it is an orphanage I have been visiting almost weekly with my sons Steven and Greg since our arrival in Ukraine in 2005. For me it was kind of like bringing the Mercy Truck home to show to family. None of the children or staff had known about Mercy Truck until recently when we approached them about a possible visit with the team. So this outreach was special indeed! It was a special blessing for me to know the children as they came to the truck. They have known me as "Papa to the big family of ten children" or simply as the father of Steven and Greg. Now to see me in a lab coat in a modern white medical truck brought a few odd stares. For those of you who read our family blog (www.ColkerFamily.org), you know of my difficulties with not "having favorites" in the orphanages. (I've never been able to get the hang of that for sure!) Makariv is no exception. I was so happy to see Andrey, Vika, Sasha, Alosha and the others who occupy a special place in my heart, receiving Dr. Ina's tender care.

We don't get many opportunities to laugh out loud, but when we do, much stress and tension from the work is released with smiles and laughter. God gave us a wonderful and memorable moment on this visit. Alosha, a very bright and friendly eleven-year old boy, was in the exam chair. Dr. Ina had just completed her exam explaining why the molar she showed him had to be removed. It was a baby tooth or, as they call them here, a "milk tooth". Dr. Ina looked at me as a sign to prepare an extraction tray. I handed her the tray, but as she turned back to Alosha, he was sitting there beaming, holding the tooth in his hand and asking in Ukrainian if there was anything else that had to be done! We laughed and thought we should offer him a lab coat and a place on the team!

Again as we performed dental work during the three days of our outreach, the rest of the team was busy at work with the kids. There were teachings, skits and a slide presentation of photos the Key of Hope team had taken there over the past year and there was also snow soccer and Frisbee. Of course there was also the obligatory snowball fights, which our team always seems to lose! What a joy and blessing to be able to be the hands of God's heart!