Charlie comes back for more at Kompas Park!
Volunteering at Kompas Park has yielded two of the most eye opening and life changing summers of my life. When Cyndee Knight brings a team of Americans to Ukraine with her, our job is not to show the kids the gospel and love of Jesus through our words, but through our actions. So even though I could barely communicate with these children, I was able to form bonds with them that could only be brought about by God's grace and love.
There were many moments this past week that were monumental, but there is one individual moment that keeps coming to mind. It was the last night of the camp and the boys in my group were all sitting in a circle on the floor learning about and creating their salvation bracelets. I was looking around the circle and I noticed one boy missing, Yarik. He was lying on his bed curled into a ball against the wall and not responding to anyone. My Ukrainian co-leader, Zahar, went and sat with him and tried to get him to respond, but he kept shrugging him off and shoving his head back into the pillow. I went and sat down on the bed with Zahar and Yarik. Zahar motioned with his head toward Yarik and stood up to lead the rest of the group in their salvation bracelets. I sat with Yarik for about a half hour doing my best to comfort him with my extremely limited Ukrainian. After the whole ordeal was over and he talked to Zahar for a little bit I learned that he was unhappy because he had to go home after camp. This experience hit me really hard. It showed me how much the kids love camp and how much it means to them.
Compared to American children, these kids can find joy in something as simple as flying a kite or kicking a soccer ball with their friends. There was not a smartphone to be seen all week among the kids, no iPads or music players. Their fun was in being launched by a bigger person on the trampoline with them or lounging with friends in a hammock.
Another of my personal favorite moments of the week came about around Wednesday. Our group was putting on a skit based off of Star Wars, and some of the kids pointed at me and said “Chewbacca”. I did my very best Chewbacca impression, and was cast as Chewbacca in the skit. Later on, I was sitting in hammocks with a bunch of my kids either sitting with me or in the surrounding hammocks. They started to say different Star Wars and Superhero characters and I did my very best to imitate the said character. For the rest of the week every time one of my boys saw me, they would ask me to imitate one of the many characters, and I managed to make a little army of “Iron men” going around holding their hands up and making a “WEEEEEE PHEWWW” sound.
All in all, I think I can safely say that God definitely showed his hand in Kompas Park 2019, I was able to bond with almost every boy that I saw and could usually call each of them by name by the end of the week. While I spent a majority of the time with my team and those seven boys, I was also able to run around with the other boys, usually with more than one of them on me at a time. Whenever there was one kid on my back there was a mob of boys asking to be next or grabbing my arms as I hoisted them up.
I hope that if I get another chance to return to Kompas Park, I am able to form the same bonds with kids and strengthen my relationships with the boys I connected with this year. I want to thank the good Lord, Jesus Christ for all the work He is doing through Cyndee Knight and Hope Now and thank Him for the work He is doing in the hearts of every single child at Kompas Park.
Youth Camp is coming up this July at Kompas Park! There are still several orphans who are in need of a $100 camp scholarship. Please consider donating to send an orphan to Youth Camp - I know it will mean the world to them! God Bless.
By: Charlie Albee, Volunteer June 2019 & 2018
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Meanwhile, just in the past year, Ukraine has suffered 124,500-131,000 total casualties, including 15,500-17,500 killed in action and 109,000-113,500 wounded in action, according to the document entitled "Russia/Ukraine - Assessed Combat Sustainability and Attrition." And not just on Monday, but on every day in Ukraine, people just like us remember and honor the loved ones who have died these past 457 days defending their country. With your help, Hope Now does whatever we can to help protect Ukrainian lives – civilians and soldiers alike.
