Woman Looked Up when She Could Have Given Up
"She was forced to quit her job after her husband left her and she was really in a desperate position... We started supporting her financially, and she decided that she would also like to help people like her."
(Konotop, Ukraine)?A woman who had every reason to give up, instead looked up. The result was an encouraging new outreach in the Ukraine for Eastern European Outreach.
Recently Peter Wooding, ASSIST Europe Director, and European Bureau Chief for the Missionaries News Service visited the project, located in Konotop, Ukraine. There he met with Irene Skrypnik, the Ukraine Director for Eastern European Outreach (EEO), and learned all about the new Hearts of Love Center.
Skrypnik told Peter Wooding that a woman called Zhenya was the driving force behind the new work. Skrypnik said she has known her for about ten years, when her child was very sick. That was when Zhenya's life started to unravel, Skrypnik said.
"She was forced to quit her job after her husband left her and she was really in a desperate position," Skrypnik told Wooding. "We started supporting her financially, and she decided that she would also like to help people like her."
That help, Skrypnik said, involved giving desperate people some hope. The hope took the form of a place for handicapped children and their families to pray, and somewhere they could come and share their problems, hopes and fears. As people came together, Skrypnik said, they soon felt as if they were part of a community.
Zhenya told Skrypnik that she had heard about an available building which could house the expanding outreach. EEO helped her buy the building.
However, the Hearts of Love Center is only part of EEO's outreach. Ministry officials said the organization also conducts a child sponsorship Program in Ukraine for needy children. EEO's original focus was on children and families affected by the Chernobyl disaster, but after several years expanded to include needy children from other regions of Ukraine.
EEO Founder and President Jeff Thompson said, "Initially we targeted children with single mothers, single parent families and children living with extended family members (such as grandparents and aunts). They are essentially children still living in a home situation but on the verge, with one slight mishap, of being abandoned to an orphanage or the streets. There are no official government statistics about the numbers of these children, as they live 'under the social radar' of government agencies. EEO has currently 775 children who meet this profile."
For more on this, access the source link provided.
