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Hello family and friends,

We reached and passed our Christmas Fundraiser goal of $5966! Your contribution of $6287.50 exceeded our goal by $321.50!

What is so magical about this number?

First things first!

January 2016 begins with new energy for the MUCH children of Ukraine! Can you imagine the excitement of walking into a computer classroom that now has computers to study with, or wall maps to study other countries? Even better, can you imagine now having the vitamins and medicines needed by your
classmates!

This year, the children of MUCH will lead the way in better education and healthcare. It will happen because of your generous donations.

Here is a list of all that your donations will provide:

15 computer tablets, 1 Power Point projector, 11 classroom wall maps for history and geography, 3 wireless microphones for sports events, a table sandbox that is lighted from the bottom – for school psychologist, medicines and vitamin for one school year for the Transition Home and for School #3, craft materials for one year for the Orphanage in Marganets, and camping equipment for the children at the Dobromel Orphanage.

MUCH Sponsors, you made this possible! THANK YOU!

This is the highest goal that we have ever attempted to achieve. And because of your overwhelming generosity, we achieved our goal! The children of Marganets School #3, Marganets Orphanage. and Dobromel Orphanage thank you, “Spacee-ba Bol-shoi!” (translation, ‘Thank You Big’).

How will we use the extra $321.50? A special need surfaced while we were in America. This is Natalya’s story. We visited Dobromel in September of last year. We visited Natalya and Paul, the new massage therapist. We talked about massage oils and other small items, but nothing else was mentioned.

While in America, we received an Email from Natalya. She shared that the exercise equipment in the room beside her massage room was moved to another part of the school to be used for another purpose. She sent us a list of things that she needed to do her exercise work that goes hand in hand with the massage therapy. She was shy to ask for help, but knew that she had to bury her pride and share her list of needs with Sveta and me.

The list was about exercise balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, gymnastic sticks, exercise mats, a tread mill, and some other items. These are all items that we have seen her use with the children. The total that she needs is $414. The additional $321.50 has been approved to go toward Natasha’s exercise program. So, we will almost made a whole other Christmas wish come true. Natalya will have enough to get most of what she needs. The remaining $92.50 will come when the time is right.

Friends of MUCH, you have done it again! Thank you for your love for our children and compassion toward their great needs!

Sveta’s Journey

Our return to Ukraine took five days. When we were expecting our first flight from Raleigh-Durham to Washington DC at 3 PM, our plane was late by two hours. As a result, we were late for all connecting flights. In Washington, Mark stood in line three hours to get a new flight schedule. It was not easy to find flight connections, given that without a Schengen visa, I could not stop in more than one European Union country.

Our next flight was 28 hours later and we had to pay for a night at a hotel. Upon arrival in London, we spent 10 hours in the airport waiting for our next flight. We arrived in Munich at 11PM. Since I did not have a Schengen visa, I could not go into the city to stay at a hotel, so we had to spend the night at the airport sleeping on the bench.

Other than the maintenance staff, we were alone in this huge building. At 6 in the morning, when the airport terminal stores opened, we were able to have breakfast
before the next flight to Lviv. Our time in Munich was also 10 hours.

Finally we arrived in Ukraine! I thank God that we got the last two tickets for the Lviv-Mykolaiv train, albeit in different wagons. We were waiting for our next surprise. Mark stayed with the luggage inside the station and I ran to buy some food for the long eighteen hour journey. Later, I learned that a police woman tried to tell Mark to leave the building. When she could not communicate with him in English, she grabbed my two bags hoping that Mark would follow her. Of course Mark followed her with the rest of the luggage.

After 15 minutes, I returned to see a huge crowd of people standing near the building of the train station. It turned out that someone had call in a bomb scare. The police and station staff evacuated all the people to the street. Where was my Mark? Our train was receiving passengers. It is so nice that Mark is tall. I quickly found him in the crowd.

We made our way to our train around the outside of the building. I felt fear begin to attack me, but quickly remembered that God is my Defense. I put my hope in Him. All around me I saw panic, fear, and hopelessness in the faces of many people.

Although we had many problems during our trip to America and back to Ukraine, I saw how God cared about us. We stayed with eight different families during our 70 days in America. I felt and saw the love of God through these people. We are very thankful to our dear family and our precious friends who opened their homes to host us. We were very comfortable and it was pleasant to spend time with you, to get to know you better and love you more! Thank you very much! Many thanks to all who participated in the
Christmas Fundraiser to cover the needs of Ukrainian children in schools and
orphanages that MUCH helps!

Living My Dream,

Sveta

Thank you again for all of your interest and support for our work with the children. I believe that 2016 will be a very important year in Ukraine!

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