I have been so wrapped up in the details of preparing for our move to Australia, that I never stopped to write an update about our trip to the Ukraine. Most of my friends in Huntsville have heard all about it, but I know a lot of you who don’t live in Alabama haven’t had a chance to hear how the trip went or even how it came to be in the first place.

It all started when my friend Jessica and I went to Colour (the Hillsong women’s conference in Sydney) back in March. It was a great conference! One night we couldn’t find a good seat in this 20,000-seat arena so we ended up at the very top row of seats almost behind the stage. We were disappointed at first that we couldn’t find better seats, but once the service started we just got lost in the worship and everything was okay. When it came time for the announcements, Bobbie Houston was reminding everyone that they have this same conference every year in Kiev, Ukraine. For some reason I just burst into tears. Jessica asked, “Why are you crying at the announcements?” I told her that I didn’t know, but for some reason when Bobbie said the word ‘Ukraine’ it was like an arrow hit my heart and God told me to go there. I told Jessica that within two years I was going to make it a goal to get over to the Ukraine to find out what God was doing there. I joked that maybe our seats weren’t so bad after all because obviously you can hear God better up in the “nose bleed” section! J

When we got back home from Australia, I told my Mom what I felt God had told me about the Ukraine. I didn’t know anyone there, and didn’t know when I would be going; I just knew I had to get over there! That same week I was watching James and Betty Robison’s television program when they featured a place in L’viv, Ukraine called The Joshua House. Founded by Americans Jim and Sandy McCann, the Joshua House ministry provides not only housing but also a family for orphaned and abandoned children, as well as meeting the practical needs of people in their community.

      The home is named for the McCann's infant son Joshua, who died at the age of three weeks after the missionary couple moved to the Ukraine. Although they did not understand how something like this could happen—especially when they had given up everything to become missionaries—they felt God had used this tragic event to birth in them a new kind of compassion for others. The loss of their own son shaped their ministry in the Ukraine; Jim and Sandy soon began taking in orphaned, abandoned and abused children. Now, fourteen years later, the McCann’s are the proud "parents" of 30 healthy, strong and loving children who were rescued from the streets.

      As I watched the television program, I knew that God was calling me to visit The Joshua House, and I felt He wanted me to bring Isaac along on the trip. I knew God wanted to use this trip as a key to unlock part of Isaac's destiny, just as He had unlocked mine on my first mission trip to Russia when I was 18 years old. What was exciting to me as a mother is that my son would get this experience so much earlier in life than I did.

       I researched the ministry online, and within just a few days, I had made contact with the Joshua House family, who invited us to come stay with them for a week. I talked to a couple of my friends at church about what I was going to do. Both of them were excited about the opportunity and wanted to join me; my friend Deliska even decided to bring her seven-year-old daughter, Grace, along. So just 8 weeks after God spoke to me at that conference, we were boarding a plane headed for the Ukraine!

      When we arrived at the L'viv airport, several young women who had moved into The Joshua House when it first opened 14 years ago greeted us. They ranged from 18-26 years in age and spoke conversational English very well. There was an instant connection; in fact, we felt as if we had known them for years.

       The five of us had gone to The Joshua House with a mindset to serve. However, we were humbled by the fact that the children insisted on serving us instead of letting us meet their needs. Jim and Sandy said that the best thing we could do was spend our days playing with the children. What we did not realize was that they would end up ministering to us through their life stories.

      Over the course of the first few days we spent with the children, we heard each child's story of the abuse and neglect from which God had miraculously rescued them. At The Joshua House, these children were learning not only how to receive love; they were being taught how to love others as well.

      With the assistance of our church family, we had gathered enough toys and clothes for the Joshua House children to fill three suitcases. However, when we presented them with the contents of our luggage, they did not want to keep anything for themselves. Instead, they chose to distribute the clothing and articles to other children who were still living in the kind of poverty and abuse from which they had been set free.

      Some of the older girls had organized a four-hour trip to a mountain region near Poland to distribute food and toys. On the way to the mountains, we saw first-hand the devastating effects of alcoholism, which had caused many families to live in severe poverty. We saw people living in little shacks with no electricity and no water—out in the middle of nowhere.

      When we got to our destination, we found no adults in any of the homes we visited. Because the fathers had run away and the mothers were either mentally ill or alcoholics, many children had been left alone to fend for themselves. One little boy, who was no more than three or four years old, was partially paralyzed after falling into a lake the previous winter. He had been left alone to care for his baby sister, who looked around fifteen months old, while their mother was out all day. 

      Despite the heartbreaking circumstances we had witnessed during our time there, we were encouraged as we observed the compassion that had been birthed in the children of The Joshua House. The inspiring image of Isaac working with these precious young people as they carried food and toys to others who were still living in the conditions from which they came was one that I knew would never leave me. Equally inspiring was Jim and Sandy McCann's vision to build additional Joshua Houses in every region of the mountain area in order to help break the cycle of abuse that is indigenous to that region. This, too, was something that would be etched on my heart for eternity. .  It was so hard to see the conditions that these kids in the mountains had to live in, and it was even harder to walk away knowing there wasn’t a safe place to take them to since the Joshua House is completely full. This was one of those trips that just wreck your heart forever. It made a big impact on Isaac as well. We are committed to stand with Jim and Sandy and our new friends at The Joshua House to believe for the finances and resources to build more homes in these mountain regions of Ukraine.