BRIEFING FROM UKRAINE


Medical/Dental Clinic

 
 
THE PICTURE BELOW IS DAVID NICHOLSON STANDING IN THE ROOM WHERE
THE DENTAL OFFICE  WILL BE.   THE ROOM IS 24 SQ. METERS.  PRAY AS ONE OF
OUR REQUIREMENTS IS TO HAVE A TELEPHONE IN HERE BEFORE WE CAN USE
THIS ROOM ($350).
 
 
BELOW WILL BE THE DOCTOR'S EXAMINATION ROOM.  IT IS 13 SQ. METERS
THE CONTAINER WITH THE DENTAL EQUIPMENT ARRIVED JUNE 2001.  SOON
PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO RECEIVE THE HELP THEY NEED.  WE ASK YOU
TO PRAY FOR MEDICATIONS THAT ARE NEEDED TO REDUCE PAIN FOR THE
PEOPLE.  MANY CLINICS DO NOT HAVE MEDICATIONS TO HELP THE BOYS,
GIRLS, MOM'S AND DAD'S GET TEETH FIXED WITHOUT PAIN.
 
 
 
BELOW WILL BE A THERAPY ROOM FOR THE CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN.  SOME OF THE THINGS NEEDED FOR THIS ROOM ARE SHOWN IN THE PICTURE ABOVE.  THIS ROOM IS 13 SQ. METERS
PRAY THAT SOMEONE COULD COME TO THE UKRAINE AND DONATE THEIR TIME TO HELPING THE CHILDRENLEARN HOW TO DO THE THERAPY THAT THEY NEED.  THE DOCTOR, AND THE PARENTS, WOULD BE VERY THANKFUL.
 
APRIL 25, 2001
 
  Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Ukrainian land!  We are pleased to write to you from a place entering spring.  But like many of you we are given mixed signals here over whether spring has really began or not.  One day it is 40 degrees and the next we get snow.  The last few days have seen a few rain showers and mainly overcast.  So it is a typical spring as we know it in the Northern part of the United States. - only we're on the other side of the ocean.

Now you may be wondering what on earth is up with our team?   Well, part of it is that one of the women helping to do our newsletters  through the postal system has moved on to another job and the other woman has had a spring vacation.  So when you do receive them you can just get a cup of brewed tea and sit and read for awhile.  The lady in Michigan is moving as she is retiring from her job (this is our main office gal and her husband).  At the present her job will be done by another lady who will help for six months to see if it's to much for her or if she will continue.  Our Florida helper is going to be traveling to Africa, Ukraine and around till September!  He takes the Word of God and so you see we're kind of getting into 'hot soup'.   We would rather be giving some hot soup to the street children instead of  praying for new helpers.   Pray anyhow as there may be more changes needed to serve the way Jesus would want Anchored in Zion to go.  The income tax lady is still at her job of taking care of AIZ!  The lady who mails this email letter to you is still helping too!  Pray for all God's helpers in the states and Ukraine that help  the street children and cerebral palsy children.  Thanks.
 
Yes, our housing situation is still up in the air.   The landlord has offered to sell us the 9th floor apartment that we live in.  The amount we would pay in rent would be like paying three years rent but it all has to be paid by the end of the 2001 year.  Pray with us. We'll be sure and let you know when and if we learn anything concrete.  The absence of a final answer of stretching the final payment to a later date is still one we take as possible good news.  We did learn this month that our landlord would be happy if we could stay. We know that some of our supporters (the only place that we get money)  feel the same way so now if only some of you would agree and commit to helping with this
situation we could say,  YES!

We have running cold and hot water with good pressure and the hot only gets turned off for a few weeks every summer to clean the pipes.  We also have a very reliable source of electricity that has only gone off a few times and then only for a short time.  Our kitchen actually has cupboards (old ones), our electric for the piles and stacks of office work  (school and children )  hasn't broken down because we replaced it when we first moved there, and we are able to do e-mail and 'love' letter s, 'from our house to your house'.  Yes, in many ways the modern world is here.

We've shared with you before some of the challenges of shopping and living here (along with the joys) and you are aware that life here is NOT the same as where most of you call home, but it is a developing nation and things are changing quickly.

For people without e-mail connection from home there is a service frequently visited (an internet café downtown) where others  send email.  The building that houses it is 4 stories tall and filled with cellular telephones!  You've never seen so many cell phones in one place.  The fourth floor then had the café with over 50 computers used mainly by age 30 and under users.  And this is only one such center  in this city.

You can hardly get on a bus here in the last year for any length of time and not have someone's beeper or cell phone go off.  Shopping complexes sell all the latest in electronic gadgetry.  VCRs?  What's that?  Most everyone here uses VCDs and DVDs.  Walk 100 metres and you will likely see a place selling CDs of some sort.  We bought a CD about learning the basic Russian language for pennies compared to what you would pay for a CD of any kind.

Cranes dot the skyline as new towering buildings go up or are repaired.  Your imagination of a picture is needed here.  The new buildings are a taste of what we gaze upon when we head downtown on the new trolly line that now comes to our cornor.  We can't cross over the 8 lanes of highway now but must use the underground pass.   We don't frequent the skyscrapers often but they now look down on everyone here and an elite few do business from them and cavort in their expensive hotels.  We've been told that western magazines are available in the Russian language now - for big $.  So we don't get them but once in awhile we try to bring one or two in a suitcase.  It would be a long wait for ours to arrive in the mail in this land. if we ordered them.

All that to say that we are living in a place that is increasingly modernized and to some degree - for a certain small segment of the population - economically well off.  (One of our neighbours drives a Mercedes!)  This fellow lives just a street over from us and picks Dave up sometimes.
He has a house very close to us as our apartment is one of the last in this area.

And yet this is only half the story.  You've heard and seen pieces of it from us before and we'll tell more in the future.  We do see many needs here.  However, we want you to also see the juxtaposition of life here.  The old and the new.

As a visual demonstration of this, consider the view we see most every day from out our window as captured in the imaginable last photo.  Internet and e-mail have not impacted these two ladies very much.  But this modern world is probably a bit confusing to them, especially as they may not be able to communicate much in the national language in which most of the changes are introduced.  The imaginary woman on the right particularly intrigued us as she is wearing socks with the Nike logo!  In fact, this complex where we live used to be a ghetto of simple, densely-packed earthen homes.  Now those same families live in these "modern" apartment buildings though many continue just to eke out a living as they did before.

And so we try to live between these two worlds: the  modern conveniences, such as they are here, and the traditions and customs that most of our neighbours continue to live by.  Today we did not share the scenes of children picking food out of garbage dumpsters or men and women
looking for things.  You might see the man on the 10th floor with his German shepherd digging for the bottles to exchange for alcoholic drinks.

Hope that helps just a little bit more to aid you in seeing the corner of the globe we presently call home.  We trust you are praying for the boys and girls who live on the streets.

Our love and thoughts are with you.  We thank you very much for all of your love gifts, time of work and prayers.

In Christ,
We like to get mail, but wish to be sensitive to your time.  So don't feel you are obligated to respond to each of our "Friends & Family" News Letters. The primary purpose of our News Letters is to keep you up to date  so that you will be able to pray more effectively.  Also we try to say THANK YOU in these letters to all who help the work of the Lord.
 
When sending us emails, be sensitive to our time constraints by keeping your messages reasonably short. Although we will try to personally respond to all emails we receive, we can't promise that we always will, especially if we're real busy with the children as traveling is at least two hours each day to be in contact with the cerebral palsy children and more nightly travel time to be with the street children.. 

And, remember to ALWAYS  tell us if  you change your address. We don't want to lose touch! You are important partners.
 
 
Our Email address:
 Nicholsons@AnchoredInZion.com    (Please write us if you want.)
 
 Our United  States Mailing Address for $ support for the children (cerebral palsy and street children):
 
ANCHORED IN ZION
2715 HAM BROWN ROAD
KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA 34746
 
Our Canadian Support Mailing Address:
 Destiny Ministries   
 %Steve Robitaille AIZ  
 1049 Oxford Street East  
  Moose Jaw, SASK S6H7L4
 

Happy New Year 2001!

God allowed us to have a lovely holiday season starting November 18 and seeing our daughter for a few hours who Carole had not seen in seven years. We also saw the three grandboys and Candy's husband in Georgia. We were able to spend time with Carmel and hubby and her four boys too. Connie Sue (the 3rd daughter) and Trevor (another grandson) drove with us and was blessed seeing the family along with us.

We had the opportunity to visit with a nurse in Florida whose husband (a doctor) had ministered in medicine to us back in 1970 before we went to Indonesia. At this visit Pat (the nurse) set up an eye appointment and December 14 and 15 David had his eyes operated on and is now only wearing glasses for reading. We thank God for the $7000 gift of seeing. Jesus knows just what we need! It only slowed Dave's driving for one day.

All of your prayers and gifts this year have been a blessing to us and to the children's work. The house for the children's work has been slowed down some but we ask you to continue to pray for them. We know that we tell you lots of needs but let us reassure you that we are only telling needs. Please, you can decide what God would have you to do. If you don't think there are needs than you wouldn't even pray or give. So we tell the needs and you do exactly what Jesus says to do. Remember, if Jesus tells you to do something that it is best to obey and follow through with what you are told. It is very hard when someone offers and changes their minds after we have told the children about the promises that will not be kept. The dentist equipment and the food container in Canada was stopped but we can only trust that God knows what He was doing and what He will do. There is a building ready to put the dentist office in but maybe it will be used for something else. Pray we have the mind of the Lord for what He really wants.

David left for Kiev, Ukraine December 26. He flew from JFK December 27. Pray about the Christmas gifts that were given for the children on their Christmas, January 7, 2001. Most of all we ask that through the Bible Word that was given that their hearts were touched by the Master's Hands and that they will come to know Christ as their King.

In Christ,

David and Carole


ILLNESS BAFFLES VILLAGERS
 
Boleslavchyk, Ukraine--
 
The cluster of four villages in southern Ukraine was bathed in scorching summer heat when the mysterious illness struck, creeping from one house to another.
 
Hundreds of people were soon complaining of symptoms that included drowsiness, head and stomach pains, burning eyes and skin rashes.
 
About 400 of the more than 2,600 village residents were hospitalized in July and August.
 
Doctors were unable to diagnose the ailment, which also affected the livers and pancreases of victims, saying only that it was apparently caused by an unknown chemical agent. 
 
But some residents thought they knew the cause:  rocket fuel and debris from Soviet-era missiles that had been based less than a mile from their homes in the villages of Boleslavchyk, Pidhiria, Michuryno and Chausovo.
 
They rejected the Defense Ministry's denials, and suspected the military wasn't interested in discovering the truth.
 
"It must be something military, what else?  But I have my remedy,"  said an elderly man named Mykola, fishing in a pond in Boleslavchyk.  He swallowed the last drops from a small bottle of vodka.
 
Just outside Boleslavchyk, a peaceful village of small white houses, overgrown bushes conceal heaps of broken concrete--the remains of a destroyed missile silo.
 
The area once held liquid-fuel nuclear missiles and still serves as a base for solid-fuel SS-24s.
 
Ukraine inherited 46 SS-24s and 130 SS-19s, while most of its SS-24s along with their silos are to be destroyed under a disarmament plan running through 2001. 
 
Many in Boleslavchyk maintain the health menace can be traced to a farm where the Soviet army supposedly buried debris while dismantling outdated missiles in the late 1970's.
 
Metal scavergers recently excavated an old pit there, and some villagers swear they saw a strange cloud that later swept over Boleslavchyk.>
 
But retired tractor driver Ivan Muliar was skeptical.
 
He said plenty of peple had worked at the farm for years and never gotten sick, and the scavengers weren't among the victims of the mysterious illness.
 
"Look, those boys who dug out the metal did not get sick,"  argued Muliar.  "There must be some other reason."
 
The Defense Ministry adamantly denies the missiles or their fuel could have caused the poisoning, and health experts have backed off from their initial finding that the soil and water contained traces of substances usually produced by decomposing missile fuel.
 
The region has a host of other environmental scourges, including an ammonia pipeline and an abandoned nickel plant.
 
Official explanations for the poisoning range from excessive amounts of nitrates presumably used in fertilizer to poisonous fumes released by scavengers burning plastic insulation off copper
 
U.S. experts from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Atlanta-based centers for Disease Control, an Israeli medical team and Ukrainian investigative commission have all visited the site.
 
None could offer any conclusive explanation and said full analysis would be costly and time-consuming.
 
The mystery could remain unsolved forever.
 
Yet it has brought some good to the area 190 miles south of the capital, Kiev, throwing a spotlight on its poverty and environmental ills.
 
Charities have sent food and clothes.  (Anchored in Zion is one charity that has given here.)  The government is building a running water supply and has promised a pipeline network to provide household gas.
 
The victims have recovered, the investigators have gone, and life in the villages is returning to normal.
 
Yet the residents remain fearful.
 
"We don't know what caused all this,"  said Oleksandra Pochekha the mayor of Boleslavchyk.  "But we want a clear answer....Next year, spring will come, it will be hot again and this could start all over again."
 
Natasha Lyubomskaya, 6 has her history and certificate on her hospitalization with the diagnosis of scabies and she lives in the next village of Chausovo.  Her primary diagnosis, toxic dermatitis, was made by a local doctor but was changed by the medical brigade from Kiev.
 
It is common of the people in the capital city Kiev and other places to have these symptoms that were mentioned above because of the Chernoboyl disaster several years ago too.  This makes lots of the cerebral palsy and street children and even your missionaries to feel rotten. 
March, 2000
FLU SHUTS KYIV SCHOOLS

Officials in Kyiv and Sevastopol ordered all schools and kindergartens closed as of January 24, 2000 to combat the spread of the flu epidemic that has already affected many regions of Ukraine. "The kindergartens and schools will stay closed until further orders from the special commission" formed in the city to confront the epidemic, according to the head of municipal education department in Sevastopol. Schools also were closed in Kyiv and several other big cities, including Dnipropetrovsk. In Kyiv, where the number of victims continues to rise, dozens of people have been hospitalized, many of them children, officials said. The western cities of Ternopil, Rivne, southern cities of Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Sevastopol, and Kherson already have reached an epidemic level of the flu, which has spread over much of Europe. Some towns of the northern Chemihiv, central Cherkasy and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk regions were also hit by influenza epidemic, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. More than 607,000 people were officially registered sick in the country of 50 million people by January 24, with about a third of them children, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. Actual numbers, however, were believed to be much higher. From the above information you can see how important it is for our containers to get to the Ukraine. We do not only help our little groups but we are helping many others. The container that needs funds in Michigan has much medicine, warm socks and wheel chairs on it. Some of the things in this container will be helping The First Lady who has a ministry for children in the Crimea area. God is expanding His love through many different avenues. Anchored in Zion is thankful to be His hands in this land. Thank you to all who are interested and ask questions or help with the many projects and most of all the opportunity for us to give out the "GOSPEL" (Word of God).
This is just something to show you what some things are like here in the Ukraine.
Getting Tired of Frigid Weather? Keep this in mind: winter in Kiev lasts until the end of March or maybe a few weeks into April. So keep the hot tea water ready and remember that the most likely product still to be sold in Kiev is a sweater. We have found that the consumers here have limited options. They must search at the bazaars, (the outside market) or look in the fancy shops or hunt for that special place for items of affordable prices. Many wool items are offered but we have learned that the ones who buy them wear them and then wear them and then keep wearing them and they get pretty smelly. One winter we counted twenty-one days that a young man wore the same set of clothing and that did not include weekends. After that time we gave up counting and started praying. But it is very obvious that all vendors buy their products at the same Turkish or Polish store on discount. How do the vendors hope to compete? No idea. Those with gobs of cash probably already know what to expect from stylish, downtown stores like Extreme and Benetton. Shoppers find high-end sweaters for high-end prices. There is a small, private shop that is owned by a Peruvian family. Back in the1950s, the family started making and exporting hats. In the 1960s, when the hat fashion in Europe and United States died out, this family switched to alpaca sweaters. Alpacas, the cute kin of the Ilamas, are considered one of the national treasures of Peru. The ancestors of Peruvian Incas domesticated alpacas several thousand years ago. Alpaca wool is light, soft and extremely warm because each hair of its fleece has air inside. Alpaca wool has more than a dozen natural hues--white, beige, gray, brown and black. To create other colors, sweater-makers use natural dyes, which supposedly don't fade. The shop is called Sidrik's and they offer about 30 kinds of sweaters, from colorful kids' stuff to elegant ponchos. Prices range from $17 to $20 for children's sweaters, $20 to $60 for adult sweaters and $85 for ponchos. The cheaper sweaters usually are a wool-acrylic blend. But if you want the highest quality, buy a baby alpaca product. You will be able to get anything from a monotone to geometrical decor to traditional Peruvian ornaments. Tight or baggy. The more expensive sweaters are partially handmade and have unique handmade ceramic buttons. The company also exports to Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States, and Sidrik's director in Kiev, Paul Flores, can tell you which sweaters are most popular in which countries. There are several stores in Kiev but the bad news is that Sidrik's is closing in three months. But after you search and get an interesting article for the WEB SITE you hate to throw it away so we share with you anyhow. Now some good news is that in order to sell out, the shop is offering 15 percent to 20 percent discounts. Besides sweaters, there are a variety of alpaca wool hats, Peruvian earrings and other souvenirs.

Our # 2 container will have 1,400 pairs of warm socks, medicines and whatever else God provides. The cost of this is $3000 (which we have $300 already) #3 container will have clothing for winter, medicines and food. The cost of this food is $1300 for 7500 meals! Yes, your 25 cents will help! This is good for your boys and girls to learn to refuse a candy bar and give a full rice/beef meal to another child. This container will cost for foods, medicines and to get it here and # 2 and #3 NEED TO BE LEAVING AMERICA in November if they will get here in time for winter. Ukraine's Christmas is January 7 and things slow down in December and well into the middle of January. Than we have the Y2K situation for the New Year of 2000. We need to move fast. We need your prayers and your financial help for the kids. THE ELDERLY ARE PUNISHED: The government rescinded an increase in pensions. And now...their pitiful, pathetic pensions of the poor elderly are to be taxed.... And yet, billions (yes, billions of dollars - not grevinas or lei) are spent on military armament to try to qualify for NATO membership. Results: Multitudes are sitting in cold apartments...eating bread, margarine, potatoes (if they have gas) and tea...unable to pay their utility bills and buy adequate food and medicine. Begging is supposedly illegal, so they go in the busy streets or stand in front of stores and pharmacies...waiting for someone to have mercy on them. The helpless elderly who helped build these countries, suffered through years of communism, and are not guilty for what is happening today...are paying a great price now because of corruption and ineptness and lack of concern for their well-being. Food prices have increased. We personally used to buy big bags of apples for five cents. Today 2 pounds of apples (a much smaller bag costs us from 50 cents to 90 cents depending on the kind they are.) These apples will increase in price as the winter snows come on. Apples, one of the cheaper and easier foods to get will not be a part of a street child's life unless it is stolen. Oranges, imported and bananas will see :( faces look at them as the elder, orphans, street kids and even some people with jobs will have to pass them buy as the cost will be over $1 for 3 or 4 of these products. Results: Romania has the most suicides, abortions, and children with AIDS in all of Europe. Ukraine is right up there with them in figures. We've reported about an Ethiopian girl named Mimi. She had no home, food and was on the street. A one room was offered her at what we though was $13 and we were told her food would be $15...we have found that Ethiopians mix $13 for $30 and $15 for $50 and we told Mimi she could work with us. Mimi doesn't do much English or Russian and so we don't understand. We only catch the tears or the smiles. We offered her a good wage for this land of $40 a month but found out the $30 and $50 problem was still a problem for her. We got her a place to live for $10 a month and she would have the other $30 for food and to save a little for her visa. Now she got sick in October and went to the hospital. Pneumonia and kidneys were what was said. But the landlord called the hospital and she was told AIDS. Mimi lay in bed with a fever and the doctor (woman) came and grabbed her by the neck and asked, "Why did you come to us? Get out of her!" Mimi obeyed and left the hospital and also was kicked out of the place she was living by the Christian lady who did not even ask the doctor, "Have you taken any tests?" Mimi is hiding at a friend's who goes to school and lives in a dorm. She can not walk out or in to this place when she wants. She had gone to another city to get her visa and spent all her money and the visa is not any good. We are working on the visa and the price will be over $100 and these visa's must be renewed over and over. Mimi has one good thing, JESUS! She gave her life to Him as she sat on our couch. Mimi had a dream at our house one night. She was sick in real life and sick in the dream. A prophet from the USA came and laid hands on her and prayed, JESUS RAISED HER FROM THE DEAD! We believe for this 18-year-old girl. She needs help. If we help her than we need more help. It is up to You, Jesus and us what will happen to her. Mimi was a Christian all her life but NO ONE told her about being born-again. Friends! This is important that you tell everyone about JESUS. They may say, "I have been a Christian all my life," and yet they may need you to show them from the Word, how to be born-again! In Eastern Europe there is a new slave trade in women. It is estimated that 500,000 East European women and girls are brought to Western Europe for sexual exploitation every year and the business is estimated at $7 billion annually. REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA IS THE SAME - IF NOT WORSE: They have no gas.... Little electricity (and little water)...and soon, may have none. Believers in Cahul - and nearly are freezing. They have one small heater with one small tube working. Money for food and utilities for four families of handicapped believers has been given but this is a nothing compared to what the believers need. All were months behind on their utility bills. (To those who gave to help poor believers... they give thanks). UKRAINE IS THE SAME. THE FAMILY ON THE 6TH FLOOR (Christians) below us is the same. They can not pay the utility bills. Like us they run a small heater to keep warm. The family above us has not had water into their toilet or shower for two years now. They do have water in the kitchen and must carry the water to flush or take showers. The non-Christian family has three children and a renter to help meet their bills besides the mom/dad. Can you hear the cry of the cold and hungry...the cry of the poor, the exploited, the outcasts, the orphans, the street kids, the homeless, the handicapped...and the cry of the most impoverished - those without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." What we are doing...with God's help through you: Anchored in Zion - We already have 10 street kids we are helping to feed and put warm clothing on them. Many come to stay with us until we can find a place for them. We have a building for the 87 Cerebral Palsy children who have one parent but the parent can't work because they must watch the child or children. We are talking with the Mayor in Sevastopol today about a building for the 10 street kids. Heating will be $500 for this building each month and by God's grace, we can receive more children (probably 150-200 on a daily food program). We are trying to save the children from the filthy underground canals. The Ukrainian and Romanian government must begin to act according to what God's Word demands of them.... To exist for the good of their people.... To make a society conducive to everyone's well being and for the praise of God for his care. STREET KIDS OUTREACH: This is where we take food and clothing to the canals and subway stops where they live (Sevastopol). New plans for ministry to the street kids are being planned. The Cerebral Palsy kids will meet in our building across town (Kiev). All of them will come for friendship, fellowship, food, clothing, and lessons from God's word, sometimes a video, and a warm drink. Some will bring brothers or sisters to see what they can steal. Yes, they are very damaged by the fall and need the new birth.


THE FOUNDATIONAL TRUTHS:

FT have begun to be printed for these new groups. These are special children's editions with Bible stories on their own level. Other Christian material for parents will be available and they will have to receive some lessons to qualify for special helps. Children will need to get busy and memorize Bible verses to receive their small gifts too. Everything so far has been given away freely, as God gives to us freely. Matthew 10:8b "Freely ye have received, freely give." The believers in our fellowship in Kiev are striving to spread God's Word to those that were deprived of it under communism and can't afford it under capitalism. Some of them help us to fold, photocopy and get this material ready to give away. Galatians 6:9-11 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do well unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand." I close off this information with joy! I just received a phone call and the Christians in Ireland want to bring things to Ukraine to help. They too want to open an orphanage and help children in their own land. Doctor teams want to come from Ireland and help the children! What do you want to do? Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might..."

In Christ, David and Carole



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