December 2008 MUCH Newsletter

Hello family and friends,

As the world economy challenges each of us, may we look toward Christmas as the birth of our Savior. As the Christmas season approaches, may love fill our hearts that we may reach out toward each other in peace and compassion.

I have returned from my journey to Warsaw, Poland to get my Ukrainian visa for another year. I stopped in Borislav and Dobromel, Ukraine to visit two orphanages on my way back. It was quite an eventful trip. You can read more about it in The Insider Info, my first two weekly posts below. I intend to post a story or an article each Saturday. I want to better inform our readers about the realities of life in Ukraine and my life as a missionary. Also, I want to better inform our readers and supporters about the progress that we are seeing in the different outreach ministries. If you have questions, or want to know more, please click on comments, and add your thoughts. I will be more than happy to reply to you personally if you wish.

The Borislav orphanage is not one of the MUCH outreach ministries. I was introduced to this orphanage because it specializes in habilitation for children with cerebral palsy. More than 120 children live there during the school year and receive appropriate education and habilitation. They have a multi therapy program. I visited with the neurologist and we spoke for about an hour. He showed me the different equipment that they use, ranging from EEG to acupuncture. We discussed the value of electric muscle stimulators, which I am interested in adding to our massage therapy program. He explained in great detail how each therapy adds only a percentage of the full results desired. This was a new concept for me. My experience has been that a therapist will believe that his/her therapy is the most important. But Dr. Oleg made it clear that each is important for the full result. I invited him to Illichevsk to address our therapists and have a round table discussion about our children. This is a big step in building a network of specialist to improve the lives of our children in Illichevsk and the surrounding communities who have cerebral palsy.

And again, if you haven't already, please read about our Christmas Fundraiser - MUCH's Goal is $3,620.

Blessings of love and healing,
Mark