08/02/2012
August 2nd,
Our time in Ukraine is coming to an end. It has been an incredible journey for our family. One that will never be forgotten. The people here in the villages of Berezhok, Zhukotyn and Limna Ukraine have opened their hearts to us and for that we will be eternally thankful. We will truly miss each and every one of these sweet souls.
We have spent the last 2 weeks since the American dentists left catching up, cleaning up and thanking people. Actually we aren't finished yet. We have so many people to thank and because we don't have printers here for the computer we have to hand write all the thank you letters. That alone is a job with which Bohdan usually takes care of. We are so thankful to of course the Americans that spent their time, monies, and skills to care for people that have so little. Also we are thankful for the host families, the hospital where they worked, the hospital administrator in Turka for the permission letter, Pavlo and his family and Pavlo's contacts that donated Bibles and Christian magazines to give away, the two young men that helped with the electrical problems in all hours of the day and night, all the American donators that donated tooth brushes, paste, floss, school supplies and other gifts, also for our amazing supporters for making it possible for our family to be here. Thank you everyone for praying for us as well. Believe me, we felt them.
One thing we were working on right after the dentists left was a preventative program for the children that would be implemented in the schools. The schools here were offered free tooth brushes, floss and a daily fluoride treatment for each child. The idea was to start a program that either a health teacher or PE teacher or even the school nurse would make a time everyday (preferably after lunch) that each child would be able to concentrate on their oral hygiene. This way each child would be brushing at least once a day for 4-5 days a week. When the dentists were here it was surprising to us that the children didn't even know how to brush properly and they had no idea how to use floss and fluoride isn't even an option here. Everything they need would be donated so they really have nothing at all to lose, only to gain. However, some of the teachers don't want to do a program in the schools. They say it won't work, the parents already tell the children to brush, it is the water that makes the teeth so bad, it is because they don't have indoor plumbing and therefore they can't get in a habit of brushing, they have bad teeth because of genes or even Chernobyl. They have bad teeth and to them there is nothing they can do about it. Nothing.
So we told them about our long term plans of opening up a dental clinic here in Berezhok. We would love to attain a building that we could modernize, and have one or two stations with dependable dental equipment, and encourage dentists from all over Europe and America to come for as long as they could to work on the villagers' oral care for free or as close to free as we could get. However, we told them that we would never open a clinic unless a preventative program was in place. We can get dentists to come over every year to pull teeth and more teeth but that really isn't doing the people any good. They need to know how to care for their own teeth for the long term. (I'd love to see this
preventative program expanded to the people's lungs and liver too but we will start with one thing at a time). I am pretty sure we could get a program going if we were here to do it ourselves. I don't believe they will do anything even if we got it started. They don't want to do it for some reason. We were even told that maybe in 3 years (where ever that number came from I'll never know) they will be more willing to. Go figure. They also told us they need our help to do it. I do believe we could do so many good things in the schools for the children and the teachers. So anyway for now they will not have a preventative program. If and when we come back that will be our secondary focus. A wise young man reminded me that the souls of these people are more important than their teeth. So as always everything will be second to God's will and planning. Please be in prayer with us on these matters. Thank you again for your faithful support.
