Freeway Camp | Ukraine 2017 | English Camp

As most people know, WithOut Excuse supports Freeway of Brovary, Ukraine, and we have had some really exciting things happen over the last month! Before we can share the exciting news we must first share some sad news: Andriy was in a car accident almost two months ago; thankfully he wasn’t injured but, sadly, his car was totaled. Car accidents are never good and in this case it made it very difficult for Andriy to visit the orphanages he visits every month. It was also hard to get to his after-school program during the week at his Freeway building. Now for the good news: enough money was  donated so a car could be purchased for Freeway!! We had the choice to spend less money on an older car, with high miles from Ukraine (Ukraine is NOT known for having the smoothest roads) OR we could purchase a car with less miles, driven on better roads for a higher price. We all agreed a more reliable car was the right way to go.
So, Freeway has a car that seats 7 people comfortably with some room for luggage. We are really thankful for this blessing! Our next thing to share is how camp went. I’m actually sitting in the Kiev Airport waiting to board our first flight toward home. It’s Sunday and camp ended on Friday. It was a five day English camp for at-risk youth in the village of Brovary. It was Freeway’s third year of running this English camp. It was such an eventful week!! We had 4 adult team members from America along with our (Jennifer and Jonathon) 6 year old daughter. We had 3-4 interpreters each day at camp to assist us along with a team of young volunteers from Andriy and Alla’s church. To say we are thankful for this group is a huge understatement! They worked so incredibly hard each day. A few were actually the age of some of our registered camp kids–yet they had the maturity of an adult. The first day we had 23 kids, I believe, and by day four we had 60-something kids!! If I’m going to be honest…it was really tough a couple of hours each day. Fun always, but tough on occasion. We had kids as young as 5 up to 16 years old. Providing a morning program along with workshops (like photography and American football), English lessons and sports to a wide variety of ages isn’t easy when you don’t have “enough” workers. We made it work because everyone there went all in and worked really hard! After kids registered each morning we had an hour long morning program filled with songs, games and short but awesome *life lessons* given by Jonathon. I took some time each day to interview kids of all ages and really enjoyed their answers regarding what they loved about camp– they all loved everything (: and wished more Americans would come back next year! I was given multiple handmade gifts and even homemade jam by kids. Several whom I connected with loved to share any candy or snacks they were given each day. One mom to a young boy brought the American team members gorgeous Ukrainian necklaces as a thank you gift to us. Several parents hung out during our evening program while they waited on their children. And one evening, on our drive home, a mother called Andriy to thank him for this camp. These small gestures were so meaningful to me/us all and worth the little bit of chaos we experienced from time to time:) I met some really wonderful, hard-working, caring people on this trip who selflessly gave their time to these precious kids. They were such a blessing to my heart. I missed my two other kids so much on this trip and every time I felt so hurt to be without them I reminded myself that they were being completely taken care of and loved on by family back home and the hugs, handmade crafts, and “Thank You!”s  I received from these kids AND their parents made it so much easier. These kids deserve to know love…to know their worth…and learning English is a great benefit to them! One of our very helpful interpreters thanked us last night and said, “If not you, then who?” And she’s right. If we truly want a better world for kids and families…we must be willing to do something. Whether we feel led to travel to help out with camps, or help out financially to those doing the work, there is something for everyone to do.