Help Wanted – The Team

Anatoliy and the children

Ira talks with Masseuse

Mikola, Mark, and Volodya

Anya, in gray, talks with mothers

  When you see these two very common words side by side, Help Wanted, what thoughts come to your mind? My first impression is that a job is available, that there is some work to do. Think about the word help. If I replace it with the word to assist, I immediately envision a very different concept. If I am asked to assist someone, it means that he or she is the captain. I am only the helper.

As a humanitarian aid missionary, I was called to assist God in His work here in Ukraine. Going one step further, I was called to assist the people of Ukraine to care for their children. How could that be accomplished? If I was called to come to Ukraine to do a job, and then leave, that is pretty easy to imagine. But that wasn’t the case. As a matter of fact, I was not exactly sure what God was calling me to do.

My first outreach ministry opened up in Marganets when the father of a friend took me to visit an orphanage. It was his dream, his desire, possibly his calling, to help these children in some way. When I saw the children, the surroundings, and the emptiness in their eyes, I felt the deepest compassion in my heart that I ever had felt. But there was nothing that I personally could do to help them on a regular basis. I would be living in Illichevsk, 320 miles west of Marganets.

This was to be the beginning of my work to assist the people of Ukraine to make changes in their country. This retired 63-year-old father, Anatoliy, had the knowledge, energy, and the drive to make things happen. God had prepared him to be ready to do this work through a lifetime of experiences. He did not have the funding, but by the time that I met him, he had already begun to raise money for the children from the local merchants. The community was very poor, so he could barely raise enough money to help one child, much less 156 children.

Over the next nine years, Anatoliy started programs to help two other groups of children in his city. While that was going on, three more people in three different cities were introduced to me who had hearts to help the children of their country. Ira is my assistant in Illichevsk, Anya manages a massage clinic in Froonza Crimea, and we support a program in Dobromel that Volodya has been operating for 10 years.

Team is the key to any work that will continue successfully. Each one of us, more than I have mentioned, has a particular gift that makes our contribution special for the children. How can one person help more than 500 children in six different organizations, in three cities and a village? It can happen only with a team effort. God has blessed our team and we are seeing many wonderful results.

Hearts Committed to the Children

Four Men

Children help Volodya

Talking about massage

Such sweet children

Click on picture to enlarge

Saturday afternoon, four men gathered at the Dobromel orphanage to help the children. Each has a unique gift to share, making changes in the lives of the children in their own way. The director, Mikola, has many visions of how to improve the health and lives of these children with physical and mental disabilities. Pastor Volodya has been ministering to these children for more than ten years, bringing fresh fruit and drinks, exciting activities, and spiritual nourishment and direction. Anatoliy came to translate for Mark. Having three children of his own, he understands the needs of these children. Mark has been sponsoring Volodya’s work with the children, and is now focusing on their physical needs.

In 2009, Mark, Volodya, and Mikola began discussing the possibilities of massage for the children. Mikola did not wait, but to Mark’s surprise during this visit, he had a room filled with exercise equipment, has chosen an exercise specialist who has training in massage, and began a limited program with the focus on scoliosis. He had acquired an exam table, not the best for massage, but adequate for small children.

As Mark and Mikola discussed what was, and what they desired to be, they brought Natalya, the exercise specialist, into the conversation. This was the plan, now a work in progress. Mark’s fiancée, Svetlana, a qualified massage therapist, will live in Dobromel during the month of October 2011. She will provide massage for four children, a 20-day treatment designed for each. The massage will build upon the previous one, resulting in a deep-seated outcome. The goal is to show some progress, determining that massage therapy, in Mikola’s eyes, will help to change the physical conditions of the children.

When Mikola stated that October was a long time to wait, Mark suggested that Natalya come to Illichevsk and observe the two massage therapists, providing massage for children similar to those at the Dobromel Orphanage. This sparked a great interest in both Mikola and Natalya.

While Mark, Anatoliy, and Mikola where talking, ironing out many details, Volodya and his team, his son-in-law, Igor, and Tamara, a nurse by profession, brought physical and spiritual food to the children. Many of the older children were impatient with our late arrival, so they were involved in other activities. The younger children, hunger for attention, as you can see in their eyes.

This particular Saturday, April 9, was a cold and wet day. The two-hour travel home, maneuvering the treacherous potholes in the road, ended a long day, but not without even more adventure. At one point, a bridge was out, although there was an alternate route available, and there was a kilometer or two where a heavy snow with huge flakes fell. Overall, there was plenty of excitement for everyone.

Children of Hope

A relationship of love!

"Suffer not the little children ..." 

Click on the picture to enlarge.
What do you see above? Look at them from a distance; look at them close-up. Look at their clothes, the expressions on their faces, and look into their eyes. What do you see?

I see children. Each one has a story unique to him or her, as do all children. What they are at this time in their lives can be summed up in a few words. They are children. What will they become; how will they change; where will they go?

The answers to many of these questions depend upon adults. How will we touch their lives? Will we be responsible toward them; will we care; will we reach out to them? Will we help them become the next generation who will run this world?

The children pictured above live in the orphanage in Marganets, Ukraine. They are special children, not to say that every child is not special. They have special needs. Each child that you see has some type of learning disability. Each child has either a dangerous family environment from which they have been removed, has been abandoned by their parents, or their parents have died, leaving them as orphans. They will grow up in this orphanage system with children similar to themselves, totaling an average of 156.

Statistics tell a very sad reality of what happens to children after they leave the orphanage system in Ukraine. Prostitution, suicide, prison, and a life of crime wait for the majority of them. What can be done?

I don’t have many answers, but I have a few. MUCH has been gradually changing the lives of these children in small ways. Can you see the change in these pictures that span four years?

Four big needs based programs are touching the personal futures of some of the children. Massage therapy is changing the children from the inside out. The neurology of massage is habilitating them. Computer class is opening new avenues for the children, preparing them for a world of graphic art and word processing. The new music and dance opportunities will enrich the quality of the arts in their education. Finally, the drug and alcohol program is molding the children in areas of morality, self-image, and self-respect.

We have stepped up to the bat. MUCH is helping these children in these ways. We believe in them. We believe they are the future of Ukraine. What will you do? Will you help our children through MUCH? Will you help any children? What will you do to change the future of societies on this planet?

Romance in a Relationship & The Healing Power of Massage

                                                            Written by Svetlana Kucher
                                                            Translated from Russian

     Romance – it renews feelings, provides a breath of fresh air. Romance inspires and puts a spring in the relationship between two people. A man or a woman must create a romantic situation for his or her loved one, the beloved.

     Romance – It is not only dinner by candlelight. Romance – it is work, and because of this, it reveals your true love for the other person. This love sacrifices itself, its own comfort, to give joy to another! Your efforts and your work will be rewarded when you see the eyes of your loved one shining that sparkle of love.

     For me, this magic moment occurred as I anticipated Valentine’s Day. Mark created a romantic rendezvous, a surprise meeting. I could not believe it. It was a wonderful experience.

     Do not let the hustle and bustle of your days overshadow the spring that romance adds to your life. Create for your favorite person a romantic situation. Let it bring joy and renewal to your life and that of your loved one.

The Healing Power of Massage

My mother has been sick and was feeling weak for some time. Last week she would not get out of bed. When Mark arrived, I told him about my mother. He suggested that I give my mother a massage. Immediately after the first massage, mother said that she felt better. This was very surprising! For such a long time I had not heard anything positive from my mother. With each massage, she felt better and better. For me, this was a first hand example of the importance and value of massage. There was no healing from medical pills; rather, this wonderful result occurred from a simple medical massage.

Life for Others - A Wonderful Life!

                                                      Written by Svetlana Kucher
                                                      Translated from Russian
Six months ago, I met with Mark and immediately saw in his eyes, God's love. Love for the children of Ukraine.

Our first meeting occurred in the city of Nikolayev. Mark showed me pictures of children who are in the orphanage/boarding schools in the cities of Marganets and Dobromel. In addition, he showed me children suffering from cerebral palsy who receive massage treatments in the cities of Illichevsk, in the Odessa region, and Froonza in the Crimean region.

Mark showed me photographs of children and talked about each of them for almost 5 hours without a break. He knows the names of many of the children, their life situations and their problems. I wondered: how can he remember so many children?

Children of Ukraine are located in the heart of Mark. When he walks down the street and sees a child, he says, "Hello, how are you?” The children looked in amazement - a grown man to notice and take interested in them! Mark has devoted his life to the children of Ukraine. He gives them love, attention, time and financial support.

Mark is very fond of children. His is true love - sacrificial love. Mark shows his love giving his hearts to children in Ukraine.

Together with him, his Board of Directors and many sponsors are proof of the love for the children of Ukraine. These people live in America; they have not met with these children personally; they can see the children only in the photo. However, the American people share their hearts with the children of Ukraine. Part of who they are is devoted to the children. Their love for the children in Ukraine appears as financial help to meet some of the needs of the children living in the orphanage/boarding school. They have opened and operate massage clinics, where children who have Cerebral Palsy can receive massage through the qualified hands of medically trained masseuses, and masseurs.

Many Ukrainian people also care about the fate of these children; working together as a part of the MUCH team, they impart their love with the children of Ukraine. I think that this team becomes God's dream team when all team members, as a single body, harmoniously and selflessly are working for the future of the children. You too, can be on this team!

Life for others - it is more wonderful and beautiful than to live for yourself! The happiest people on earth are those who invest their time in others. The great psychiatrist, Karl Menninger, once asked what you could do for lonely, miserable person. He said, "Go out of the house; lock the door; go into the neighborhood; find the person that's suffering, and help him." Even if you think that you are happy - helping others, you will be even happier. Can you give a piece of your heart for children who need your love, children who are waiting for you?

Starting the New Year

Everyone begins the new year in a different way. Some make resolutions to improve their lives in one way or another; others may throw out the old year of disappointments and bring in the new year with a celebration. After celebrating so many new year days over so many years, this year was different. Minutes after the clock struck midnight, New Years Eve, bending down on one knee, I asked my Svetlana to be my wife. As I slipped a ring on her finger, she smiled and said, “Of course I will, my Mark.”

I have been looking for my Sveta for a very long time. She is more than I had imagined, but that is how it is when God provides. Sveta is a wonderful woman with many fine qualities. Most of all, she loves God first, me second, and the children of Ukraine third. Yes, what a blessing it is to marry a woman who wants to work by my side, helping the children of Ukraine improve their lives and learn about how God loves them.

Sveta also has a background in massage, wanting to use her knowledge to broaden the outreach of our work. As you can read in the newsletters and the MUCH website, massage for children with disabilities is a big part of our outreach. In the meantime, she practices her medical massage skills on me, having some similar needs as the children.

If our great adventure interests you, please follow our newsletter by clicking on the MUCH Newletters link on this page!