Day 8

Day 8

Today was a more relaxed day than days in the past. Not so rushed and our highlight was to go and take the youth group bowling. I had mentioned that Kenny went bowling earlier, but this time I went along with most of the young people in hie church. These kids are great. They have a great sense of humor, there is no complaining between each other, and they make the most of every situation. Now I did say that today was not as rushed, but I was able to still get more footage. We went to the site of the new Orphanage and Interviewed him as h walked through the building and shared what was being done and what was going to be done. There is a lot of vision for tis project and I look forward to coming back and seeing the finished product. Also after we went bowling, we all came back to the building and they sang devotional songs. They all decided to help with the filming by letting me record them as they sang, and it was beautiful.

Day 7

Day 7

What a great day! Today it snowed in the morning and I was able to get some nice shots. We had church service and I was able to get some of the younger children to sing some songs in russian for me on film. I then was able to get interview time with Ira and her husband Igor. Ira is Kenny's Translator and book keeper, and basically second hand man(woman) when it comes to the Church and adoption project Igor is the Number 1 construction coordinator. When ever Kenny and Lora are out of town they count on Ira and Igor to run things. They are an amazing couple that has also adopted a child. The interview went very well and I learned a lot about the projects. Igor and Ira has also adopted a child from the hospital.
The Ministry is called Cross Culture which has the ABC program which stands for Abandon Babies and Children. The also have another program called the Family Care Center which is the Orphanage program that is being built and is the reason for my visit here. Ira stays very busy with all of the needs at the hospital and the supplies needed.
After the interviews we went to the market with some of the girls from the church. It was basically us going to the store to get some small needed supplies and I didn't think much of it. Once we got back home, Kenny explained to me that the girls that we were out with just got a triple dose of male figure time, something they are starving from. He explained further that most of the girls either did not have a father or any other type of strong male role model and how it was good for them too just be able to hang out with us without having any ill intentions towards them. Sometimes you don't think of these kinda things. When we got back we had Sergi and His wife over for interviews on film. Sergi is the head doctor for the children at the hospital. He gave s some interesting issues that he has to deal with on a regular basis and how Cross Culture plays a very vital part in the workings of the hospital. Sergi and his wife has also just adopted a child from the hospital. I am amazed at the conviction of these people. Well we got some awesome footage and I am looking forward to putting this thing together. Tomorrow is another filled day of more interviews and filming children.

Day 6
Today we went into the neighboring city which is population over 1 million and is the capitol of eastern Ukraine. The moment we got into town you could tell that it was a thriving metropolis. We went to a mall like store and enjoyed a coffee. We had a nice time and all the way home it snowed. When we arrived back into town, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up cabbage so that one of the ladies from the church could make us some Borsht. The Youth met again tonight and watched "The Passion" which was as always a very emotional viewing. I know that a lot of the kids have seen it already, but it still hits the hearts and bring the night to a quiet end. The snow was beautiful and peaceful. I was hoping to get some of it on footage, but I did not have the dust cover to protect the camera with me, and by the time we got home to get it, the dark was on us and didn't allow for the camera to pick it up. I did however get a video recipe of the Borsht while Tanya cooked it. When we were at the store today, I picked up a Rummycube game for the youth group since they seem to be into those kind of games. I am very glad to be here and I hope that I make a difference with the situations here. I can't stop thinking about that child that was left in the street. Well, tomorrow is Sunday, and we will be going to the church in the morning and meeting Kenny's congregation. It should be an enjoyable time and I hope for the sake of film that it is snowing. I hope to go and spend some time with the children at the hospital as well.

Day 5

Day 5
I hope that the people that is reading these daily logs are finding them informative. we are having a great time with this visit to Ukraine, especially since we are experiencing a warm front. The days are only zero degrees and that is warm for this time of year. It's almost warm enough to snow. I have not been as lively in my writings as I was hoping to be, but I hope to be more focused in future logs.
Today we went out into the city to see some historical sites and monuments. I was able to get shots of the City sign ( kinda like the Disney world sign but not as colorful ). We saw the statue of Lenin and Gorlovka (the father of the city). there is also a monument of a old russian tank on top of a hill the represents the great patriotic war ( World war II ). It s cool to see these things and I know that these people are very proud of their past. After that we went to the church and the youth got together and had a friday youth group service (A Crash ). In this group there is 15 girls a one guy. It seems that the young men in this region must be too cool to go to church. The one guy that was there is going to be my guide to Kiev next week and speaks very good english. The group sang all the songs in english and were really good. We watched the 542 videos as their lesson for the night. they watched Bubbleman, Megaphone, Coffee guy, and Milkman. It was neat to see their reactions to the films. They seemed to be a little nervous with me a the camera, but after a while they loosened up. Tonight, we had power all night which was nice. I did not feel very good because of a back pain, so I decided to stay back and rest while the others went out for dinner. They ended up going to a bowling alley which is new in town. It has 6 lanes and is a hot spot. Tomorrow we will be going to a outdoor market in Donetsk. Thank you for all of your encouragement during this trip and please continue to pray for us.

Day4

Day 4

So We went to the orphanage again today and got some footage on tape. We also stopped by the hospital to take care of some paperwork, and found out that there was a new child brought in last night. It turns out, a 4 day old boy was found in the streets inside a plastic bag. They guessed at his age by his umbilical cord. He was very healthy and was blessed that someone saw the bag moving.Last night the Temperature was 30 below zero C. We were able to have a short interview with the doctor and the nurse that were taking care of the child. It is heartbreaking to see that someone would not have the heart to take the child to the hospital, but to leave it in the road. Unfortunately the power is out again tonight. It is becoming a regular occurance. We have sat down in the dark and watched the Invisible Children on the laptop, and had long discussions on how do we help people that are virtually impossible to help. It doesn't sound like a hard topic, but we got pretty deep. I am learning a lot about the process of adoption and the hurdles that you have to go through. We have a great need that is over here that does not exsist in Gorlovka. It is a city with a population of 340,000 and they have most of the modern day luxuries (as long as you can afford it).

Day3

Day 3
Well, I guess you can say that this is my first true day here in Ukraine since the past couple has been traveling.Tim, Kenny and I have had some time to talk and see the surrounding area. The days get very short in the winter so you have make the most of the day light. It got dark today at about 4:30 and man does it cold after dark. We first got together with a number of older ladies that make up the ladies of the church for there weekly wednesday Bible study. We had Sausage, cheese and coffee while we sat around the table and talked about all types of things(mostly Ukrainian politics). Once we left there, we went to the hospital where all of the children are at. There is a lot of babies and a few toddlers. It is hard to explain how the conditions are for these children is. We can see how much love is in the hearts of the nurses and doctors that are taking care of things. Today I had planned sending out the messages from the past couple of days, but it turns out that there is no power in the building. It is said that the government is trying to ration power by turning off the power in certain grids at night. Unfortunately it seems as though our night is tonight. So I will try and blog this but we will see. Since we had no power, we decided to go out to eat at this Ukrainian Restaurant. We had Conpote (a fruit drink made with smoked apples,pears, and lemons) and Borscht ( a cabbage Potatoes Stew). It was filling, but the drink was really... smokey. We were able to see the foster house that is being built (gutted and redone). It's a very impressive building that use to be a elementary school. It has a metal gate all the way around the property and because of the looting, he has to post guards on the property. We will be able to go back to the property tomorrow in better lighting and see exactly what the plans are and how they will be using the property.
So, I Kenny yells up to me , hey I got the computer up but the battery is at 15% so hurry. Once we get it hooked into the wall and dial up... yes it's dial up, it hangs up. I dial again, and again, and again. I finally get on and it's like watching grass grow with the little bar on the bottom of the screen. Ok, I'm at my blog site I click my password and blank, the computer goes into hibernation( battery died). It's funny how things go sometimes. I don't have any control over the situation, but it is still aggravating
I don't know know what is in store for tomorrow, but so far it has been a smooth trip, out side of the power and the e-mail.

Day2

Day 2
Today was a long continuation of yesterday. Flying and more flying. We got into Kiev at about 7:30 AM their time and it was -4C. Wow I thought it can't get any worst than this. I was wrong. It was -21C when we got to our final destination. Now that is cold. I was able to meet another person in my travels today. His name is Ivan and he is a sailor that has been over in Vietnam after sharing about how much he had to drink that day he was very eager to have me come back to his house so that he could show me how the real Ukraine is. He seemed to have good intentions yet he was also pretty sowed. It may have been the 2 liters of Vodka he had or maybe it was the coniac. I Know that I am not very good at words right now since I'm work on my 38th hour without rest so I am going to start fresh tomorrow with my first tour of the orphanage. I can say that my accommodations are very nice yet the cold still gets in and the heaters are having to work overtime. I miss my wife and I hope that she is doing well. Until tomorrow...

Day1

Day 1
So I'm Sitting in the amsterdam airport after a grueling flight over the big drink. I enjoyed some conversation with Kathy, a very nice lady that is coming back from visiting her daughter in VA. But the seats on the flight are not as large as I would have thought for such a long flight. There was a couple of days before I left that my wife had gotten sick and wished for me to stay away from her, so that I wouldn't catch her cold. Well a lot of good that does when your on a large tin can in the sky with 1/3 of the people hacking up a lung. It was not that terrible as it sounds, but the interesting issue that we had to deal with is our flight plan. At each airport in the states had given us a 30 minute window to catch our next plane. Since we had a party of 5 with one being a child with cast settings on his feet ( I'll tell you more about that in a second) we were blessed to have not run into any snags. We did however had to shovel a Mc D's burger down right as we were catching the last flight. That was a challenge with all of our luggage. It goes without saying that it would have been great footage, if I could have had an out of body experience in order to film it. All in all, we are doing good thus far. Now , about the child. This is part of the reason why we are going back to the Ukraine in the middle of winter and guess it's a great time to introduce my traveling partners. There is a little year old boy named Alex that is from the orphange that I will be filming. One lady that had came over previously saw him and fell in love him fom the start and is now in process of adopting him. He has a defect since birth called club' feet. It is that reason that he came to the U.S. He was scheduled to have corrective surgery, but the doctors feel that it would be premature and have him now in these castings to help straighten out his feet. He is a Bright little thing and a bundle of energy with a great attitude. So along with this child is a care taker named Tatiana . I can not tell you much about her since she olny speaks Russian. You can tell though that there is a strong bond between her and the boy. The third in th party is a pilot from Panama City named Tim. He seems to be in great shape and has a very level head on his shoulders. He has offered to help in the filming process and it will be cool to see what the lord has planned for him on this trip. He says he has no agenda, but who's to say that my agenda will end up being why I'm coming. Only god knows what he has planned for all of us.The last two in the group is Kenny and I. We will leave the rest of the story up to day 2 since I'm already in day 2 and I'm not there yet.

One Day Left

So I believe that I have the things I will need to last for the two weeks. I have 24 hours of film to burn, hand warmers, sunscreen, bathingsuit, sunglasses, and flip-flops. All set. I was kindly send this link to cheer me up:
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/world.jsp?floc=cp-tos-feat-b-02&feature=newz_0106russian_cold

So maybe I should bring a sweater too. I was told that we have a train ticket as well as a planeticket due to weather issues. I guess when youlive in these kind of climates you have to take these things into account. Today at church they were kind enough to pray for me and tonight there is a Prayer service for Kenny Payne and I that I think we will be going to. I might try and get some footage of that just to have as intro footage.
One of the neat things about this trip is that long lost friends are popping out of the woodwork. I Saw a friend today at church that I have not seen in over five years, and she was sharing to me about other friends that I thought would be long gone from Panama City. I feel as though there are many cool things that are beginning to happen. Well, there is still so much packing to do and files to upload. Until tomorrow

The prep work

There is always alot of work that is involved with going on a trip. And it is always inevitable that an hour into that trip you remember the thing or things that you forgot. I am not the best at planning for excursions longer than a weekend. Lucky for me I have a wonderful wife that is a polar opposite of me when it comes to packing. If it were not for her I would be that guy that you see in the airport store buying the $5.00 toothbrush and $20.00 batteries for the camera.
There is some amazing things that have been happening in the past week. It seems that people that I have not talked to for a long time have called and donated things like a coat, long underwear, ect. And my mom happened to come across all the cold weather gear I would need for the trip for $1.00 ( she is a great shopper ). I was told by Kenny that I will need to come up with some good shoes for this trip, and it just so happens that Trane (my work) had the boot truck come today, in which I was given a $75.00 coupon for shoes. Anybody that didn't know about this being a God thing would probably think that I was pretty lucky having this all happen. Knowing that this trip is going to be quite a long and grueling flight, Dustin and I were actively searching for a laptop for the trip to help with the editing and make the most of my time in the air. Well, we now own a G4 Powerbook which we got on Monday. So now it's Friday and the flight is on Monday. Thanks for your support and I look forward to any comments along the way. AutumnFades... But love doesn't.

The Next Step

Today I went to my work in order to work out the details with my days off and seeing if it will be possible to go. I came back after a short 15 minute stop into the HR office with my answer.They have no problems and wish me luck on my trip. I then called Kenny to give him the news and to inform him that it was time to buy a ticket. Now on Friday of last week, he mentioned that the reservation for my ticket would expire that night and if we waited until monday there may not be space available. We decided that it would be best to wait until monday, find out from my work if I could do it, and leave it in GOD's hands. If there were no spots available, then it wasn't meant to be. After calling Kenny, he called the airlines and found out that there is space available and that iam now Scheduled to Leave on the trip on JAN 23rd, 2006. This is the time to begin to look for some long underwear and gloves. For some people this is not a big deal, but I am looking at this as a life changing event that can be a life chaging event for many children's lives. Praise God and I can't wait to share the next step with you all.

A GOD Thing

So I start this story by saying that this is not a normal thing for me. I don’t just fly across the world for two weeks as a routine thing, so that right there speaks for it’s self.
My name is Ray Wilcox, and I live in Panama City, FL. I do videos, mostly Short films for my church http://www.eastgatefellowship.net/ with a small thing called 5forty2 Productions. Recently, I partnered up with Dustin, and we’ve created a media company http://www.autumnfades.com/ . I also have family and friends that tend another church in town http://www.paloaltochurchofchrist.com/ which has an Orphanage in the Ukraine that they support. Well, recently I was approached by the Missions Minister about creating a DVD to use in his presentations for other churches. I of course accepted the challenge and we set up a date that I could gather all of the pictures that he had, as well as shoot some interview footage to use as the background audio for the film. The day before our meeting, I get a call from Kenny Payne and it kinda went like this. “Hey Ray, I gottta crazy question for you. How would you like to go to the Ukraine on Jan 23rd, and stay for three weeks with me…. And I’ll pay your way?” Now to some people, this might not sound like an invite to the keys or to some tropical island, but in my mind I really looked at this as incredible offer that I would have never of imagined.
So this is three days ago, I told him that I’d get back after some talking to the family and a whole lot of praying. I made a mental list of all the reasons I shouldn’t go and they went something like this:

1) WE’RE BROKE
2) My wife would never let me go for that long of a time frame
3) I work full time and they won’t let me off for that long
4) I am currently in a legal battle in trying to have delinquent tenants evicted from our house in Ft. Lauderdale
5) I may not have permission to take a camera
6) I have no cold weather clothes/gear
7) We just started a business and my partner would think I’m cheesing out on him

Of course there are other thoughts but you get the idea. So from the point of the phone call on, I watched as the lord quickly opening doors with almost all of the issues that I thought I would have. As of this time I am looking at only a couple of issues that need to be worked out, and if they do, then it seems as though this is where the lord is leading me to go. I’m trying to always keep a level head on my thinking and not let a god thing turn into a Ray thing. I still need as many prayer of discernment as I can get, as well as the understanding from all of those that I would be leaving behind for that time frame. I do know this part so far and that is the trip has been changed to only two weeks in order to make it more accessible for me and work.
On Monday if all goes well, I will be able to confirm with Kenny that I will be able to go. I will be using this Blog to keep track of my days as I am gone in order to keep anyone who is interested in my adventure in the Ukraine.
Please pray for me and my family in order that may make the decisions in these matters and please feel free to keep in touch with your comments.