By Roy Smith
Just 21 miles from the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, the world's worst civilian atomic disaster in history, children play in the little village of Kovpyta in rural Ukraine. From the looks of things, they appear to be normal, active and healthy children-and for the most part, they are. But, looks can be deceiving.
These children, all of whom have been born since the disaster, live in a radiated environment and run a higher than normal risk for serious diseases including cancer. Doctors treating these children have insisted that they need a six-week break to allow their immune systems to strengthen. But where can they go? Who will take them in?
Families in the Norfolk, Portsmouth and Blackwater Baptist associations have answered the call and opened their homes to 15 children and two adults who arrived June 18 and will be spending six weeks with their Virginia Baptist hosts.
From the airport, the group was taken in a bus owned by Woodland Heights Baptist Church in Chesapeake to Azalea Baptist Church, where they met their host families.
As I flew with them from Dulles to Norfolk, they explained that they thought they could recognize their host families by the picture that had been sent to them via a volunteer team. The children wanted to test themselves to see if they could identify their particular host families. I relayed this to Shirley Smith, my wife and the chair of the steering committee that put this ministry together. She had the host families stand around the wall of the fellowship hall in family groups. The children successfully identified their particular host family.
Each child is staying with a different family. The Norfolk Association developed a partnership with its sister association in the district of Chernihiv in Ukraine eight years ago and many mission teams have visited Kovpyta.
Most of the 8-, 9- and 10-year-old attend the third grade in the village school. They are accompanied by their English teacher and the village dentist, who also leads the local Baptist house church fellowship. The adults serve as chaperones and interpreters.
While in Virginia, the children will have many new experiences, including visiting a shopping mall and supermarket, attending a baseball game and celebrating the Fourth of July. They have also experienced their first airplane ride, traveled out of their country, seen the “Jesus” video in Russian and had the opportunity to live in another culture and speak a different language far from their parents and familiar surroundings.
While here, each child will receive a general medical and dental check-up and an eye examination as well. Most will require several follow-up dental appointments. The children are very appreciative of another first for them-painless dentistry!
Many doctors and dentists in the Tidewater area are donating their services. Sheila Hardee, for example, a member of King's Grant Baptist Church, is providing dental services for four of the children.
Each week the children enjoy a group activity, including pony rides, picnics, visiting a children's museum and a Christian camp experience.
Church and individual sponsors have provided $2,000 per child to pay for travel and insurance. On July 30, the children will return to their homes with a duffle bag full of clothes and a heart full of memories. They will share the clothes with their families. The memories they will share with their children and, we pray, grandchildren in the years to come. Clothes and other goods are also being sent to the church so the entire village will benefit, not just the families with third graders.
When they return, they will also take the hearts of their host families-having stolen them while here. Meanwhile, the host families have the satisfaction of having experienced a cross-cultural ministry without ever leaving home. They and the children they cared for have learned that the language barrier isn't really a barrier because love translates into any language.
Special to the Herald
Roy Smith is associational missionary for the Norfolk Baptist Association.