WWYC Mentor Retreat
I’m finally home after a very long, but rewarding journey to Novosibirsk, Russia. The reason I went was to help lead the 2008 Mentor Retreat for World Wide Youth Camps. They are an international missions ministry focused on orphans in Russia and Ukraine. They host summer and winter camps for the orphans in which American mission teams will travel to both countries to conduct church camp for the children. During the camps Russian and Ukrainian mentors serve as translators for the Americans but they also form spiritual friendships with the orphans. After the Americans leave, these in-country mentors will continue their relationships with the orphans. It might be compared to our Big Brother/Big Sister program where at-risk kids are mentored and shown love from a caring adult.
One of the hard lessons I learned from this trip is that orphans in Russia are considered inferior by the culture and have a very small chance of becoming successful after leaving the orphanage. They suffer from “institutional syndrome” and may physically be 16 years old, but are in fact emotionally much younger. As a result, when they leave the orphanage at 17 or 18, they are not ready to face the challenges of living on their own and many fall into drugs, alcoholism, prostitution, and some commit suicide. The Russian mentors working with WWYC want to help the orphans avoid these pitfalls. So they start mentoring the orphans while they are still in the orphanage and build lasting friendships with them. They spend their own time and money taking the orphans to lunch, buying them clothes, and most importantly spending time in conversation with them. The mentors walk along side the orphans helping them make difficult decisions and preparing for life outside the orphanage. One of the goals of WWYC is to create a facility that will serve as a half-way house for the orphans. This sanctuary is several years away, but the need is immediate. It would serve as a respite for the orphans and a safe place for them to go, meet with their mentor, find compassion, have bible studies, gain life skills and rest.
The retreat that I helped lead with my brother Houston Heflin and Rob Browne was very similar to spiritual retreats here. We were led in textual studies by Houston out of Matthew 14 (Jesus walks on the water), and I took the group through team-building activities and helped apply the teaching with games and initiatives. We prayed together, played together, had good food, stayed up late talking, cried together, and made new friends as a result. Our goal for the retreat was to mentor the mentors, build them up through the Word and through our actions. We hoped to not only give them more tools to draw from as they minister to the orphans in Novosibirsk, but also to deepen their faith in Christ. We had very serious times together and very silly times too. But throughout the experience the Lord was present in powerful ways. Most of the mentors are Christians, but several of them have not yet given their lives fully to Him. Please continue to pray not only for the orphans but for these wonderful people who stand beside them and mentor them.
Houston teaching.
Buddy Ropers - a team building game also known as Group Knot
Group Lap Sit - this can be accomplished with a very large group too.
“Super” Olga and Olga “99″ navigating the mine field. They were being verbally guided through by a partner on the other side of the room.
Natalia preparing for the Trust Fall. This may seem familiar to us, but it was very threatening to some of the mentors.
Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers while I was gone. Wade and the boys did fine while I was away and I even came home to a semi-clean house and more food in the fridge than when I left. Some of you have asked about the cold…yes it was VERY cold (minus 10 degrees F). Siberia in February-what was I thinking? It was so cold my teeth hurt when I was outside. But I must say, the cold is not what I will remember most about this trip. I will remember the warmth of my new friends in Russia, late night tea, Super Olga’s tears, Pushcoff’s jokes, Houston trying to stay awake through jet lag, Rob sneaking upstairs to put little gifts on the mentor’s beds, walking arm-in-arm with Anna through the woods, eating new foods, Natalia shouting “make it 12″, the rubber chicken flying through the room, being so tired we were giddy, the joy of meeting new friends, but most of all the pain of saying goodbye.
