Generous thanks from far away

As you know I received the packet of papers that told us what Galina and the director of Mirnoe Children’s Home purchased. ?Oh wait, I didn’t tell you that part. ?That’s right, I put it in the monthly Sweet Hope newsletter and posted something on Facebook. ?You should totally subscribe (here*). ?Included in that were thanks from the Slavyanka women’s society and from the orphanage and all of the receipts from the purchases. ?We also received photos. ?Technically I’m not supposed to post photos of the children, but I’m going to break the rules a little.

Anyway, the orphanage purchased warm clothing, shoes, medical equipment (including a new stethoscope for the doctor and nebulizers), a vacuum cleaner, candy and a digital camera. ?In addition, the Slavyanka women purchased a small photo album for each of the children in the house so they can keep photos of birthdays, holidays and their friends. ?Even more, Slavyanka has taken patronage of the orphanage and is appealing to the people of the territory for support. ?They will work to make repairs on the building and ensure these children are looked after.

All of this is thanks to you and your generous support. ?You provided a light to the world of children who would have otherwise been forgotten.

Tuesday afternoon I received a card in the mail from Galina with the newspaper article about the work that is being done in Mirnoe. ?I know a man at our church who used to work for the US embassy in Moscow and speaks and reads Russian. ?He served as our translator for the last packet of papers we received and I had planned on asking him again if he would translate this article. ?However, you know me and my “gotta have it right now.” ?I thought surely the internets would have something that could translate this for me. ?Ahh teh googles knows (most) all.

I found an OCR (optical character recognition) program that reads cyrillic. ?Only it doesn’t translate it. ?I had to use a separate site for that. ?The other challenge was the article was long so I had to break it into bits so that I could find the line breaks and what not. ?That way the translator could read most of the text.

Now we all know that an online translator doesn’t work that well, but it works well enough to get the gist of what an article is trying to say. ?An hour later I had the article.

The reporter interviewed Galina and she talks about how traditionally she helps us arrange a “sweet” Christmas?for the children, but this year plans abruptly changed. ?She mentions how she talked with the regional official and wanted to find children who desperately needed the help. ?The governor said that Mirnoe would be happy to accept your help.

The part that I love is the article says:

You are not confused, the New Year has already passed. ?It turns out that it is not important what day it is, but the occasion can always be found.

The article goes on to talk about the conversations between me and Galina about my confusion over where Mirnoe was and the trouble we had in getting the money there. ?Since the New Year holiday had passed Slavyanka “disposed” of the money differently. ?The purchased a vacuum cleaner, supplies for a medical cabinet, clothing and shoes.

The article concludes – We had the opportunity to remove these children from our memory, but the women of Slavyanka [and you] have given them a place to preserve their memories. ?They will help them with building repairs. ?We shall help.

This article is a reminder of the generous work all of our Sweet Hope patrons have provided. ?Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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