Psychiatric Orphanage

Psychiatric Hospital

On my last full day in Ukraine, my team drove to visit a psychiatric orphanage. My visit there was unlike anything I’ve experienced in my life, and something I’m still processing. This orphanage takes care of people with special needs ranging from 6 to 52 years old. You can’t really call them kids, so I’ll call them patients (even that word is problematic, but I’ll get to that later). 

When we arrived, we started unpacking the clothes and food that we had brought. A lively patient named Ivan, who looked about my age, ran up to us and immediately started helping us unpack the van. He looked at me and I smiled, and he gave me the biggest smile back and then reached out to touch my hand. His smile held so much joy that I actually felt it in my heart. While we were outside many of the patients came up to us and shook our hands or walked with us. 

One of the nurses lead us to different rooms inside the orphanage. The building was filled with a smell that made us want to bury our noses in our shirts, and we were told that there is one nurse for every 22 patients. The rooms were divided by disability and severity. In each room, we would come in and say “dobre den” (which means “good day” in Ukrainian), walk around to hold hands with the patients, and pray over them.

We walked up to a door with light and noise pouring out into the hallway. Rudy, our ministry contact, pushed us into the doorway and all along the edges of the room were patients, some sitting in chairs yelling and others sitting on the ground rocking back and forth. Fear was rising in me and my thoughts raced, Emily, see these people the way Jesus does! Love the least of these. Love people even when it’s uncomfortable! 

A patient that was on the ground came over to me and grabbed my hands. I took some advice from Bob Goff’s book Everybody, Always and thought to myself, I am going to love this girl for the next 30 seconds. I can do at least that. She started stomping and dancing, so I joined with her for a few minutes and we twirled around. As we left that room I didn’t feel my heart grow three sizes or something dramatic like that, but a thought crossed into my mind…”Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). That was Jesus. I held back tears. 

As we walked around those rooms I willed myself to see them as beloved daughters and sons of the Creator of the Universe. My heart hurt as I pulled my hand away from each person I got to touch, my mind racing with thoughts of what their future looked like. The craziest part was some of them weren’t even kids. They were adults, well into their 20s or 30s, but they were the size of elementary schoolers.

They had music playing in the backyard area, so I joined with a girl dancing and I watched her laugh and smile as I twirled her around. She never let go of my hand and would bend down to kiss it every few minutes. When it was time to go I said goodbye and she pulled me into a big hug and kissed me on the cheek. It’s hard to explain, but it almost felt like I was just saying goodbye to a friend. We got into the van and I felt sad and relieved and exhausted all at the same time.I kept asking myself Why are we here? After thinking and praying about, I think we were there for two reasons. The first is to spread the word and find help (read below to figure out what that looks like). The second is that Jesus gave me a wider view of what His love looks like.

How We Can Help

This orphanage is out in the middle of the mountains. The patients there don’t fit into the “perfect country” that many people in Ukraine desire, so they are hidden away. These patients don’t have doctors or diagnoses or medication. Over 200 patients there are taken care of by workers that they call “baby-sitters.” They do so much for the patients and love them so well, but they can’t offer the care they need. 

Rudy, our ministry contact for the orphanages, told us that they need help spreading the word about their need for a medical team. Do you know anyone who has a passion for orphan ministry or special needs diagnoses? This orphanage has over 200 patients that can’t help themselves and don’t have the staff to help them either. If you do, please contact me and I can connect you to the right people. 

And prayer! Join me in praying for God’s miraculous healing, for peaceful nights of rest, for hearts that would be filled with God’s love and peace, and that they would one day be able to join their maker in heaven experiencing the fullness of life in which it was intended. Also, please pray that the right people with the right skills would be connected with this ministry!

Love y’all, 

Em