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Sergei, Shamil, Sasha, John, Lydia, Ira

Steve Wiggins sang a song that I like with the tag line "all the darkness in the world can't put out the light of the smallest flame." When we went into the juvenile prison a couple of weeks ago, we saw some of that in action.

First, was the kid like curiosity that my watch brought out in Sasha. Sasha is a regular at the Bible study and told me that for him, it's a place of safety and hope-unlike the rest of the prison. When we were leaving, Sasha asked how old my watch was and when I told him it is at least 10 years old, he was shocked. When he asked what happens when the battery dies, I took off my watch and gave it to him and told him to shake it as it is a kinetic watch that self-winds. You would have thought that I'd given Sasha a time machine. All of a sudden, a 16 year old orphan became a 7 year old kid, shaking the watch, showing it to everyone, and smiling like there was no tomorrow. He gingerly handed it back and gave me a big hug as we left.

New room

Before that, Alexander, one of the prison officials, gave us a tour of where the boys live. Sergei told me that something had changed in the place as before, they never would have shown us that place. Alexander showed us two rooms with many beds and said that this will be where the new guys will live. Ukraine is going from 10 to 4 juvenile prisons and this one will take many of the boys. He also showed us a bathroom that the boys had redone themselves-they did a great job and you could see Alexander's pride in them. They need some help with things like chairs and cubicles for clothing so I told Alexander that we would help with that. He said that will mean a lot.

Bathroom redone by guys

This month marks 15 years that we've been going into that colony. While it's still a tough place, I can see how the Lord has blessed it, made it better and provided a more humane place for the guys. I think that Lydia Petrovna's presence and her love are key to that. Her love for the Lord and for her boys is a strong light in there.