sometimes a great notion

Dear Friends,

Sometimes a thing happens and you know when you are doing it and when it is over, you have done such a thing that has made you in your own mind, a hero. Over the years, stories can get bent and stretched and pulled to be grander, the characters more resolute and indomitable, danger heightened. One day I will write about in detail, But the simple facts are:

-Early in December three children, Andre, Olya and Anya ran away from The Way Home.

-There were phone calls and rumors, but no one really knew for certain where they went.

-On Jan 9th, Andre returned.

-At 11pm that night, Alla, a psychologist who works with me, the boy, Andrea and I, took an all night train to a city called Venitsya. Arriving before daybreak, we traveled by a bus to a remote village outside the city at six in the morning in the dark with tiny snow flakes falling, we knocked on the door of an old cottage about the size of your living room. Along with several cats, a man and a woman, an ancient stove and metal sink, we found the two girls, Olya and Anya. I know it was their choice to run away and they wouldn't say it, but they were glad to see us. We took the train and brought them home.

Total cost of trains and food at café's and grocery stores and taxis $128

Total time taken: 19 hours and 30 minutes

Feeling of satisfaction: priceless



I need good used digital cameras and laptop computers (mac or pc). These are the kinds of things I don't need to buy new, if you have any to donate, please write to me.
Madeleine Barab from DC and also Eckerd College just finished about three weeks volunteering with us... and flew home. Here's a candlelight photo and one with Ann who is from Odessa and works with me.
Many of you have asked about my time with NBC… they have been to Ukraine twice now to film. I have an appointment with Ann Curry for Monday, Feb 9th but she's a busy lady. I'm thrilled to be working with these folks, they are busy professionals but with heartfelt interest. While Im in New York , I will be attending Leslie Hawke's fundraising event and visiting the church my mother grew up in, Madison Ave Presbyterian Church. I didn't learn till a few months ago that I was named Robert, by my parents, after Mr Robert Lewis who was the church administrator at Madison Ave many years ago.







Yesterday I arrived back in the states and plan to be in:

Asheville NC till Wednesday jan 27

Florida first two weeks of Feb

New York feb 7-9

Back to Florida

Atlanta for day

Portland Oregon feb 14-19

Memphis area maybe feb 20-22

Then Atlanta and North Carolina, feb 23-26

Virginia and Maryland, Feb 27-early march

Back to North Carolina till march 16 when I fly back to Ukraine.

Grace and peace,

Robert Gamble

--
--
We do not Believe in
Ourselves until someone
Reveals that deep inside us
Something is valuable,
Worth listening to, worthy
Of our touch, sacred to our touch.
Once we believe in ourselves we can
Risk curiosity, wonder, Spontaneous
Delight, or any experience that reveals
The human spirit.

e.e. cummings

Dr. Robert Gamble, D.Min. Th.M.
www.thischildhere.org
cell in states 828 301 7104
in Ukraine +380636117928

If you are interested in donating, visit: www.thischildhere.org

You can scroll down the page and click on donate. If you don't have or want a PayPal account click on "continue" for "Dont have a PayPal account?" It will take you to a page to enter credit card info.

or you can mail a check to This Child Here, 245 Seaview Ave. Daytona Beach, Fl 32118.

Either way, I would like to thank you, so send an email to me. robertgam@gmail.com

My address in Ukraine:
This Child Here,
C/O Doroga K Domy (The Way Home)
Str. Sofievskaya 10
Odessa, 65082,
Ukraine

Sometimes i am asked how it is that children take a bath when they are living on the street. Sometimes they find a hose or fawcet either outside a building on in the pipes below, Most times they use a large bowl. More than two weeks ago a group of children living under a bank, asked for a bowl to bathe. Only a few days later, the producer (Justin Balding standing with me) and cameraman from NBC, spotted such a bowl, left behind by kids who abandoned another location underground. They made it a present to the group under the bank.

But in the passing of time, after raids by the police and one kid beaten by someone on the street, this group abandoned the location under the bank. three times i returned to the bank to find the space beneath empty. but each time, I spotted the bowl.

Two days ago I woke up thinking, I have to get the bowl! A light snow was falling as I walked up my street to the bank. the police were there again, i saw them going down and back up again... searching for street kids. not eager for an encounter with them, i waited in the local food shop, when they left I went down for the bowl.

Now, of course, this bowl has taken on a kind of sacred status. All those street kids used it to bathe, i am imagining a rich history behind it's ownership... some of you may remember the film, the Red Violin.... I am imagining a documentary The Red Bowl,

I am reminded too, of what i would do in worship once a year, place a bowl of water in the sanctuary, invite all to come forward and dip their hands in while i repeated, "Remember your baptism." or of the time Jesus washed the feet of the disciples...

for either , i've got just the bowl..



attached is the exciting photo of me holding the bowl.
grace and peace in the new year

Robert Gamble





for the first time, now, people can go online to donate, visit:
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It’s almost OK.

Today I sat down to talk to Ina who is in charge of our street patrol. My intention was to let her know my hopes and plans with certain street kids, Zoluchka, for example, whose nickname means Cinderella. She is thirteen and looks to be about ten. She has ten sisters and brothers who live I don’t know where, and I am trying to get her to come to The Way Home and find out if there is room at The Way Home should she decide to come… but Im getting away from the point of this story. When I sat down with Ina, I said, “OK….”

And she interrupted by saying, “(and this was all in Russian) Robert, you always say ‘Ok’ at the beginning of what you are going to say and it’s not OK; I know it’s not OK because we wouldn’t be sitting down and talking unless something was NOT OK. We haven’t gotten to OK yet, It’s not until we get to the end that you are supposed to say OK!”

So, it is almost Christmas too, it’s not quite OK. We wait, Advent suggests, We live in hope.

I’m guessing that what is on your mind this Christmas is the economic crisis. Spending is down in the States. Americans wait and hope… as do many people across this world, for an end to this financial crisis.

Here, even, I am feeling the crunch. Two banks refused to give me American dollars; only one bank in the city center will take my visa card and draw dollars from my account. I pity those who do not have a foreign account. “Nyet” is what they get. So people are losing cars and other items bought on credit if payment is due in dollars. The reason is clear. The dollar has gone from 5 grievnas to 10 in the past six weeks; now it is back to 8. People want dollars because they can put them under the mattress and make money a month later when they exchange them for dollars.

Here, they wait, for an end to the “Creesis.”

Here are some things I am waiting for:



I am waiting for Andre, Anya and Olya to return. Two weeks ago they left for the streets and They left The Way Home two weeks ago to live on the streets.
“We are grown up now and don’t need The Way Home or This Child Here; we can make it on our own.” Olya just turned 13.
These are pictures of all three attached from the last time we went shopping for clothes.





I am hoping to bring several kids, like Zolushka, Igor and Artur into the shelter of The Way Home. In this new band of children that I discovered two weeks ago are some kids who are younger than most and they are sniffing a lot of glue. There are usually 8 to 10 kids living under the Privat Bank. Below are Artur 13 and Igor 15.

Then below that Tanya, Vika and Zoloushka on a mattress where they were living below the Bank.






Sometimes I have seen as many as 15 when other street kids come to visit. It is an odd arrangement, the Bank representing the market crisis on top, the band of street kids representing that crisis, living below.



grace and peace this Christmas
Robert Gamble