Desana Blog

Elena is in the USA!

2010-06-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday and Friday

That's right, Elena Antropyanskaya Hibbler arrived in North Carolina on Thursday June 24th. Craig Miller, Desana Board Member and Russia Team Director, picked her up in Charlotte and drove to Winston Salem. It was a late night and an even earlier morning when Craig and Elena headed out to a morning Christian breakfast meeting with the New Canaan Society of Winston Salem. NCS is a gathering of men who want to experience life-changing relationships with each other under the umbrella of a friendship with Jesus. "Life-changing relationships" ..... that was a good fit for Elena to meet a few people and tell her story. From all reports so far, it was worth getting up early!

The rest of the day continued to be a whirl wind of meetings with groups and individuals. Craig and Elena were given many opportunities to tell the Desana story to people that shared our same mission - to improve and enrich the lives of the children of poverty. I know it was a very busy day to for both Craig and Elena. Watch for a report with more details when Elena gets a chance to catch her breath.

Saturday

The big event will be held Sunday evening when many interested people will attend one of Elena's famous Russian Dinners. If you are going to cook something good, you better do the shopping yourself..... From the looks of the shopping cart, this is going to some dinner! If you are reading this in the Winston-Salem area and are interested in learning more about the Desana Russian Projects, contact us here. We can get information pertaining to the Russian Dinner and the Desana Russian Projects to you.

Elena first contacted us in 2006 through a mutual friend, David Ray (Desana Board Member and Russia Team) and asked for assistance for an orphanage project she was running in her home town of Nizhny Tagil, Russia. When Elena returned home she found out that a children's shelter that had been funded by the Swiss had lost it's funding. She asked Desana if she could use the money to get this shelter back on it's feet. Of course Desana said OK and the Kind Heart Shelter Project was born. From that first $3,000 and this project Desana started to grow in Russia. Desana now has 5 active projects and numerous temporary projects. Elena is responsible for overseeing all of the work in Russia. Elena does all of this, plus teach school ---- and her Desana work is all volunteer! We hope to update Elena's profile to share some of her many accomplishments. She truley has improved and enriched the lives of the children she has touched in Russia.

We will try to keep posting information on Elena's US visit..... from here she will head to Michigan, then Texas, then California, and most likely back to Texas before she heads back to Russia. If you would like to ask Elena anything about what she does or has accomplished, click here.

Zhenya (Eugene) Vachaev (Volunteer)

2010-03-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

by Elena Antropyanskaya Hibbler

It all began 10 years ago when Zhenya's boss at work asked him if he would go to Orphanage #1 in town to deliver presents to the graduating children. At the Post-Soviet time it was still a tradition for large corporations to assist the needy - unfortunately, it perished with the collapse of the Empire. Zhenya could not say no, and so at the end of June that year he went to present a few graduating children with simple but pleasant gifts.

It was all it took - to see the faces of these kids, needy, lonely, in many ways bold and arrogant, but in more ways desperate - and to leave his heart there forever.

He convinced his wife, Tatiana, that the orphanage ministry is where God sees them. And this marked a beginning of a new era in their life.

For 10 years the door of their home has never been shut close. Children ring the doorbell and before Zhenya asks them any questions, he takes them into the kitchen to feed. He has 7 mouths to feed at home and a very meager budget, so it is a miracle that he always has enough for however many visitors show up.

Here is an extract from my most recent conversation with Zhenya, “No, I can’t do it tomorrow. I get off my night shift at work at 8 AM. I have to go grocery shopping for some students right away. I deliver the groceries next. Then I am cooking dinner at home, and then running errands for the transition home in Petrokamensk. Make sure you find some warm medium-size girl’s clothes. I need them in the early afternoon. And call the hospital, see if they can wait another day for me to visit Vitya…”
It is now hard to say where the kids get the number - but Zhenya's phone is known as orphans' emergency number. "Papa Zhenya, you don't know me. But I need help..."

For a long time Zhenya and Tatiana served the children by faith, believing that one day God would send more workers... and money. Help came from Texas, then Tennessee joined in along with many other faithful donors that have supported Zhenya's ministry through Desana.

Everyone who knows Zhenya trusts him completely. You should see him shop at the marketplace, choosing produce for HIS children, “I want the best – and give me a discount, will you? I am buying this for God’s children!” Desana founders, George and Kathy, found an accurate way to explain Zhenya, aka Eugene Vachaev, "He is one big heart..."

Carnival in Paucarbamba

2010-02-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

by Lou Whitaker

We were invited to a fiesta that the community were having on Saturday night which was great fun and their way of saying thank you for the help we have given so far. The centre of the celebration was a pre-chopped tree which was decorated with plastic kitchen utensil!

Everyone forms a circle and dances round the tree with couples taking it in turns to chop at the trunk. Whenever anything falls off the tree the children run to collect it and when the whole tree falls it is a mad rush to grab the gifts!