Back in Ukraine for Winter Camp...

 

 Right after Christmas, I hopped on a plane to Warsaw, Poland in order to do the arduous overland trip to Kyiv, Ukraine.  I am not a huge fan of cold or snow, but I wanted to be a part of Mercy Projects winter camp in a beautiful facility in Cherkasy.  This area is a few hours south of the capitol on the Dnipro river.  The kids were a lot of the same ones from summer camp, who come from all over this war torn country.  So we adults and young adult counselors had the benefit of building on relationships that were forged this summer in the Carpathian mountains.  Sometimes, when I mention that I am heading back into Ukraine, people will say, "Oh, they are still at war?"  Yes, regardless of the fact that it is rarely mentioned in our US news cycles, these people are still being bombarded with missile attacks, drone warfare, air raid sirens, decimated lives and interrupted electricity, careers and education.  Others wish to debate their political stance on whether we should have sent millions to this nation or if indeed their government is corrupt.  I don't go to Ukraine for political reasons, nor do my husband Marty and I do our work in other countries for that motive.  I go because innocents are unfairly being harmed, many of them friends for many years. I have been involved with Christian humanitarian projects with the same non-profit since 1997 and Marty has been going even longer. 

Yes, I believe that their government is corrupt, as is ours and every other government on the earth.  It is my humble opinion that no government puts their citizens first.  Vulnerable people are my number one concern, I cannot help what my nation or other countries choose to do at any given time. So that's my two-cents on that subject.

 At winter camp, I was privileged to do my best to spread love, joy and friendship to traumatized young people-who want a future like any other teen their age.  By the way, the thing that will always stand out from this camp in my mind is not the art projects that we did, although those were fun.  And the vibrant music and dancing, which was fantastic too. There were outside activities such as zip lines and obstacle courses that were phenomenal for confidence and team building the passion.  There was exceptional zest for life despite their circumstances.  But what I will always remember most is having to tour the bomb shelter that was essential for the safety of each and every person there, including myself, should life shattering weapons fall from the air.  Can you imagine sending your child to a winter camp that needed a bomb shelter as an amenity? 

 

                                

                                                                                                    

                                                

 

Joyous despite the war...

To find out more, visit WWW.Globalimpactworldrelief.org and find out about our partner,              Mercy Projects and all they do in Ukraine through family sponsorships and camps for children of war.

 

 

Summer Fun in a War-Torn Country

                                       https://youtu.be/Qsy4hX-eZlA?si=VA-5RogoZ0WS8LwM

 

https://youtu.be/nXGiKjwHygQ?si=rb-txapYBquk3M5W

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 How can you help those who have been rescued from the human/sex trafficking industry? Buy purchasing a child sized rocking chair for $50.  We donate 100% of profits to organizations that run rescue homes for the less than 1% who come out of and survive this world-wide atrocity.  Watch and share this video on your social media platforms. Thank you-

WWW.Globalimpactworldrelief.org

https://youtu.be/BowvMsis6bE?si=ARCeGoiG-0MRE5uw

 

See the Art in Me

Just a quick video that highlights all of the therapeutic art that I have been able to lead over the last few years.  We call the program, See the Art in Me.  If you or your organization wants more information, contact me at Poetryartist@yahoo.com

 

 https://youtu.be/UkJq9WFnf7U?si=PxT81tlg_0NtDAFh

Click on the triangle to be directed to Youtube

 

 

 

25 Years of Joy Bags!!!

 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2y2DlRFNcM

Poetry Art by Launa announces a New Limited Edition Print Release:

"Invisible"

Click on image to see it all

This is a limited edition run of 100 giclee signed and numbered prints.

Launa is offering it for $40. as a way to raise funds to bring her

"Art that Heals the Heart"

art therapy/character program to homes for youth who are victorious survivors of the human

trafficking industry, sexual exploitation, living in orphanages, children's homes, refugee camps and war zones.

Detail

The poetry and images will stir your heart for the children in our world who are invisible,

forgotten, abused, broken and thrown away...

 

INVISIBLE

Where this can be purchased.  Locally in Prescott Valley, Arizona at Poetry Art Studio,

call Launa at 928-533-5965 or email Poetryartist@yahoo.com

or on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PoetryArtbyLauna

 

 

This is an update-a very sad one, that connects to Marty's trip to the Kherson and Donbas regions of Ukraine in March...

You may have heard about the loss of life in recent bombings.  This one has hit close to home as a friend to many was lost in the village of Stanislov.

 https://www.globalimpactworldrelief.org/journal/5yljekhsrm6vwwqnzcg9d1excgzmuk

Marty and Jeff standing in front of a bombed out building in this decimated region of Ukraine

 Respite for the War Torn of Armenia & Ukraine

S’Mores and light-hearted songs belted out around the campfire.  Splashing waves on a pebbled beach, games of relay, bug bites and balloons.  Drippy watermelon, sunburned shoulders and peeling noses.  Especially ‘Best Friends Forever’ made in one sun-dappled afternoon.  Those few descriptive words pretty much sum up every summer camp that I attended as a child and the thousands that happen every July and August in the United States.

It is a rite of passage for many that gives children an opportunity to make relationships with kids they wouldn’t have ordinarily crossed paths with.  For a handful of youngsters and teens, summer camp can inform ideals, perspectives and forge a new path toward the future.

 Let me tell you about the camp that I just returned from.  It was held at the Black Sea in a town called Kobuleti in the former Soviet country of Georgia.  This was my third time doing camp at this location, but the first time returning in three years due to Covid restrictions.  What made this year unique was that we not only had an amazing week with Armenian youth affected by the war with Azerbaijan but were able to expand the program and offer this camp opportunity to Ukrainian orphans and Ukrainian children who have either been displaced by the war and living abroad and those living in the midst of dropping bombs.  You can imagine the relief they felt when they could sleep throughout the night without the jarring sounds of air raid sirens to wake them up!  

In total, we served 41 kids and upwards of 36 adults who also needed the rest and rejuvenation that the sea offered their traumatized minds and bodies. It was a week of perfect peace. As in previous camps, I got to lead Master Classes that specialized in trauma-informed therapeutic art projects.  This I do in so many great venues, but the chance to witness how well the children from diverse backgrounds meshed, accepted one another unconditionally and laughed unrestrained was a rare treat.  It was worth all of the effort that many volunteers who had come together made happen.  

This was an expensive undertaking sponsored by Mercy Projects of Murrieta, California (Mercyprojects.org). They paid and organized travel for people to travel overland from Ukraine to Hungary and join other Ukrainians to fly from Budapest to the Republic of Georgia.  They also organized a group to drive from Armenia, a group of volunteers to take a train from Armenia, who had already come from the U.S., Germany and Finland and a van full of Ukrainian kids at risk to come from Tbilisi.  All of the hours of logistical headaches were worth it when we witnessed joy saturated faces.  For so many of these young people, it was the greatest, most unforgettable week of their lives.  I know that I shed more tears than I have for years and my heart has been permanently enlarged by the courageous, inspirational, bubbly and strong adults and children that I got to know.

 

 

Global Impact World Relief is a long time partner with Mercy Projects and sponsor outreaches in Ukraine and Armenia through the sales of Poetry Art, tax-deductible donations and grant funding.  As in countless other countries we were also able to distribute JOY BAGS which were a blessing for their long journeys home.

 

If you have given in the past to any of our ministry outreaches, THANK YOU.  If you are considering a gift for the future, THANK YOU as well.  100% of all that we raise goes to the ministries that we promote.  We are a grass roots organization and enjoy pouring out to others from the abundant love that our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us.  

“To Whom much is given MUCH is required.”

One of the teens focusing intently on a project

Celebrating the beloved Armenian traditions of grilling meat and vegetables on the beach

 

 

Signing a Ukrainian flag which will be displayed proudly in a special needs center deep in Ukraine

It was a pleasure to meet up with old friends, this is Larissa whom I have known 26 years

And Armeni who I have served with at camp since 2018

 

Kids receiving goodies for their travel home in their tie-dye shirts!

IT'S NOT ABOUT POLITICS, IT'S ABOUT SUFFERING PEOPLE...

Marty is traveling in the central and eastern parts of Ukraine right now and he will certainly update this blog when he returns. They are distributing portable wood stoves, firewood, chickens, first aid items, warm socks and other necessities. It is a grueling and difficult trip because they are near bombed out areas and cities that are being presently shelled. These outreaches are with Jeff and Paula Thompson (Mercy Projects) and Ukrainian volunteers on the ground.

WWW.GlobalImpactWorldRelief.org

WWW.Mercyprojects.org

Art Programs 2022

Thank you everyone who participated in the art programs this year!  YOU added so much color and creativity to my world.

We held a once a month open studio for women, programs for children with special needs, a 6 week art/character program at a local juvenile detention and a program once a month at a home for men with traumatic brain injuries.

I can't tell you how much this blessed me and those

who participated! 

Friendships were forged.

   

fun was had!

Thank you also to those artisans who took the time and effort to come up with a project and help facilitate it:

Tricia, Ofie, Teri, Michelle, 

You ladies ROCK!

Thank you also for those who have donated art supplies, including JoAnn Fabrics Corporate.  

I was able to bring close to 100 pounds of supplies to Ukraine,

 two weeks after the invasion began. 

I can't wait to see what 2023 will bring!

 

Hey Friends,

I want to share part one (of three parts) of a radio interview that I recently did on Arizona Shine, "REAL TALK" with Ralene Challinor...

/Users/launastan/Desktop/Real Talk Program 7-24-22.mp3

 

https://ralenechallinor.wixsite.com/realtalkprescott/copy-of-latest-interviews-1

Look for the second and third part in the next few weeks! 

 

5:20 / 15:43

Just a reminder-

I give free art classes for kids with special needs, foster children, kids battling physical challenges, 

kids and adults with traumatic brain injury, those in detention situations and in the hospital. I have a 

large artist's studio that classes are held in, but also travel to those in the community who cannot 

come to me.  

We are always thankful for donated art supplies and finances as well as grants for running costs.

Please contact me if you have a group that you would like to have me lead a project or program with.

Poetryartist@yahoo.com     928-533-5965

Beauty From Ashes

I mentioned that I would share more about my trip to Ukraine in March and April.  I think the thing that stands out the most to me is how resilient, strong, brave and relentless the Ukrainian people actually are! Many people have opinions about what is happening in this war, but I want to let these two videos that I shot speak for themselves. They are a couple of incredible women and a small slice of their stories...

Nina escapes from Kyiv...

                                                         https://youtu.be/WQ8Bi5T4fXY

Luda turns tragedy into an opportunity...

                                                           https://youtu.be/Dbnakqfydmw

I encountered so many internally and externally displaced Ukrainians and one thing that I came away with is that they are turning their ashes into something powerful and beautiful.  I hope you take time to view the videos as I believe they will touch your heart and give you a personal perspective on this terrible and unjust war.

It is MORE than Enough

I want to share the latest piece of Poetry Art that I have finished and reproduced, (in greeting cards and signed prints.) I wrote the poetry in Krakow, Poland after traveling into Ukraine four times in 5 weeks to do what I could to help displaced Ukrainians and those who had to shelter in place with their children.  The poetry was inspired by a story that I was told of a young lady who was keeping a journal while bombs were falling all around her in Mariupol. As many of you understand, at least those of you that follow the news, this city has been decimated by constant shelling and bombing. In the diary that someone found, she told how she no longer cherished faraway dreams or even her future, but was thankful to just wake up another day.  It was "enough" for her.

This story changed my life. Every morning, I sit in bed now and pray (as I usually do,) but now I tell God that it is enough that I am alive, it is enough that I can breathe, it is enough that I can see and hear, it is enough, it is enough, it is enough....a million times over.  Life is such a fragile and precious gift.

The girl's journal was found in rubble, but at this time, her body has yet to be recovered.

The sunflower represents Ukraine, as they grow millions of sunflowers every season.  Sunflower seeds are a cash crop, as they make sunflower oil from it and ship it worldwide.  The blue and yellow in the background represents their flag. Blue for the sky and yellow for the crops of wheat, also an important crop for the economy.  While I was traveling in the west and southwest of Ukraine, I saw so many farmers on tractors plowing up the earth.  I was told that these fields and so many more in the west have never been cultivated.  Yet, they are now being sowed because the eastern part of the country is actually the bread basket of this fertile land, but because of the war and all the damage and devastation they cannot plow as usual.  Now the west is having to do the lion's share to make up for the deficit and to feed the entire country.  I painted this piece in record time-one week, after returning from my impactful trip to Ukraine.

Here is the artwork:

If you look closely, the seeds in the middle are people's faces, those whom I know, whom I met and several whom have perished.  Along the stem are people in various positions of displacement,  Around the stem and leaf are portions of Psalm 91 in the Ukrainian language and in the blue background is the entire chapter of Psalms 91.

Details:

            

Here is the poetry:

IT IS ENOUGH

It is enough that I have awakened to a new day

And that the sun warms my face

It is enough that I can taste another gulp of breath

And that it is delicious

It is enough to feel my chest rising and falling

To know that my heart is thumping in rhythm

It is enough to see the faces of my family

And hear them bantering like downy chicks in the yard

It is enough that our Father in a turquoise heaven adores me

Has memorized my name-Precious

It is enough to rejoice and worship unfettered, completely

In this simple sacred moment

It is enough to understand that all of these things are

Unwarranted gifts, irresistible and magnanimous

Now I realize that I don't need faraway dreams

Nor audacious plans to sustain my silent soul

Because of this present anguish and bewilderment

Ideas have melted like a mist

Today, in this very moment

I see with perfect lucidity...

It is enough

Being alive is more than enough!

This is being offered on WWW.Globalimpactworldrelief.org & https://www.etsy.com/shop/PoetryArtbyLauna 

as signed prints for $35. and cards 5 for $20.

All sales benefit Ukrainians and work being done in that country with our partner,

Mercy Projects. (Mercyprojects.org)

Living Like a Displaced Person

in a War Zone

Ukraine, March & April 2022: I just returned from 5 weeks in Ukraine, Poland (and a tiny jaunt into Hungary and Slovakia.) 

(Because of the vicarious trauma I believe that I am still sorting through, I am going to share this trip, my impressions and some of the things that I saw and experienced in multiple blogs. I have to piece it all together like a patchwork quilt and then lay those thoughts out on paper. This is part I am simply attempting to step into a displaced Ukrainian's footsteps.)

Is it possible to know what another human being is feeling, experiencing and grieving? I don't know.  Even if you walk right behind them, putting your feet directly into the mark that they have pushed into the dirt with their shoes, that human is living his or her own story.  But I believe empathy and Christian love demands that we come close to the surface of their reality to get a better understanding, to know what it means to be "them."  And so it has been here in Ukraine for me.  I have had the privilege and opportunity, to not only hear another's pain drenched account but to trudge behind thousands wearily waiting at the border, for too many hours to count-in hopes of being safe.  

I too have been hungry; thinking that there would be food soon only to watch it evaporate. As darkness happens and another curfew falls, I had to wait again for the sun to rise in order to eat. To figure out where I could get food. 

I have been awakened by air raid sirens at 4 am and have had to wait in the hallway with others, wrapped in blankets, trembling but not from the cold.  Uncertainty in every breath.  Tense and quiet, sharing a surreal experience together in a crumbling, concrete apartment block.  All anticipating what might come next.  

It could be an "all clear" signal or the crashing sound of a bomb, decimating and changing the histories of many-including myself.

 I didn't have to be here, I chose to be.  And yet, I have praised the Lord each morning for surviving the night.  I too have walked homeless, not knowing where I would lay my head that evening.  At times it with others who were just grateful to have a couple of square feet to stretch out and block out reality for a few hours.

Refugee shelters in churches and in basements of buildings. I slept in both of these for three nights.

 I have been unwashed for days, wearing the same clothes over and over until they smell like the fires that soldiers make in oil cans at night.  So many young men in army fatigues waiting by Molotov cocktails in used wine and vodka bottles at the checkpoints.  Tons of sandbags and concertina wire and cumbersome steel hedgehogs that wait to stop the invader's tanks.  I am not displaced and I am not a refugee, but I have tasted a morsel of the bitterness of this role that has been thrust upon so many people, who just want to live their lives as before. I understand a little better because I took this road. 

These people are brave.  

And still, even in all that, I am still just an observer in another's pain.  Perhaps, I can touch upon their existence-just a little closer emotionally than someone who is at home transfixed to the televised news.  Still I am separated.  Set apart by more than language and nationality.  Unity comes from shared desperation.  Each individual Ukrainian has a story to tell and much like the year that Chernobyl gave them bigger water to drink, this tale is again of uprootedness and uncertainty. I hope each one gets to share their trauma and that there will be a compassionate ear that will listen without judgement!

-Launa Stan (written in Lviv, Ukraine after sleeping in a shelter for refugees for the first time.)

To be continued....