This summer, I will be cycling approximately 3,200 miles across the United States, from Washington, DC to San Diego, CA to raise money and awareness for Young Life’s ministry to disabled orphans in the Ukraine. I am contacting you to enlist your support for my journey and for the cause it will benefit.
The fact is that sanctity of human life is depreciating in value all over the world as global society becomes increasingly secular. Coupled with unprecedented apathy in the west, the application of dangerous, dehumanizing worldviews have left many to face social tragedies with a low expectation of human charity. I hope to dispel the idea, for at least a few people, that my generation is unwilling to make a difference. Below you will find details about the ministry in Ukraine, the fight for sanctity of human life around the globe, and the trip I am taking this summer.Background: The Global Assault on Human Rights
“So God created mankind in his own image” – Genesis 1:27
In 1922 a man named Leon Whitney formed the American Eugenics Society (AES). Whitney was the product of Darwin and Freud, believing that humans were not special or different from animals, but could be bred and perfected into a better species. All through the 1920’s and even into the 1930’s, America suffered from an egregious undervaluing of human life. Mentally disabled patients were treated terribly, stripped of their human dignity. It was not until 1972 that the AES was renamed and all but disbanded, perhaps as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. But a year later, in 1973, a landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, codified in America’s law a serious disregard for the intrinsic value of human life. Almost forty years later we are still fighting the skeptics who do not see men as the carriers of eternal souls but as highly evolved machines. That is America’s story, a story that pales in comparison to much of the rest of the world.
Crisis: Mentally Disabled Orphans in Ukraine
“A Father to the Fatherless…is God in his Holy dwelling.” – Psalm 68:5
The thing about human rights is that they are not merely American-human rights. As Christians, we are charged to look past the flesh that masks the soul within. Romans 8:5 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit.” It can be difficult, as Americans, to see the urgency in promoting civil rights on a global scale – until we remember that nationality is not a distinction God observes. In Ukraine, as in America one hundred years ago, mentally disabled children are scorned, rejected, and sent to state-run institutions. Since 1995 the number of abandoned children, disabled or otherwise, has increased 50% with estimates of total children living on the streets at over 100,000. Another 80,000 live in state run institutions. The state run orphanages for the mentally disabled are the worst, nicknamed “psycho neurological death camps”.
Solution: Young Life’s Ministry to Ukraine
Young Life is a Christian organization that ministers to children around the world through a variety of programs. In the U.S., they mentor students after school and host camps year round. In Ukraine, they work with privately run, faith-based orphanages that take in mentally disabled children. At the moment, the government in Ukraine prevents substantial monetary backing of the orphanages, so Young Life has looked to other means of getting the money into the country. To date, consistent financial support has been impossible. Young Life’s newest plan is to do actual business development in Ukraine to create sustainable, internal financial backing for their youth-outreach. I will be a part of a team heading to Ukraine to assist that effort in July.
Why 3,200 Miles Across America?
“The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me” – Psalm 137:8
Why the bike trip? This trip fulfills more than just my lifelong dream to sit on a really skinny seat for forty days: it is part of a larger movement to spotlight Young Life’s ministry in Ukraine. Beyond that my hope is that it will provide an avenue for those who would otherwise be unable to support the ministry in Ukraine.
If you would like to get on my email list you can subscribe to it on the right side of the page. Otherwise, this blog will keep you updated on the journey!
