Do you ever feel like you've lost your fight?

His father took him by the hand, looked him in the eyes and said, "Son, I am old and sick. Leave me. You have a chance at life, but only if you run. So run."

That was 17 years ago. Johnny paid $1,500 to a man that promised to fly him out of Babylon, away from Saddam Hussein's tyranny. Johnny found himself in newly independent Ukraine as a refugee.

It took him about five years to learn the language. He married, has since become separated, and has two little girls. Diana ("Like the princess," he told me) is ten, and her younger sister, Angelina, is seven.

Johnny spends his days in a small booth selling pastries and pizza outside the metro stop near my apartment.

I walk by this booth and many others on a daily basis, usually in a hurry, and almost always with my iPod pumping rhythms and melodies into my ears.

Tuesday, however, I was heading somewhere but I wasn't in a hurry to get there and along the way decided a piece of pizza would be nice. So with one earphone in and the other dangling I ordered. I stumbled over one of the words, giving myself away that I don't actually speak this crazy language, and he asked me something. So I gave my pat answer, "Sorry, I don't speak Russian" (said in Russian and yes I'm aware of the irony).

The next sentence caused me to remove the other earphone from my ear and pay attention.

"Are you from America?" he asked.

Shocked I replied that I was and from there conversation continued. He told me that he once spoke very good English but after 17 years of speaking Russian and with no English practice he has forgotten a lot.

I spent the next twenty minutes standing at his shop window and talking. He told me a great deal about his life and how hard it is in Ukraine. He works six days a week because, as he said, "Sunday is the Lord's day." However he only averages about $10 a day.

I never expected to make a friend in the market by my home, and I guess he never expected some American kid to show up at his stand. It completely made his day to have someone to speak English with and I promised to return again for pizza and more of the story.

For me it was also a reminder that God shows up in the most unexpected ways, but usually I am in too much of a hurry to notice. I have lived in my new apartment now for two months and this was the first time I stopped at this stand. I cannot helps but see that God knew Johnny needed some encouragement and, for some reason, God decided to use me.

Has God shown up in any unexpected ways in your life lately? If not, maybe He is just waiting for you to slow down enough to let Him.

At the turn of the 20th century millions of Ukrainians left their homeland, emigrating to Canada and the US. Ivan Franko, a Ukrainian writer, said of his country that it was "Africa in the Heart of Europe". I find that to be an interesting and striking statement.

It never ceases to amaze me really. The social divide here is glaringly obvious to me as I notice such posh brands as Bentley, Maserati, Hummer and Aston Martin (to name a few) parked along downtown streets right in the face of babushkas in multiple ragged layers trying to sell their wares to passersby. The wealthy become wealthier and the poor work, borrow, beg, steal and become poorer.

Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, Ukraine is both tenacious and fragile. The people of Ukraine have a history of being invaded and made captive to others and this year marks a mere twenty years of independence. As a people group they are amazingly resilient and strong, but history has left them wary, searching for hope and fairly cynical about the future.

Many of the students I work with look longingly on the thought of going to America or just another country because, let's face it, the grass just seems much greener on the other side. Is it really though?

The American Dream seems to be a glamorous thing worldwide, this idea of freedom, prosperity and success for anyone, regardless of social status or ethnicity as long as you are willing to work hard. It is the whole "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" deal. It is a great idea but I think we too often have a WRONG idea of what freedom, prosperity and success are. Too many people go after the dream and end up in a nightmare.

With that said, I love America. As Lee Greenwood would say, "And I'm proud to be an American..." I recognize how blessed I was to grow up there and know that many of the opportunities I have had just do not come to the majority of the world's populations.

I also love Ukraine - this place where the old paradigms are meeting the modern world and in some odd way they are mingling and trying to function together.  I want the students I work with to see and know that what appears to be greener grass is sometimes a mass of brambles. I want them to see that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" doesn't just mean lots of money, amazing looks and being able to do whatever you want whenever you want.

I hope for  students to love Ukraine and to see the beauty that is here. I hope they will see that they are part of the answer to the injustices they are faced with daily. I want them to see that God cares about each of them and that ultimately to have hope and a future they have to follow Christ.

As Charles Habib Malik, former president of the UN General Assembly, said at the Pascal Lectures in 1981, "'Change the university and you change the world." Maybe in some ways Franko was right and Ukraine is an "Africa in the Heart of Europe," but I don't think it has to stay  that way.

It seems there is a never ending list of justice issues that need to addressed in our world. Really what do we expect from a bunch of fallible, sinful, wicked humans running around? One issue that is gaining more and more media attention is that of human trafficking.

I had the opportunity to get to know some amazing women in Thailand that are forced daily to sell themselves. They are beautiful girls but you can see the emptiness, the hopelessness, in their eyes and it will suffocate you. It was a joyous occasion when earlier this year one of the girls that I came to love sent me an e-mail with pictures of her no longer in the bars but working with a Christian organization.

Today I came across a disturbing article from Myrtle Beach, SC. It is about the luring of foreign university students with summer work programs in the U.S. It isn't that I am unaware. I know the problem is huge and it is a major concern for the university students I work with in Ukraine. Here is a brief excerpt:

An Associated Press investigation found students forced to work in strip clubs instead of restaurants. Others take home $1 an hour or even less. Some live in apartments so crowded that they sleep in shifts because there aren't enough beds. Others have to eat on floors.

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They are among more than 100,000 college students who come to the U.S. each year on popular J-1 visas, which supply resorts with cheap seasonal labor as part of a program aimed at fostering cultural understanding.

A Ukrainian woman who said she was forced to strip in Detroit asked the AP to identify her only as Katya, because she fears for her life.

Katya, who used the same alias when testifying to Congress in October 2007 about how sex trafficking brought her to the U.S., said she was studying sports medicine in Kiev back in 2004 when her boss told her about the J-1 program.

Instead of waitressing for a summer in Virginia as she'd been promised, however, Katya and another student were forced to strip at a club in Detroit. Their handler confiscated their passports and told them they had to pay $12,000 for the travel arrangements and another $10,000 for work documents, according to court records.

Katya said he eventually demanded she come up with $35,000 somehow, by dancing or other means.

"I said, 'That's not what I signed here for. That's not right.' He said, 'Well, you owe me the money. I don't care how I get it from you. If I have to sell you, I'll sell you.'"

The women were told that if they refused, their families in Ukraine would be killed, Katya said.

Over the next months, the two men beat the women, threatened them with guns and made them work at Cheetah's strip club, court records state. Katya said one of the men also forced her to have sex, a memory she still struggles with.

The two men are now in prison, and Katya's old boss in Ukraine is a fugitive. Katya was allowed to stay on a different visa designed for victims of human trafficking and other crimes, and her mother was allowed into the U.S. because of threats on her life in Ukraine.

(to read the entire article click here)

Many of the students I have come to love participate in Work and Travel programs during the summer. I read this and thought, "That could be someone I love." I am simply not ok with that thought. Part of my responsibility is raising awareness, not just in Ukraine, but here because trafficking isn't just an "over there" problem. It is here, right outside our doors. Home of Chick-Fil-A, the Braves, and Turner Broadcasting Network, Atlanta is also one of the top cities in our nation for trafficking and there are organizations standing up and fighting.

Personally I love it when I see a campaign that is creative and well done. To raise awareness about this issue, director Brandon McCormick has created a 30-minute film called the Candy Shop: A Fairytale about the Sexual Exploitation of Children. Street GRACE and Whitestone Motion Pictures have partnered together to launch a 12-month campaign against CSEC, which is the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

I encourage you to take 30 minutes of your time to watch this film online and then visit their Web site to find out what you can do to be part of ending this atrocity.

Watch THE CANDY SHOP online or visit WWW.STOPTHECANDYSHOP.COM

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Below is a feature story from our most recent CCX newsletter. Vika is a friend of mine and a precious young woman of God who I look forward to spending more time with once I return.

My name is Victoria. I am a graduate of Kyiv Linguistic University. When I was a sophomore, my friend invited me to the CCX English Club that was held in my university. I really liked it there because people were so friendly and welcoming. When summer was approaching, they invited me to the CCX English camp. During the entire camp, I was quite reserved and didn't want to hear anything about God. But thanks to my wonderful small group leaders who were open and vulnerable during our Bible studies and discussion groups, my attitude began to change. As a result of camp, I became a Christian and began attending a church.

My lifestyle has changed completely and I grew up in my faith. It was a radical witness to my family and my fellow students when I refused to go night clubs in order to get drunk. Instead, I decided to praise and serve God. In my church, I joined the Teen Challenge team - the ministry dedicated to rescuing people with various addictions. This ministry is important to me because I have an alcoholic father. I am an outreach leader in this ministry, leading outreaches to homeless people and drug addicts.

When I look back, I see how powerfully my life has been changed by God through CCX-Ukraine and through my believing friends. I am so thankful that CCX-Ukraine exists!

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My throat looks like Rudolph's nose and swollen, my sinuses are protesting loudly like hammering tiny little fists against my skull, and swallowing feels like I am forcing a fist down. I have spent most of the past couple of days in silence and I think I've consumed at least a gallon of hot tea a day.

I was supposed to speak Sunday morning but this cold stole my voice and my energy, reducing me to a pile of bones and muscle dragging about the house.

I know it may sound coincidental to some, but not to me. It seems I am always fighting for my voice.

Soft spoken most of the time I often go unheard. When I speak, to my ears, it often sounds loud, slicing the air, and hanging there nervously, but to everyone else it's just above the din and becomes lost amidst the noise.

Funny how we can perceive things so differently about ourselves than what is true.

As a child I had a song for everything. Grandpa and I would sit in the shade of the pecan trees and sing hymns together. When he was busy I would sit on the swing for hours content in writing my own spontaneous tunes. I proudly stood by him in the choir on Sunday mornings and sang my heart out. Older now and a music lover, I am deeply conscious of my pitchy, wavering voice so I tap out a rhythm instead.

At youth camp a counselor once told me God would use my voice. In middle school someone told me how ridiculous I sounded. Guess who I chose to believe?

Somewhere along the way the enemy stole my voice and the past few years I've been fighting to get it back. As a daughter of the King I have things to speak and they will be declared. I have songs to sing and I'm not out to win American Idol anyway.

Someone may have stolen my voice, but I'm taking it back! Will you help me?

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I need to raise $1,100 a month for the next 12 months to continue doing what God is calling me to do. You can be instrumental in helping change the lives of university students in Ukraine. Would you consider giving to bring hope not just during this season but throughout the year. If you would like to support my work there, please click here for more information.