By Ellen Murray

When Nadia Cervantes returned from a 10-day trip to Kiev on Nov. 2, she brought back a gift for her soul.

Part of a 10-person mission from a ministry team at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Cervantes was one of three Los Altans who visited Kiev to partner with the Missions Support Agency in the Ukraine. The mission helps orphaned children and men and women who are drug addicts or victims of abuse.

The group included a dentist, two dental hygienists, two nurse practitioners, two therapists and three lay people. In addition to Cervantes, Los Altos residents dentist Rob Cisneros and dental hygienist Sue Hiller were part of the team. Headed by group leader Bennie Ingraham from the Menlo Presbyterian staff, the team worked at two large homes outside of Kiev funded by church donations: a Christian orphanage, “My Father’s House,” and a women’s addiction and abuse recovery center, “Hope Women’s Center.”

They also worked at the Hydro Park Center, serving hot meals at noon to street children.

“There were up to 45 children there every day,” Cervantes said. “It was the only meal they got.”

Nurse practitioners treated the street children for common medical problems such as strep throat and head lice.

A homemaker and former marketing consultant, Cervantes was of particular help on the mission because she speaks Russian. Her parents immigrated from the Ukraine many years ago.

The mission team slept in a small apartment, sharing beds, and served the community every day. “This was not a vacation,” Cervantes said. One of the trip highlights for Cervantes was a children’s birthday party the mission hosted. “We dressed up as clowns and the children were so excited. It’s one of my warmest memories.”

The medical team had already set up and stocked a clinic inside My Father’s House, a cheerful, blue three-story facility run by a doctor. Medical professionals used translators, like Cervantes, to communicate with the patients. Many of the children had never seen a doctor before so the team used puppets to help allay their fears. The doctors practiced what they described as “pure medicine” unencumbered by insurance, payments or paperwork.

A longtime resident of Los Altos, Cervantes and her husband Julian have two children, Laresa, a senior at Mountain View High School, and Nicholas, who attends Los Altos Christian School.

For more information on the Kiev mission, or to find out how to make donations for the mission’s regular shipments to the city’s needy, call Bennie Ingraham at 323-8619 or log on to the church Website at www.mppc.org/mission.