Week 4

Tomorrow it's going to be 4 weeks since we have left the states. A little over 3 weeks since we've came to this city. Time has flown by. Let's go over what has happened thus far.
Throughout this time even though we did not have a house there yet, we have been faithfully visiting the village almost every day. We have spent alot of time walking around, getting to know the people in the village as well as doing activities with the kids, as you will see later on. Our group on the way to the village!



Our happy mission bus!
(the church was so kind as to loan it to us)



It was Nina's Birthday on June 17th! Happy Birthday Nina!



We met the kids that live in the village and have came several days just to play and do activities with them. Some of them have become very attached to us and follow us the second they see our bus enter the village. Alesha and Oksana are the kids that are around us all the time, followed by Angelina and Andrey (who are siblings). We also met a neat girl named Masha (Alesha's sister) who's 17 and is very kind to help us out alot. She also spends alot of time with us when we go to the village.









The church we attend here has an Indian fellow that attends their service. He goes to school here so he understands some russian, but not well enough to fully speak it. He speaks english better so when we attend any of their services, they are very excited to use us as translators. So far Olga and Chris have translated to him (from russin to english) during service and then Alina and Dima have translated him to the whole church (from english to russian).



The PE teacher of the school was very intrigued by us and very eager to put us to work. We glued "обои" for the senior classroom in the school. It was a two full day job. None of us have ever done it before so we were a little worried about how it would turn out, but with a little training, some hard work, and God's help- they look surprisingly good!

Before-






After-


The long awaited packages have arrived! We were very excited when they came. Even though we were the ones to buy everything for them and also to pack them, it was very exciting to open them and see what we got. Alot of supplies for the kids, for our village, and everyday things for us. One of the packages hasnt arrived, but we're still hoping for it. When they came, we crammed the boxes into our very tiny apartment hallway since the rooms have all our suitcases and beds.



Nina is our very own personal hair cutter!



Tanya Kanifolski has joined our group!





We had a movie night for the people in the village. We showed them the movie- "The day after tomorrow". It was very successful for our first time. We meet some more of the youth in the village, some of whom came to help us later. Prior to the showing we had to clean the auditorium that the school so graciously has allowed us to use and tape up the windows because even though it was eight, it was still light out.





And last but not least, the most exciting news of it all- we have a house! Our prayers have been answered, thank you God! Praise Him along with us! Masha helped us find a house thru some people she knows. For the past two days we have been cleaning there full time. As you can see, it definitely needs some work but we're doing as much as we can just so we can move in and will make it presentable for people to come over. Two guys from the village- Sasha and Vanya have been helping us tremendously along with Masha and some of the kids.

First full week

Beautiful country

It's been the first full week that we have spent in Zaporozye (the major city next to our village). We haven't found a house yet for ourselves there yet so we haven't been able to do as much as we would've liked to by now, but we've been trying to do as much as we can. We talked to the lead guy in the village- "sel covet" as soon as we had the oppurtunity and he told us that it's really hard to find a place to rent there right now but that he'd get back to us later (monday) because he was currently busy. When we talked to him monday he told us he hadn't found anything. In the meanwhile we got to know the director of the school as well as one of the teachers there. We also became acquainted with the director and teachers at the daycare and spent several days there playing with the kids and getting to know the locals. The kids are starting to grow really attached to us because most of their parents drink and don't pay as much attention to them. When we asked one little girl if her dad worked, she said- "No, he sleeps at home because he's drunk." When asked if they believe in God some of them say no, they don't while others say they don't know. One of the days we just walked around the village asking people about renting a home there and got a couple leads that we're working on currently.

During this time we have spent some time with the local church. We participated in their youth service and have attended some of their other services, such as prayer. We have met a couple friendly people in the youth that have been a blessing to us by taking their time to show us around so we could be more familiar with this place and know where to go to buy things. The local church here is blessing to our mission trip because we know that if or once we leave, there's going to be someone working with the people that we leave behind in the village. They told us that they would be happy to join us in our evangelism events and offer whatever help they can.


Local youth

Today we found a lady in the village who is willing to take us four girls in for the time being so we're packing some of our things and planning to move in with her tomorrow after we go over some details. We've been praying for God to open doors for us if this is His will and we're very excited about this oppurtunity. She didn't want to take the guys in so we'll continue looking for a home for all of us, but for the time being, this will be perfect. This will give us a place to keep all our things, a place to go between activities and also will give the locals a sense of security knowing that we're part of them now, not just some random people that come and go. This will also give us a chance to testify to the lady with whom we'll be living with.

Please continue praying for us!


Orthodox church. Main religion in this area.


Alex potty training our 15 year old cat.
(came with the apartment we're using, God is teaching us through it.)

Ukraine!

We landed in Kiev, Ukraine on Friday after a 10 hour flight from New York. Everyone is safe and sound. Pasha/Andrey's group and ours got the oppurtunity to stay in Kiev for a couple days for a conference so on Friday night we got to sleep, rest, and explore Kiev.



Saturday we attended an all day conference, where Reinhard Bonnke and Daniel Kolenda spoke. The morning conference was for missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and leaders. There were thousands of people there from all of Ukraine. Pastor Bonnke talked about how we need to have a fire and a passion for God. In the evening we attended a evangelism service outside at a park where they spoke again and called people upfront for repentance and healing. Many people got saved and healed that day.



Sunday we attended a local church where we participated in their service by singing and sharing a couple of testimonies. In the evening we got an oppurtunity to attend another outside evangelism event.

Monday we got picked up and headed out on a seven hour ride to the city next to our village. We're staying at an apartment in the city until we find a place to live in the village. We're praying for God to find us good place to stay. In the meanwhile we will be doing our work from here. The local church that's going to help us when we're in need is very kind. They've been very welcoming and a big blessing to us.

Thank you for your prayers and please continue praying for us.

God bless you!