KIDS CORNER
Well, Alex has officially graduated
from Kindergarten but will continue to go to the Kindergarten through
August to continue to learn Russian and Ukrainian. Although he
really likes going and has made some friends, he usually counts down
the days until he gets "days off" to spend with his brothers!
The other day while the boys were watching
101 Dalmatians, the part came on where they found out that the puppies
were missing. Alex said, "The mommy puppy is the most sad because
she loved the puppies the most." Jonah was quick to correct him saying,
"No, the mommy puppy is the most sad because she's the one who laid
the eggs!" Lately, Jonah really likes to play with our Duplos, and
has really impressed us with the airplanes, dragons, and camels that
he builds!
We are finally WITHOUT DIAPERS!!!! Isaac has been sleeping through the night without any accidents for
over a month now, and we are so excited! He has been much easier
to potty train than the other two boys, and we are so thankful.
Every day, for every meal, Isaac says the same prayer. So yesterday
when we were getting ready to eat lunch, I told him that when he said
his prayer I wanted him to pray for something different. He just
looked at me with a questioning look on his face and said, "You mean
the God one?" I tried to explain that we always pray to the same
God, but it is okay to thank Him for different things each time we pray. He just shrugged his shoulders and said his usual prayer. Oh well,
at least he likes to pray!
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Ministry Opportunities
I (Jenny) recently met a young woman who I
am excited to be able to witness to. She is a 19-year old college
student, and she is in our translator Sergey's English class. She already knows English very well, but would like someone to practice
with. She and I met for coffee one night and had a really good
time. She got to practice her English, and I got to practice my
Russian! One of the reasons that I am so eager to build a relationship
with her is that she is not a believer. I am hoping that not only
will I be able to help her practice her English, but also teach her
about the amazing love of Jesus Christ! I can't wait to see
how God uses me to show her His love!!!Ok, so this picture has nothing to do with the story, but we thought it was nice anyhow.  |
Jon recently went to our realtors office
to see if they had any new apartments for us to look at. Our actual
realtor was not there but her partner was and asked Jon to sit down
and talk with him until she got back. He was really interested
in why we are here and asked Jon about his faith. Jon was able
to talk to him for over half an hour and shared his faith story completely
in Russian! (Language wise this was a big deal to Jon) This man was very interested in learning more about
our faith and wants to join our English club when we start it up, hopefully
in September! |
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 Financial Report.
We are at our monthly budget goal!!!!!!
With several individuals and one church joining our team, we have finally
made it to our goal! We would like to say a HUGE "THANK YOU!!!"
to all of our supporters. We know that we couldn't be doing
this without you. All of our partners, whether financial or prayer,
have been a huge source of strength and comfort for us and we seriously
cannot thank you enough. We cannot wait to see how God uses all
of us here in Ukraine!
Thank you again to all of you who continue to support
us. We couldn't do this without
you!
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Chaplinka VBS 2010
The American half of the "VBS Commandos"  |
In May, we got an e-mail from our church
in Bettendorf saying that a missionary that they support in Chaplinka
was having trouble getting enough people to help out with his VBS. They asked if we would be willing or able to go down to help and we
were able to say, "YES!!!" We were already excited to go down and
meet Zhenia, his wife and church family; when we found out that 5
people from BCC would be coming too! What a wonderful surprise! Thanks to the quick thinking on the part of the Bettendorf Congregation and their missions team, the whole operation was put together in 2 weeks!!! Everything was done so well, it was like the VBS Special forces had landed. We met the "VBS commandos" in Kiev and rode the train down to Chaplinka
with them. It was great to get to catch up and hear about how
things are going in Bettendorf and share what has been going on in our
lives. The VBS was a huge success and during the 2 weeks that we
were able to help, over 1900 children were able to hear about the love
of Jesus Christ! Jon got to help out with the outdoor sports activities
and the puppet show and was able to preach three times while we were
there too. Since we had the boys with us, I stayed home with them
and helped Natasha (Zhenia's wife) cook and clean for the 12 people
staying in their house! We had a great time getting to know some
new people and reconnecting with old friends. It was a wonderful
time of emotional and spiritual renewal for us and we are grateful for
the opportunity!
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New Places to Live
As most of you know, the place that we are currently living in was a temporary location for us. We were renting it from some other missionaries who went home on furlough. It was great for our transition because we didn't have to worry about getting a home set up as soon as we got in country. The Hoglunds will be returning in August, so we needed to get cracking on finding our own place to live. Looking at apartments was an interesting experience. Just when I was at my max frustration level with the system, we found a great apartment. It was newly remodeled for a family with school age children and has almost everything already furnished! It doesn't get much better than that. Once again, God completely exceeded our expectations!
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