KIDS CORNER
Even though the actual school year ended at the end of May,
Alex is continuing to attend the Kindergarten to continue improving his Russian
and Ukrainian skills. He also has
a Ukrainian tutor 5 days a week for 40 minutes. He really likes school and his friends, but still counts
down how many days he has left until he can stay home and play with his
brothers.
Jonah has been working on writing his alphabet, his name,
and recognizing his numbers through 20. He is really excited to start Kindergarten in September and go to school
like Alex.
 Jonah really loves Orca
Whales, and the other day I found a stuffed one at a local thrift store for
$2. I bought it and gave it to him
and his face lit up like a Christmas tree! While we were standing outside waiting for a friend to finish
shopping, I felt something on my bottom. When I turned around, I heard Jonah making a sucking noise and startled,
asked him what on earth he was doing. He said, "It's a baby orca, and he is drinking milk!" I quickly told him that milk does not
come from there and to maybe try the belly button instead!
Isaac is growing up so fast and it is hard to believe my
baby is 3 ½! He loves playing with
trains and cars like his brothers and is quick to imitate everything that they
do. Right now we are working on
Isaac using his words instead of screaming when his brothers take away a toy or
do anything else he doesn't like. We are also working on coloring in the lines and spelling his name.
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I Blinked for a moment and July was gone!
Things have been exciting and fast paced here to say the least. And August doesn't look to be much different. Originally Jenny and I had planned on doing classes for advanced English speakers. We had hoped to have 7-10 students and to go through 'The Message' which is an English paraphrase that would give our students a helpful understanding of spoken American English. But then, in somewhat of a surprise to us, the Michael Gott English School came to our city. Over 500 students from different levels came to learn English and heard the Word of God plainly preached. It was a great two weeks of spending time with Ukrainians I may not have otherwise had a chance to meet. The directors of the program embraced our ideas to continue what they had started in our city as a spring board for open conversations about the claims of Christ. We were blown away with this many students excited to study both the Bible and English. In short I have the month of August to plan English/evangelism classes held once a week for 60 students. OYE! Well I didn't come here to slack off.
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Encountering Christ at family camp.
It came as a bit of a surprise to us, but family camps and summer camps are very popular here in Ukraine. While these week long family camps tend to be a bit rare in the US, they are one of our main avenues for presenting the Gospel to non-believers. The Click above to see more photos.  | particular camp that I worked at had roughly about 60 people in attendance. We met together daily for morning devotions, games, preaching and singing, and fellowship. We spent time answering questions about our lives with Christ, and teaching about what makes a life lived through Christ so special. The illumination of the hearts of these people was palatable. It was a great week for watching God work. Praise God.
In an update to this the following week after the camp we had several new people from the camp in several of the local churches. Praise the Lord!!! |
Cold wet summer...
Before Jon and I moved to Kremenchuk, Ukraine, we were told
to make sure and drench Even this picture gives me chills. LOL  | ourselves in the culture, and we have tried really hard
to do so. We shop at the open air
market, we eat and cook as much like Ukrainians as possible, we try to speak
Russian as much as possible, and we try to dress like Ukrainians. But never did we
expect just how literally we would have to take this phrase, "Drenched in the
Culture". On June 15th,
the city shut off the hot water. ALL hot water. (Oh yeah, and we don't have a water heater!!!) Apparently,
they shut off the hot water for 1½ months in the summer to clean the pipes out
and make any necessary repairs. It's not so bad when cooking or doing the dishes, we just boil some
water on the stove. But every
morning when Jon and I wake up, we lay in bed as long as possible knowing that
as soon as we get up we are going to have to face the ice chamber that is our
bathroom. We have figured out,
that after the initial pelting of miniature ice cubes, you know when your core
body temperature drops 3 degrees, it isn't so bad. But those first few seconds are just plain brutal. Taking a shower once a week, is sounding more appealing everyday. |
New Responsibilities.
Well as I've mentioned to some of you before, KontaktMission has a policy that This is our Kontaktmission team in Ukraine, if you click on it you can see a larger image.  | missionaries not take leadership roles for 1 year after entering a new culture, and even then they should start slow. September seemed like a logical time for me to start working in ministry, not quite a year but we had quite a few opportunities presented to us. First, I will be teaching English Bible Studies and conversational English to young people. Also our church hasn't had the resources to reach out to the youth in our community so I will be working to grow our high school and college age youth program. Please pray that God would give me the strength and wisdom to do the work he has set before me in a way that brings him glory. I should tell you, I'm a bit nervous, but I know that God will take care of me and our ministry.
Also we are starting to think about short term mission trips for next summer. We have one church from Ohio that seems very interested, so we look forward to making plans for this.
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