Tea,cake and precious time.

Tea,cake and pracious time!
 

Ukraine. Man where do I even start???

This month has blown me away!!!

Before I came on the race God had really laid it on my heart about how precious time is. Giving someone your time is priceless.  God had been speaking to my heart and saying that giving your time to someone is one of the most valuable things you can give. Getting to know them, listening to them, speaking to them – just loving them.  Not always do we get time with people so its important to know how to love even in the few minutes we have with someone.  This month has been all about our time.   Everywhere we go we drink tea and eat biscuits – the people take an interest in us and want to know about us. They have been the most hospital people we have ever met. True, kind and welcoming hearts everywhere we have went. There is so much to learn from this culture! Drinking a cup of tea makes someones day and who knows – tea and conversation can change someones life- why? Because we are giving the valuable time they deserve! If we had more room for this in our culture back home I know we would be a different nation! A little more patient, kinder and welcoming. I am not saying that my home land are not these things but when you see the two cultures its like night and day.  So maybe a huge part of our ministry has been drinking a lot of tea and receiving blessing after blessing but I  can honestly say that it has spoken volumes to my heart and shown me the true meaning of  ” Give your time to people”- that God laid so heavily on my heart!  This month has been by far one of my favourites and most welcoming. Ukraine has a little piece of my heart and I know it has changed me and taught me valuable lessons that I will cherish for the rest of my life! 

Tea Time!!!

Here is a few special people and places 🙂 ………..

Dima

Dima is our translator. He has became a very close friend to our team – we even joke that he is the 8th member of our team 🙂 Dima is probably one of the most kind hearted people I have ever met. He is a humble man that has the hugest heart to serve! He never stops smiling and is a real Joy! He practically does everything for us- Translates,takes us everywhere, comes to bible study, carries heavy items for us girls, serves us our food. The list is endless with how much he has done for us. He does everything and I have never heard him grumble.He has been like an angel to us. We have been truly blessed to have him. He shows a great example of what a real man of God is!  Dima is an awesome young man that longs to go to university to study- please pray that God will show him the way to do this. Pray that he gets the income that he needs and that the opportunities for him will be endless- he truly deserves it as he has blessed us immensely!  

Rueslana

Rueslana works with “Hope to people”, which is the charity we have been in partner with. She has been the one that has gave us opportunities to go to orphanages and plan day camps for teenagers. She is a women that truly believes in young people and bringing the message of Gods love to them 🙂   She has been kind to let us into her life and going  into the lives of children she truly cares for. I pray that her heart for young people will keep growing bigger and bigger and that many young people will come to God through her camps! 

Sasha and Valia

Sasha and Valia are two amazing people that have a heart for teenage/ young adult boys. They take in boys from age 18 who have been chucked out of the orphanage. These boys come to their home and stay, they go to college or trade school while they live with them. Some of these boys don’t believe in God and they give Sasha and Valia a hard time. But they love the boys like they are their own, they believe in them and believe God will work through them. They have 10 boys staying with them! The work they do blows me away! This is REAL LOVE! This kind of work and similar to the work Tony does in Honduras just touches my heart- it speaks volumes to me! I realise that there is always something we can do for those in need whether offering them a hand in friendship, love , care or even a space on the floor for them to sleep. There is never an excuse- it deeply challenges me in how much we can be doing! 

Ullianna

Ullianna is a girl I met at a church service – she insisted that she walked us back to the dorm. As we were walking home she saw that I was cold . She said “Tomorrow I will bring you coats to keep you warm”. I said ” No no no”. This girl is like 10 sizes smaller than me lol, so I knew for a start that nothing would fit me! But at half past 8 the next morning, she is at the door with jackets and jumpers for me. They may not have fit me but it was the pure and loving heart behind it! Katie has enjoyed wearing them 🙂  God bless her for her beautiful kind heart! 

Nadia  

We met Nadia at our first sunday service. She helped translate the whole service for us.She heard we love jam -which has pretty much became a necessity for our team because living on a budget we need to eat things like jam sandwiches lol- Anyways, jam is hard to get and very expensive , so the other day she came in with 4 HUGE jars of home made jam! I mean HUGE! Can you believe that? Who does that? She is very sweet to even think of us and go to the trouble of helping us out! 

Dasha 

Dasha is one of our very many flat mates. We have been staying in a college dorm while living in Ukraine. We met Dasha first – she is a girl from Russia that is here studying at Rivne Bible, College 🙂 .It has been a joy living with her! She is very interesting and quirky in her own ways and I am excited to know more of her! 

Dimas parents

Dima took us to his church and told us that we would be going to his for Sunday lunch :)  We met his mum and dad when we were shown around his beautiful garden where his mum and dad grows many vegetables and plants. They also keep turkeys,hens and ducks! We went in for dinner where we were fed course after course! I swear it was like we were at christmas dinner. Food just kept coming and coming! Everything was made with their fresh veg from the garden – the food was delicious and I can honestly say it has been the best food we have had on the race! Delicious!! His parents are so kind just like him. Mark saw that they had a bath tub and jokingly said ” I’d kill a turkey for a hot bath.” Before we knew it his mum was running a bath and insisting that mark took a bath! Haha! probably one of the funniest things that has happened. We ate so much that it made us so tired and full so next minute she is preparing beds for us to take an afternoon nap in! Lol it was like something out of a comedy- haha- who can say they have went to a strangers  house for dinner and also got to take a bath and a nap lol. The kindness is unreal and says a lot about our own culture back home! There is so much to learn from these people! 

The orphanage 

We went to the orphanage twice a week- the kids are amazing and always so excited to see us. They love playing games and just being around us. We all had such an awesome time when we went to the orphanage! It breaks my heart to see how full the orphanages are in Ukraine! The kids are beautiful and it hurts to know that they don’t have a secure family!  The orphanage need finances for various things. One of their dreams is to have a good gymnasium for the kids. Some of these kids are very talented, especially in gymnastics – we saw them on the monkey bars and poles in the play ground and I believe if they had the right equipment they could one day be competing in the Olympics – serious talent!  So please pray that people will be able to support the orphanages and also for the future of the children that live there!  

High school

One of my favourite days was when we got to go into the high school that Dima’s mum teaches at. We got to go in and tell the teenagers about our life on the race. We played games and some team mates shared their life story’s. We told them the difference in life when we were without God to where we are now!  I Believe we planted many seeds and that a lot of young people where questioning their life and whether or not they should let God in! I will be praying that they will make the decision to receive christ! I pray that more people will be put in their pathway to help them discover the true way in knowing christ! 

Trade School

Me and Ashley went to share at a trade school- when you hear the words trade school you automatically think of practical work more in the lines of construction. We got there to discover that we were going to be watching 1st year students show off their costume designs and also some art 🙂 Me and Ash had to share what the world race was and why we were in Ukraine to almost  200 people!! Was one of those unreal moments of..” am i really at a college sharing about my life with a bunch of fashion and art students?”  The lady that invited us had been at a church service and heard us speak and wanted us to share with the students at her show. After the show we went in the back to have some tea and biscuits where a load of students came in to see us – we both got to share our testimonies!! God is good and I hope it spoke to these young students! 

Day camp

Our last week here in Ukraine we are putting on a day camp at another high school! This has been such an enjoyable time! We have met some amazing kids and had some great times with them- bible lessons,songs,games,crafts,drama and spending time with the kids. We have all been given a team each and decided to the theme of “The olympics 2012” 🙂 So we all each have a team and we represent a country 🙂 My team represents Scotland of course :p- I have 7 girls that are awesome and a real joy to work with!  There is one girl called Sasha. She is such a lovely girl that has made me friendships Bracelets and crafts :). She takes a real interest in my life and wants to know about me. She has shared a little of her life and reminds me of myself when I was a teenager. I love how God places certain people into your life and you just know that it is for a reason! I pray that I can speak life into her and show her the way Christ loves. I am going to try and keep in touch with her and encourage her that she can have an awesome life with God and that she doesn’t need to make any mistakes the way I  did when growing up. 

me and Sasha

Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine – wow…. What a place! God has gave us such an amazing month. There has been serious hard times for our team this month but being in this country and meeting some of the most kindest people has been a true blessing and gift from God!  Drinking cups of tea with people has opened our eyes into the true value of giving your time to others- its precious, its priceless and it has taught us many things that we never expected!  God never stops amazing me 🙂