our month with the MacDonalds

Imagine
having enough faith to radically change your life. To pick up your
entire family, eleven kids and counting, to follow the Lord to the
other side of the world. That is what Bruce and Pia MacDonald have done.

They
were our ministry contact for our weeks in Ukraine. They are American
missionaries who have been living in Lutugino for exactly five years
(we celebrated their anniversary on July 4th). Bruce teaches English
classes, organizes eyeglass clinics, and teaches inner-city softball to
Ukrainian kids. And all of it is simply a tool to tell the people of
Ukraine about the God of Hope.

Bruce and Pia opened up their
home to us for these weeks– they gave us beds, fed us (to overflowing,
actually), drove us all over the place in search of whatever we needed
(including a guitar), and allowed us to experience life with them in
Ukraine. They were an unimaginable blessing– we will NEVER forget them
and their hearts for the people around them.

This is Bruce, a good ol’ American army boy with a fu manchu 🙂

This
is Pia– I have no “portrait” shots of her, because the woman is always
moving. Always cooking, always cleaning, always chasing her kids,
always tending her garden, always pouring out her heart for the Lord.
And she knows more scripture than anyone I’ve ever heard of! We could
be talking about ANYTHING and she would whip out a verse to apply to
it! It was uncanny.

This
is Timothy, #8 of 12 kids. He is 15, but has all the maturity of a
25-year old. He is pretty much fluent in Russian by now, and he worked
his butt off as a translator for us while we were there. Timothy became
an honorary member of Team Lovesick!

This
is Michael– I’m so sad I don’t have a better picture of him. He is
PRECIOUS. Oh my gosh this kid just got my heart. He is #9 of 12, he has
such a big heart. He plays with his younger siblings ALL the time. He
is never too cool for them. He just always has this big smile, laughs
all the time, and just has this incredible energy and joy. I love this
kid– it was so so sad to leave him. Again, I am SO sad I don’t have a
good picture of him and his sweet smile.

This
is beautiful Carianne– she is the quiet, gentle one of the troop. She
has this smile on her face pretty much at all times, especially when
you just sit and talk to her. She takes care of her little sister ALL
the time, always without any kind of impatience or older-sibling
attitude. She’s by far the quietest one of the bunch, but any time you
just sat and talked to her, she lit up.

This
is Toby, and let me tell you, this kid is a WHIRLWIND of personality. I
never saw him without boundless amounts of energy. He wasn’t ever
really bouncing off the walls, but he was just always going! And he’s
got this brutal honesty that is just hilarious. He served as our
entertainment quite a bit 🙂

This
is baby Mercedes, Mercy for short. She is TINY! She turned 3 while we
were there, but she is just this tiny, precious, sassy little person.
And by far, her favorite toys were Matt and Garrett. She was LOVING all
their attention!

Okay,
this picture is precious, but the whole purpose of it was to show off
the fact that she is wearing a Texas A&M shirt– whoop! But alas,
you can’t see it. She’s still cute though 🙂

This is their crazy kitten,
Alpha. She’s freaking precious, and goes completely crazy every night
when she just get super hyper. We even made a video of her craziness,
which will hopefully be posted soon 🙂