Month 5 already! This month has been incredible and I'm loving the ministry we have gotten to be a part of! We 
are living in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. It is right on the border of Ukraine and Slovakia. There is a university in the city and it is a tourist area. When we first arrived, all the cherry trees of the city were in bloom and it was beautiful!
We spent our first few days meeting with different contacts and learning about all the various ministries we get to be involved with this month. Our over-arching ministry is building relationships with university and non university students alike by just walking around the city and talking with people. We are also working with english classes, helping at a day camp, working with a special needs orphanage, helping out at the local children's hospital loving on abandoned babies, and maybe going to some gypsy communities.
God has absolutely been blessing our ministry here. I have cherished my moments holding, talking to, and loving on the abandoned babies. We were told that often times babies are born to teenagers and are abandoned by them. They might also be found in dumpsters, or taken from homes. This district of Ukraine keeps the babies in the hospital til they are about 6 months old and then they move them to an infants orphanage.
We have also had some God ordained encounters with random people. One day while walking to the children's hospital a teammate and I were talking and a man walks up to us and begins talking to us in English. He wants to know more about what we are doing and so we tell him. In a crazy turn of events we end up talking with him about Jesus and getting his phone number so that we can continue this relationship and hopefully show him more of who Jesus is and the relationship that Jesus longs to have with him. I will be writing a blog specifically highlighting encounters like this so if you want to learn more about them look out for that blog.
Our month is half way done and we are all loving this ministry! It has been incredible how God has shown up and I can't wait to see how He shows up in the second half of the month!
(photo credits: Joey Willis)
