As our plane took off from Dublin, I let out a great sigh of relief. I did it. I made it through the first month. Who knew Ireland would be such a challenge?! I was certainly stretched my first month. There were too many tears to count, many meetings had, and many personal fears faced.
Although July was a difficult month, it also brought so much good!! God taught me so much about trusting him, being bold in his name, and living life in a true community. As hard as it was, I am so thankful for the unity that this month brought amongst our teams. I am REALLY going to miss the other teams we worked with in Ireland!! We were able to do some truly amazing things together too! (climbing sugarloaf mountain, hiking the cliffs of moher after a most ridiculous road trip there HA!, and of course playing with any kids at any opportunity).
And now a different color for a different experience! I picked red because of the unexpected HEAT here!! After 75 hours of sleeping in airports, bus rides, airplanes, a 16 hour sweaty, smelly, creepy train ride we finally arrived to our new family for the month of August! I have never been so relieved! Bruce and Pia MacDonald are sweet, American missionaries living in Lutigino Ukraine. They have 12 children, 5 of which live at home still. Even with a full house of 5 kids, 2 dogs, and 4 cats they still were kind enough to give us all beds!! Yayyyy for no sleeping on the floors for us this month! As soon as I walked into their lovely house, I felt at home. It was so warm and welcoming that I almost cried tears of joy.
For those of you who don't know, our ministry here will be helping the MacDonalds to help tear down the walls of religion and begin relationships with the youth here. Christianity in Ukraine is looked at as a cult, but Bruce and Pia have a true passion to break down the prejudices against Christianity and to show Ukraine's youth the true love of Jesus Christ. I couldn't be happier with their approach, either! Instead of forcing God upon them, they truly want to get to know these kids and form long lasting realtionships with them, and then share the gospel. We will be doing this with them in the form of helping with their summer softball camps!! Our team is so excited to see what God has in store for us here. It's only been one full day, and I am already sure that the goodbyes will be very hard at the end of this month! While in the Lughansk area, we will also be assisting in free eye glass clinics, working with youth groups, as well as a possible contruction project. We will certainly be busy, but I am so ready!!
Every time I feel overwhelmingly homesick or realize the length of this trip, I have to sit back and remind myself of how incredibly BLESSED I am to be here! I have been given such an amazing opportunity, and I promise I will not waste it!
