I had an amazing month of Blessing in Ukraine. Everyday I did a different type of ministry. Some days I helped work on the ministry house by staining floorboards, painting, or laying sub flooring. Some days I got to spend time with Lindsay Blessing working in their garden or freezing squash or baking something yummy. We sang worship in the city square. I also got to help with three days of VBS and be a lion in the Daniel and the Lions den skit.
Hannah, Lydia and me, the lions!
On our first day off we stayed home and had a movie day with just our team while the other team went into the city. We watched Notting Hill and Gladiator on the living room wall while laying on our sleeping pads and Lindsay Blessing made us popcorn.It was a prefect day off. Our 2nd day off was similar, a group of us went to the mall and then came home and watched Princess Bride.
We helped with an English club every Wednesday night. Each time was a different theme. The themes were Olympics, Super heroes, and Ukrainian Independence Day. My favorite was Super Hero night. We watched a clip from the Incredibles and had to come up with our own super hero. We had so much fun trying to figure that out with our Ukrainian friends.
One day we were able to meet with a holocaust survivor named Oleg and hear about his experience in the camps and how he made it out alive. He also shared about this chair he owned and how the history included being made for a visiting Duke or Prince. All the ladies got to sit in the chair and be a princess for a minute.
Oleg and me sitting in the princess chair.
The next day all the ladies from my team and the other team went into the city to serve the ladies of the church with a womans spa day. My good friend Lizzie from team Fire, Glory, Freedom, gave massages, Ashley helped do nails, Mikala braided hair, and we all talked and fellowshipped with the ladies of Living Word church. Lydia and Ashley gave testimonies on how they are daughters of God and also that He is the lover of their souls and what that means to them. After we got everyone all dolled up we went to a coffee shop for dessert and coffee. On Sunday some of the women shared about how they enjoyed the day.
For our last week in Ukraine another team came to join us at Beth El. We welcomed them with a practical joke. We set it up that our hosts the Blessing were kinda weird. That we had to call each other brother or sister so and so. We told them that when the shofar blows the ladies have to get their head coverings and we all go stand behind our chair for the blessing. We also told them that they could only drink when Mark our host took a sip. We acted as though all of that was normal and that we liked it. At the end of the meal that night Mark stood up and asked them if they were really buying all that stuff. I wish I had a picture of the looks on their faces. It was priceless!
My teammate Ashley was baptized on August 21. She was dunked by our contact Krista Blessing and Caleb FGF team leader. It was the most beautiful moments in the race so far. She had felt God calling her to it for awhile and when she prayed for rain to confirm it in poured all that night. Then after getting dunked it started to rain again. This didn't happen in a church or a river or pond. She was baptized at a rock quarry in the lake there. We were asked to speak over her what we see in her and what we feel God would do in her after. All I could think about was her passion for music and how she worships. She reminds me of David. All month she would play Bria's guitar and I would just sit with her and listen. She will be a worshipper bringing God glory and His presents to His people.
On our last "work" day we had an independence day party at Beth El with the people of the church and the English club. It was a great time getting to hangout one last time with our new friends in Ukraine. We played yard games and talked and ate. At the end we had a time of prayer for Ukraine and their leaders.
The next day was our very last day in Lviv. We spent the day in the city seeing the sights one last time and buying last minute gifts. I loved spending just a little more time with Lindsay Blessing and buying chocolates at the chocolate factory. (thank you for the chocolates, I enjoyed every bite and thought of you!)
Also on our last day Ashley ( our worshipper) asked to check out a music store and look at guitars. It was our very last stop for the day. I had been praying all month about buying a guitar for Ashley or that somehow God would give her one through a contact or something. Just that she would have one, because she's been learning to play and it's just right that she have a guitar of her own to lead worship. Well we walk into the store and bang there it is, the guitar she's been picturing, just hanging on the wall. She asks the guy if she can play it and he hands it to her. It was so perfectly clear that I was finally allowed to pay for this guitar. Lindsay asked me if it was me or really from God. I said it's definitely God. The stores car reader wasn't working though, so Lindsay and I went to an ATM and got out cash to pay for the guitar and I ran back with such joy. Seeing Jesus give his bride a wedding gift that day was so good. That guitar wasn't a gift from me at all. It was a gift from Jesus to his bride, to the woman He loves after their wedding day in the rock quarry. I know this was all Him and none of me because I cringe when I give people big gifts. There in that moment was pure joy and happiness. I count that day as one of the happiest days of my life.
Ukraine was a crazy good month. I made new friends, I fell more in love with my team, and I saw God move in crazy good ways. There are so many more stories but I'll share those later in another blog. This month in Moldova I have really good internet and can blog a bit easier.
Love you all!
Mary
