(written last week sometime…I’ll try to get better at posting these quicker)
Ministry in Odessa, Ukraine
While the ministry isn’t quite what we expected coming in, we’ve been having a great time serving however we’re able to and learning about life on the race. Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to…
Passing Out Fliers
The last few weeks we’ve been going to the streets of Odessa to hang out flyers for English Club which happens every Saturday. Through our time here, it has seemed like no one speaks English..however, we’ve had quite a few good convo’s with the locals while passing out the flyers. It’s been really fun to actually interact with the Ukrainian’s! J
English Club
Well, all our hard work paid off and we’ve been having quite a few new attendees! Anmari and I helped with Charades and Telephone Pictionary this last week which was a blast. I’m not usually one to stand up in front of others, but for some reason, I was so excited to get up and help. I’m really trying to embrace everything uncomfortable that comes around, so far so good! The church is hosting a 4th of July picnic on Sunday so hopefully some of the English Club members will be able to make it.
Building Relationships
(Last) Friday night we had about 10 people over from church for dinner and games. It was so much fun! We made perogies, salad and veggies. The salad consists of spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers with some light vegetable oil as dressing. It seems to be served with every meal, and it’s pretty tasty. We also played lots of card games. Games in general are big hits here, so it makes our time here that much better. I’ve loved getting to know everyone more and more these past weeks. We’ve gotten to know the Huffman family that moved here from Minnesota about 4 years ago. Mark and Kim have 3 boys, Chris (that recently moved back to the US to go to school), Ben and Nate. We’ve been having a blast hanging out with all of them. Mark, Zhenya and Serga (all from the church) took us to the Monastery last week which was really neat to see. There are so many people I could talk about but know that they are all amazing people, and we are SO blessed that we’ve gotten to spend time with them all.
Anneka, Arkadiy and Mickey
Bible Study with the church
We attend bible study on Tuesdays at Living Hope Church as well. We participate in the activities and group discussions. We also meet with Arkadiy on Sunday mornings about an hour prior to church service to pray for specific people, ministries and upcoming events. Before training camp, I had never been one to pray out loud…however, after camp and our time here, I find it more odd to pray quietly to ourselves. Looking back, I can already see the growth that’s taken place, and I’m pretty excited to see the other areas of growth that take place.
Team Glow Bible Study
Our team also set up a daily bible study that we’ll be continuing throughout the 11 months we’re on the Race. We’re beginning in John and moving our way through, chapter by chapter. It’s been going really well so far, and it’s been great being able to dive in and hear everyone’s perspectives on the Word.
We have also set up a weekly bible study in which we take turns teaching on a theme, topic or verse. Tomorrow’s my turn, so I spent earlier this evening preparing. I’ve never taught a bible study before, and although I was a bit nervous at first, I’m really excited for tomorrow. As I was looking through the bible on potential topics, I realized (3 notebook pages of scribble later) that there is A LOT to talk about! I was thinking of focusing on community living, attitude, confidence, being obedient to God, perseverance, etc..like I said, lots of options. So! We’ll see how that goes J
That’s all for now. Love and miss you all!
