One week of ministry down. God is moving and I’m
in love with East Ukraine. It was clear as
soon as we stepped off the plane that Ukraine needs God. Everyone has
empty stares and will not smile at you. After a 12 hour train ride we made it
to Lugansk where we met our host family. They are missionaries and have been
here for 5 years. They have 12 kids. The older ones are back in the US and the 5
younger ones are here. LOVE THEM!! God has blessed us so much. We haven’t used
our tents or sleeping bags yet. So much has happened this past week. God is
moving in East Ukraine but the workers are
few. These people are hungry and searching but East
Ukraine has few missionaries. Please pray about this!! We are 30 miles from Russia so
everybody here speaks Russian. We now know 6 Russian words and we use them ALL
the time! lol!! We have to take army showers and outside of our missionaries
home we can not flush the tp down the toilet, it goes in the trash can, and I
ate cow tongue last week. Life is very different now but it’s been amazing. I
have so much to tell about last week but I don’t know how to get it on one
blog. So I’m just going to write and see where God leads. Monday we left for a
town 2 hours away. This is where the softball ministry took place and where we
lived for the week. We stayed with a doctor, his wife and their 4 wonderful
kids! LOVE THIS FAMILY!! They didn’t speak any English and at this point we
didn’t know our 6 Russian words lol but this family took us in with open hearts
and loved us and treated us like family. I can’t say enough about them. Doctors
in Ukraine
only make $200 a month. He is serving his community through this. This family wasn’t
always Christians. When they were building their house they had to stay there
all the time or the workers would steal things from them. They went through
several builders then finally hired Christian builders. They noticed something
different about these Christians, they were happy, they had joy. The doctor and
his wife wanted to be happy and have this joy. After talking to the Christians
they gave their lives to God. Ill
say more about this later. They fed us so much!! The people in Ukraine don’t
buy much at all from the store/market. They have gardens. Everything that we
have been eating has been fresh from the garden. The bread here only last two
days.
Now for the ministry update. He did softball missions this past week. I’m going
to try to post pictures soon. We played softball on a soccer field in the
middle of huge apartment buildings. We had young kids all the way up to early
20’s coming out to see the Americans and learn to play softball. These people
have never seen an American before when they told people we were here playing
with them they didn’t believe them. We went to the field at 4 and played
softball till 8. When it got completely dark we played a Christian movie for
everyone. We were able to connect with everyone who came out and share the
gospel. It was amazing. By the last day they didn’t want us to leave. We handed
out salvation bracelets one day and explained what each bead meant and the next
day we handed out New Testament Bibles. Softball camp was from Monday to
Thursday. Friday we did a eyeglass clinic for the community and we were there
to pray for them if they needed prayer and handed out salvations bracelets. Please
pray for these people. Here church is viewed as a cult so it’s hard to talk to
some of the adults. Please pray for our ministry next week! We will be going to
another town an hour away and doing another softball camp and eyeglass clinic. Please
pray God prepares hearts to hear the gospel and keep our team in your prayers
as God uses us!
Now back to the doctor’s family….Tuesday we couldn’t watch the movie at camp
because a bad thunderstorm came. We ended up going back to the doctor’s house.
We gathered in the living room and sang praises to God. We found out the next
morning that when they were building their house the Christians that were
building it prayed over the house and told them one day they would have a room
full of Christians singing praises to God. We all got so attached to this
family. We cried when we had to leave them and they were crying too. Please
pray for them! It’s hard to be the only light in such a dark place. They have a
huge heart for this region. Please pray God uses them to change Ukraine!
