After
spending a little over a week in Ireland, we hopped on yet another
plane and headed to Ukraine. We were assigned to work with a small
church outside of Yalta. We are living on a resort like campus that
overlooks the Black Sea and our view is breathtaking. The campus is used
like a retreat center for people in ministry; as a getaway. We’ve been
helping clean, do kitchen work, paint and do construction. We will also
be reaching out to young people in the community through sports and
English classes. We feel so blessed to be here serving alongside people
who are serving pastors and church workers who need rest.
One of the interesting things about this week was that our team
leader Michelle left on a leaders retreat (kinda funny since we ended up
at a retreat center) so I (Cath) was asked to be team leader for the
week. We are here with another team and so I was to co-lead with a
person from their team. Well as it turns out my co-leader has been very
sick these last few days and so I’ve been taking on the large task of
leading 2 teams. WOW! I’ve really had to rely on God and his grace but
I’ve made it through and am now ready for my own retreat! Please pray
for Trevor, the co-leader as he is getting care in a hospital in Kiev
right now.
The
people here in Ukraine are beautiful people. Very quiet, reserved and
put together, so we really look like loud Americans. Our squad leader
Tara, described this culture very well when she said that the effects of
Communism are still evident and that the people are very controlled.
But you can also see them rebelling against it in their art, music and
dance.
As we walk down the streets I notice that my group of people are
literally the only ones who are smiling and we are definitely the only
ones laughing. It’s interesting that you can honestly tell the
Christians from the non-Christians just by the look in their eyes. By
that, I mean you can visibly see hope coming forth from their demeanor.
It’s shocking to see really and you could say “wow a culture that devoid
of hope is a really depressing thing to witness”, and it is, but what I
love about that is the fact that somehow the Christians here are truly
standing out and being a city on a hill, set apart and noticeably
different from the rest of the world. 1 Peter says, that we are aliens
in this world and for the first time I’ve been able to see that
separation clearly.
We apologize for the lack in blogs lately. We spent some time in
Ireland enjoying our 3rd anniversary and only recently arrived in
Ukraine. We’ll be posting a lot more this week but we also want to thank
you all so much for supporting us and keeping us in your prayers. We
are so close to our support goal but there’s still some pressure. Right
now we need to raise another $1000 by September 20. This is part of our
last push and we would love to raise over our needed support so we could
be refunded for the extra $1000 we’ve paid for out of pocket for
flights, but whether or note we get that, it’s essential for us to raise
the final $1000 we owe AIM. Thanks again and we can’t wait to sit and
talk with you all in a few months to share our stories. Please email us
and let us know how you and your families are doing. We really want to
hear from you.
