here is an overview of the 2 months in eastern europe, which were ukraine and macedonia and a little bit of the last month, which is moldova. it is really hard to pick just a few pictures and stories of what has happened in these months, but here is the best pictures and descriptions!! please enjoy!!
also, i want to thank you so much for supporting me thus far on my journey!! it has meant a lot, not only to me, but to all these people who i have come in contact with over this year. just as a reminder, i still have about $2700 more dollars to raise, until i am fully supported!! thank you so much!!
september: we started eastern europe in ukraine. it was a great month, because we just came out of africa and we got to stay in a house with an american family! it is what we needed after spending 3 months in africa and the last month in the bush of africa! it was definitely a blessing from god! so communication was easier because we had an american contact who also spoke russian, so it was very helpful! so anyways, in ukraine we did a few different things that were all so much fun! we did eye clinics, which consisted of going to different villages and setting up a clinic in a church. our contact gets all the eyeglasses at a local factory for an inexpensive amount and supplies these clinics with them. there is also a couple of different volunteers that are eye doctors that come with the equipment to check the different patients. its really great that these people are willing to give up a saturday for other people! also, at the eye clinics, the people at the churches also talk with the patients about christ. so its a very neat and organized operation. when we went, we helped set up the clinic, we played with the kids, and we prayed with the patients. it was fantastic! also in ukraine we did corn picking. we picked corn at a couple of different places. it was really fun! we would pick it off the stalk and then we would cut down the stalk and gather them in a huge pile and then burn them. the corn we picked was for the animals to eat during the harsh winter months. it was ‘left’ over pieces that they family didn’t pick in the first round, which is for them during the winter months. it was a lot of fun and really good practice if i need a job when i get to the states! we also got the opportunity to go into the schools and teach kids. i love teaching kids so much, so i was super excited that we got the opportunity to do this! we went for 2 days in a row and taught 9 year olds english. we did a few different activities, such as english bingo, the song head shoulders knees and toes, alphabet games, and counting. the kids were so nice and really enjoyed us being there. we were almost treated like celebrities, because they wanted pictures with us and our autographs! we also did softball clinics, which turned out to be so much fun! we would gather at the local parks to start games. we would of course have to teach them to play, because most people didn’t know how to play (including me!! i never played before until ukraine because im a dancer, not a sports player!!)!! but i had a blast doing this, because i just went out there and tried my hardest!! most of the people we taught did really well!! i was so proud of them (and really of myself too)!! we also went to the local hospital and went to the kids wing and prayed for them and their families. this was one of my favorite things to do, because we got to bring some hope, not only to the kids but to their families as well. and on friday nights, we would invite all the kids and families at the hospital to one big room to watch a movie. of course the movie was in russian, but it was still fun because it gave the patients a chance to forget they were sick. we usually had a really great turn out! and because of your support we were able to bless the family we were staying with to continue to do his work in moldova and of course the churches we visited while we were there!
october: we got to chose where we wanted to go for this month. my team decided to go to macedonia. we worked with another american contact who has been in macedonia for about a year and a half. he is actually from arkansas and lives only 30 minutes from me! so crazy right?! so this month we had to find our own contact and do that work of our contact. so we were so lucky to have this contact because he is doing some amazing work in macedonia! our ministry in macedonia looked like this: we would go to the university to talk with different people and have coffee with them. it was so much fun!! we met some really great people. we became friends with the people who work and hang out at the small coffee shop on campus. they were so much fun! we went to visit them everyday and talk with them. one of them invited us over to his house to meet his family. i just love how open and hospitable they are in other cultures. his house was amazing and his family was so nice. they gave us snacks, drinks and dinner! we even watched a movie with them. it was a great opportunity to show them we really care about him and his family and to build our relationship stronger. i also met some girls on campus, who were first year students in english, so they spoke very well. (actually most people we met, spoke very good english) we met with them a couple of times and took them out of coffee to a different location a couple of times. it was great! of course we will keep up with all of them via facebook! we also cleaned up a local park one day, because it was super trashed. we filled up 10 huge, and i mean really big, trash bags! it was great because so many people saw us doing this and so hopefully they will get the idea not to litter anymore. oh yeah, and also at the university we also met a professor of english. he obviously spoke english very well and was super nice. we met up with him a couple of times for coffee and we just chatted for hours. he wanted us to come talk to his class and we were super excited to do it, but the day we went all the electrify was out of the whole city! so all classes were cancelled! but i will have to say that for our contact we opened huge doors for him at the university. he is actually going to go back to the university and speak to that class! how cool is that?! i believe my team and i really opened up a lot of doors for our contact in that city! and because of your support we were able to bless our contact so that he can stay in macedonia and work in this city to bring christ to them!
november: our last month we get to spend it in moldova (which im in right now as im writing this!)! we are in a small village working with a church. so last week the guys worked on constructing a beaver house for beavers. apparently beavers are really expensive here and so to raise them, breed them and then sell them brings in a lot of money. so by working on this project we are helping the community bring in extra income, which they need as this is a very poverty stricken area. so thats really cool to be part of! so during the mornings the girls get to choose from three different ministry areas. option number one is to stay behind at the church and pray. prayer is something that they need a lot of, because they are the only church in this area. option number two is to do door-to-door visits. which this look very different then in africa. we take food to different houses and talk with them for a bit and then usually pray over them. we are lucky to have a couple of people with us that speak english so they can loosely translate for us. option number three is to do farming. which for the past week was farming carrots. we had to pull them out of the ground, then clean them, and then shred them. they then put them in jars, so they can use them during the harsh winter months. it was very hard work but well worth it, because it was helping them get ready for winter. after lunch we get to do the activity with the kids. this part is so much fun! we do a bible story and songs with them and then they do a couple of games. some of these kids are the ones that live in the shelter that is part of the church. they have about 8 kids (both boys and girls) who live in this shelter. they are here either because they were abandoned or their parents died. its great that they have some place to live and eat that is safe. there are also other kids who come from the village to participate in our afternoon activity. it is so much fun! we also do prayer before breakfast, after lunch and at night for an hour. i believe that this week will look like last week! and because of your support i am able to be part of this ministry for my last month and also we get to bless our contact and his church, which he can use to grow his church and his shelter!
me picking corn
me with some of the kids at the kids program
so this is my final installment of my journey!! i thank you for supporting me and letting me enjoy all these wonderful stories and so many more that i have no room to type!! just a quick reminder, i still need $2700 more dollars before i am fully supported!! thanks!!
